Mary Erskine School and Ravelston Woods

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 19th Mar 2016

Info updated: 18th Feb
Type of event: Local
Type of terrain: Parkland, Woodland

Results

First of all, if you or your children were trying Orienteering today, welcome to the sport, and we hope to see you again soon. If you enjoyed it, your next local event could be at Vogrie Country Park on 2nd April (see link on Events page for further details). To develop your Orienteering skills contact ESOC for Junior and Senior training sessions.
Today's event was attended by over 100 participants in splendid warm sunshine. The courses ranged from White around the school grounds to Light Green taking in the woods plus fast zig zags in the grounds. There was a lot of opportunity for playing, picnicking and sunbathing after completing your courses.
Thankyou for respecting the taped Out of Bounds area (waterlogged playing fields and very tempting long-jump sand pit), and of course thankyou for coming.
Katherine Kirk, Co-Organiser

The results for today's event is here. The winsplits are here

General Information

Dress: Please check the weather forecast and dress appropriately.

Terrain: School grounds and adjoining woodland.

Other Users: There are likely to be other sports users around the pitches of the Sports Centre and School. Ravelston Woods are used by the general public, including those with young children using the adjacent playpark, and dog walkers. Please respect their right to be there at the same time as you are orienteering.

Dogs: Dogs allowed on leads in the car park only. Not to be taken into the school grounds at all.

Course Closure Time: Please note that courses have a closure time of 4pm after which controls will start to be brought in.

Location

Nearest town: City of Edinburgh

Grid Ref: NT221739
Postcode: EH4 3NT
Latitude: 55.95287
Longitude: -3.25421
Google Map (aerial) - Bing Map (OS)

Directions

Head for the car park for the Mary Erskine Sports Centre which is entered from Craigleith Rise, off Ravelston Dykes. You should be able to get close to this event by bus. Check out Lothian Buses for information about services.

Registration & Start Times

REGISTRATION: This will be adjacent to the Sports Centre building.

Registration will be from 1.30pm to 2.30pm for newcomers to orienteering and will run from 1.30pm to 3pm for experienced orienteers.

It is not necessary - or possible – to pre-enter for this event. Everyone is very welcome, just to turn up. Whether you are a newcomer or have been to a lot of events, please try to come and start early if you think you might take a long time over your course.

Registration Form - We know how time consuming, and occasionally frustrating, it can be for our competitors to have to complete the Registration Form outside in the cold and wet of a Scottish Saturday afternoon so we have produced an ESOC ADVANCE REGISTRATION FORM for you to complete and print off and bring with you to the event. This will save a lot of time and the forms easier to read!! Apologies to those experienced Saturday attendees who feel they don't need the sample at the top of the page but it will be very helpful to our newcomers and properly completed, legible registration forms are a huge help to those manning our computers during and after the event.

Thank you in advance for helping us by completing the form and bringing it with you.

If you would like a little more advance information about the registration process at a local event why not read our QUICK GUIDE TO REGISTRATION?

NOTE: Current members of an orienteering club who have their own registered SI-Card can continue to come to Registration and go through the speedy entry system. If in any doubt whether this applies to you then you could read the quick guide as above for more information about the registration process.

START AND FINISH: These will both be close to Registration. Start times will be from 1.30pm to 3pm.

COURSE CLOSURE TIME: 4pm. Controls will start to be brought in from this time. Please make sure you arrive in plenty of time to register, get to the start and complete your course before controls begin to be brought in.

Course Information

There will definitely be White, Yellow and Orange courses for newcomers and improvers and a Light Green course for experienced orienteers. Note that the White and Yellow courses will be in the school grounds only and the Orange and Light Green courses will also visit Ravelston Woods.

Explanation of colour courses

White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.

Entry Details

Seniors (born 1995 or earlier)
British Orienteering members - £3
Non-members - £5

Juniors (born 1996 or later)
British Orienteering members - £2
Non-members - £2.50

Students
British Orienteering members - £2
Non-members - £2.50

Groups (Adults + children)
British Orienteering members - £4
Non- members - £5

SportIdent (SI) electronic timing will be used. If you have your own SI-Card (dibber) please bring it with you. We'll have SI-Cards for hire free of charge but there is a £30 charge if lost. If you would like to buy your own SI-Card then a variety are available directly from SportIdent UK The choice may be confusing and it may help you to know that the SI-Cards which ESOC hires out are very similar to the most basic model shown on the linked page - the SI-Card 8.

Contacts / Officials

Phone Janet on 0131 225 7771

Safety and Risk

A comprehensive risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.

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