ESOC Juniors at the Jamie Stevenson Trophy

Report, including photo story, by Club Captain, Alison O'Neil

This year the event was held at Plean Country Park, on a delightfully sunny day with the finish arena positioned in a wildflower meadow. Many thanks to our own Judy Bell for organising, to Simon Hunt (FVO) for planning some great courses, to Jon Musgrave (MAROC) for controlling, to Rona and Jonathan Molloy (FVO) for the PA system who mixed their commentary with playing some orienteering-themed tunes e.g. U2’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”, and to all the other helpers including ESOC members Keith Brown (computing) and Hanne Robertson (marshalling).

On the day, we had 14 juniors in the team, ranging from 5 to 16 years old, with representatives in all 8 age classes/courses! Our juniors had mixed fortunes but still came back smiling! - hopefully all enjoyed and came away inspired and with plenty to think about. Full results can be seen here. ESOC individual placings were (6 counters starred):

Yellow Girls: *Catherine Rowe 6th
Yellow Boys: Ted Clatworthy & Ben Clatworthy 12th
Orange Girls: Ursula MacColl 7th
Orange Boys: *William Atkinson 3rd, Adam Rowe M4
Light Green Girls: Lucy Sneddon 13th
Light Green Boys: *Calum Robertson 1st, *Tom Uutela 4th, *Jamie Crawford 7th
Green Girls: *Megan Brown 7th, Maja Robertson 8th
Green Boys: Tate Woodhouse 17th, Olly Simmers 19th

Special congratulations to our individual medal winners, Calum (1st in Light Green Boys) and William (3rd in Orange Boys).

Overall, ESOC came 3rd place out of 11 clubs, with FVO 1st (598), INVOC 2nd (592) and then ESOC 3rd (578). Bronze equals our best result ever, previously achieved in 2007 and 2014. Two theories for this result have been touted: the “rule of 7s” in which ESOC is due a win every 7 years of competition (note 2020 and 2021 competitions cancelled due to COVID) or more shadily the appointment of an ESOC organiser (initially Bill - Jamie Stevenson’s dad! - and more recently Judy). However, I note that if true, then ESOC organisation would be a necessary but not sufficient condition, so whatever the recipe let’s give some credit to the juniors :)

This year there was also a “Most Supportive Team” award. Whilst this deservedly went to INVOC for their live eagle mascot (anyone game for dressing up as an ESOC Christmas tree next year?) - we made a strong bid, including team tattoos supplied by David and pre-run Iced Gingerbread snacks for the team baked by Emma. Also in the spirit of the JST there was plenty of consorting with other teams with a number of orienteers heading into the forest sporting warpaint/tattoos from multiple clubs.

Very well done to the ESOC juniors and parents, brilliant job!

Photos: Taken by Alison O'Neil, David Robertson, Jeni Rowe and Helen Bridle

You can also read a report about the event generally on the SOA website

Categorized under: News • Juniors • Event Reports