Roxburgh Reivers’ Douglas Tullie continued his fantastic form this season at Sunday’s National Event, held at Bigland Hall, near Ulverston, in the Lake District. Following up his fourth place at the recent Jan Kjellstrom International event and a win at last weekend’s Scottish Orienteering League race near Aboyne, Douglas narrowly missed out on the top spot in the M14A age class in one of North West England’s best areas. Douglas, from Teviothead, finished just 22 seconds down on winner Rhodri Buffet of South Wales, with a time of 46:17 for the 4.6 kilometre course and was a clear five minutes ahead of third placed fellow Scot Andrew Rogan of Moravian.

Older brother James also had a good run, with a top ten place on the competitive M16A age class. James, who finished in ninth place, was third Scot behind the eventual winner Oleg Cheplin of Grampian OC and recorded a time of just over 70 minutes for the physical 6.6 Kilometre course.

Full results are available from the Lakeland OC Website.

Maroc Orienteering Club held the third round of the Scottish Orienteering League at Sluie Woods near Aboyne in Deeside on Sunday (April 21 2002). The event, which was combined with the annual Northern Lights Trophy competition, brought a welcome return to a favourite area which had not been used for some years at top class level and was supported by a colour-coded event at Balnagowan, also near Aboyne, on the Saturday.

Leading the results for Roxburgh Reivers was Teviothead’s Douglas Tullie, who continued his good form this season by winning the Junior Men 4 (JM4) class, over six minutes ahead of his nearest challenger. As well as gaining top points for the league, Douglas also collected the JM4 Northern Lights Trophy.

Elder brother and fellow Scottish Junior Squad member James also had a good run, coming in third on the JM5M course. James finished a couple of minutes ahead of Melrose’s Robin Sloan, third in the M55L age class, continuing the intra-club rivalry that has emerged between the two this year.

Continuing the theme, third places also went to Carol Boyd (W21S) and Jim Knox of Hawick (M50S). Other notable Reivers’ results included Lindsey Knox, who finished 5th on in the W40L age class and Bill Bruce, who was 4th on M45S, and Andrew Tullie, sixth on the JM4 class behind older brother Douglas.

Full results are available from the Maroc Website.

The second round of this year’s Scottish Orienteering League took place at The Trossachs near Aberfoyle on Sunday (April 7 2002). Hosted by Forth Valley Orienteers, this event was also a round of the elite UK Cup competition and a World Ranking event. As such, the terrain was of the highest quality, being a mixture of natural woodland and technical open.

However, the steep and complex terrain made for some long times and a physical course, even though courses were shorter than usual. Despite this, Roxburgh Reivers recorded some good results with Robin Sloan (Melrose) coming in second on M55L, two and a half minutes behind the winner Phil Smithard of KFO. The youngest Roxburgh Reiver, Sarah Tullie from Teviothead, also had a great day, winnning W10 and taking maximum points.

On Course 4, Martin Sloan (M21S), finished in fifth place. however fellow Reiver Douglas Henderson (M50L) from Riding Mill never fully recovered from a mistake on his way to the second control and was several minutes behind.

Unfortunately, Douglas Tullie was unable to match his excellent 4th place at last weekend’s two-day Jan Kjellstrom International competition but brothers Andrew (M14A) and James (M16A) had respectible runs, both finishing in the top ten.

Full results are available from the Forth Valley Orienteers Website. The next SOL is hosted by Maroc and takes place at Sluie near Aboyne in Deeside on April 21.

The first round of this years’ Scottish Orienteering League (formerly the ScotlandsGallopen series) took place at Garelochhead near Helensborough on Sunday (March 24 2002). Overlooking the Faslane Naval Base, the terrain was mainly open hillside and heavy rain in the days leading up to the event meant that the going was very heavy under foot and the low cloud and rain on the day made visibility less than ideal.

Despite this, Roxburgh Reivers recorded several good results, giving the ideal start to the season. In the JM5M class, James Tullie of Teviothead finished first with a time of 47:32. The family success was followed up by father John (M45L) and brother Douglas (JM4), both finishing in second place in their respective classes. Douglas Henderson also had an excellent run, finishing third on the M50L class. Several other Reivers’ produced good performances, with Melrose’s Robin Sloan on the competitive M55L class, son Martin on M21S and Lindsey Knox (W40L) giving Roxburgh Reivers four third places in total.

Full results are available from the Clyde Website. The next round of the Scottish Orienteering League takes place at North Achray, near Aberfoyle, on April 7.