Broxburn Urban Race, SOUL

Urban event in the 2020 Scottish Orienteering Urban League (SOUL)

Sun 02nd Feb 2020

Type of event: Regional
Near: Broxburn

ORGANISER’S COMMENTS from Jayne MacGregor: It was very wet in Broxburn this morning so a special mention to the helpers who had early shift, but thanks to every ESOC member who helped. It seems the poor weather this morning didn’t put off those who hadn’t entered and we had a bumper crop of EODs.

The early arrivals at the Event Centre had to contend with an unexpected parade by the local ATC (RAF Air Cadets) unit and the resulting rolling traffic light closure by the police escort.

One item of Lost Property - Craghoppers dark grey fleece size M. Text 07979901151 to claim

CONTROLLER’S COMMENTS from Blair Young, TINTO: Always a pleasure to be involved with a well planned and organised event which is exactly what ESOC provided for an enthusiastic but disappointingly low number of competitors.
I have to admit that Broxburn was a revelation to me as, having only passed through on a very few occasions, I didn’t expect it to provide such variety and route options.
These were optimised by Katy’s excellent planning which I am glad to say was well received by everyone.
The main talking point seemed to be the route choice around Broxburn Academy made all the more difficult, at least initially, by the fact that we were unable to draw a line between the two controls due to the campus being out of bounds. The measured distance of the leg only varied by about 10m between the two routes, so as long as you made your decision quickly there was little difference.

Jayne took over the Organising at short notice but she did a great job leading the very experienced and efficient ESOC team, many of whom remained cheery despite the often inclement weather, particularly early on. Well done to everyone who helped.

Cammo Estate

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 18th Jan 2020

Type of event: Local
Near: Edinburgh

Provisional results are here All runners who were affected by the missing controls have been sorted, and the technical issues have been cleared up.

Many people will know about some timing boxes being stolen/removed from controls during the event. As you might imagine, this causes problems for our timing gurus as well as a significant financial loss to ESOC.

Image of the Davidson’s Mains Park & Royal High School map

Royal High School and Davidson’s Mains Park

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 16th Nov 2019

Type of event: Local
Near: City of Edinburgh

Results are here

Winsplits are here

ORGANISER'S COMMENTS: This is a good place for a dark November afternoon. The rain held off and there was a lovely atmosphere inside the Sports Hub; though a bit chaotic at peak times. It was good to see three groups of relative beginners from Cubs, Boys Brigade and Mary Erskine School; this is an ideal area to gain confidence on White and Yellow courses. The new concept of a Short White course was much remarked on, and we'll try this again at the next suitable event. The Light Green had an ingenious route choice leg; and everyone enjoyed the good visibilty through the bare trees.
Thank you to everyone who came, everyone who worked hard to make it happen, David McPhillips for his Bake Sale in aid of "Habitat for Humanity" and Serge at The Hub for providing a warm and welcoming venue.
Next event is at Cammo on 18th January 2020. See you there......
Janet Clark Organiser 0131 225 7771

Lost property; One nice black "Rab" thermal glove

An area especially suitable for newcomers and beginners and something will also be provided for experienced orienteers. Added Extra - coaching available at 1pm for beginners and those needing a bit of encouragement.

Bonaly Park

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 19th Oct 2019

Type of event: Local
Near: Edinburgh

The results are here. Winsplits are here. The 'surprise' course generated a few small surprises with some people punching the wrong control, which added a penalty to their time. Interestingly, the mistakes were scattered over a number of controls. One control that caught out more than one person was the small crag (9) facing north and looking over the reservoir. Very easy there to get to the wrong crag (as three people did).

ORGANISER's COMMENTS: Janet Clark writes - There were several surprises today! The first was that, despite dire weather forecasts and torrential rain all night, it was actually quite a nice day and we didn't get wet at all (except underfoot).   Being able to pitch the tent over a ready-made solid flat table was a welcome surprise. The "Surprise" Green Course was very popular; with no control codes on the map it depended on accurate navigation to avoid penalties; and despite a few wobbles almost everyone managed to get it right. Next surprise was the number of people who came back and did a second course; great that they enjoyed it so much. Seeing the Alpacac Walk go past wasn't really a surprise, as they often do, but this was lovely just the same.
So, all in all a very successful afternoon.
Please come to another event soon.   Each is surprisingly different but all are fun.
Janet Clark     Organiser     0131 225 7771

This area is great for orienteering at all skill levels. Truly something for everyone.

North Pentland Hills

SOL 5, incorporating VHI Individual Event

Sun 22nd Sep 2019

Type of event: National
Near: Edinburgh

Winsplits are here

VHI results are here

Summary of VHI Points is here

SOL results are here

Routegadget is here

LOST PROPERTY: Contact Fiona Findlay by email to: If you think you left anything behind and it is not listed here, please contact Fiona as she may be still be able to help.
1 Addict blue sweatshirt, S
2 pairs of inov8 mudclaw, sizes UK 6 and 6.5

VHI Weekend Coordinator's Comments: Margaret Dalgleish writes - A huge thank you to everyone concerned with putting on the SOL and VHI Individual event at North Pentland Hills on Sunday. It takes a big team of people to put on an event which has starts running from 10am until 1.30pm. ESOC pulled this off magnificently. Special thanks to Organiser Fiona Findlay, Planner Richard Oxlade and Controller Graeme Ackland and his support network of Oleg and Scott. Thanks to Keith Brown and Judy Bell for setting up the computing and working out the results whilst still under pressure from other jobs.

Thanks too to the teams from the home countries who made the sometimes very long journey to take part in the Veteran Home Internationals this year. The accommodation was in Broomlee Centre in West Linton. A lovely setting next to the Pentland Hills. Thanks to Anne Hickling for coordinating all issues relating to accommodation.

CONTROLLER'S COMMENTS: Graeme Ackland writes - The North Pentlands is not the most technical area in Scotland, but its proximity to Edinburgh makes it very convenient. Producing a worthy international course was a fun challenge for the team, and I feel we did well. Its a bit disappointing that due to tight timescales and mapper illness we weren't able to use the event to get the map into the kind of shape we would have liked, but I think the courses were ultimately fair and the routechoices at least were top class.

At one stage it became obvious that I wasn't physically capable of doing th econtrolling job, so many thanks to Scott Fraser and Oleg Chepelin (INT) who did all the hard miles to ensure everything got checked. I was confident they'd be in he right place. Which they were, although in some places the map was so bad it wasn't possible to be clear on approach from every direction and for fairness we had to make the flags a little more visible than usual.
Richard did a superb job on the planning, leaving me just some minimal input to the course designs - I think short blue is the only one I made serious improvements, and that was the difficult "shortest course going up the hill". We discussed at length having a very long leg even on green, but eventually figured that a 2km leg would be too dominant in determining their results, so went for a more routine low-level "find the flags" option. Similarly, great work went into setting out the crossing points and hanging the flags.
Ali Masson won the Black in 71, a tad longer than the 67 target. Other course lengths now scale from there, using the same percentages as wehn M@! was a 90 minute course. So the VHI winning times are typically in the mid-40s - much shorter than they used to be and I feel too short for an International "long" course, but until someone changes them black, them's the rules.

CompassPoint Scottish Orienteering League (SOL) 5 incorporating Veteran Home International Individual race.

Binning Wood, Veteran Home International Relays

A closed event for teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Sat 21st Sep 2019

Type of event: National
Near: East Linton

Results are here

Winsplits are here

Routegadget is here

Summary of VHI Points is here

VHI Coordinator's Comments: Margaret Dalgleish writes - The VHI relays had to take place on the Saturday before the Individual race. This isn't ideal for the teams but in Scotland it would be very difficult to put on a separate event for the Individual race at the level required for such an important competition as the VHIs. This is the reason the Individual race was run alongside the Scottish Orienteering League event on Sunday 22nd September on North Pentland Hills.

Binning Wood is an interesting area. It was originally planted in 1707 by the 6th Earl of Haddington. The 6th Earl laid out Binning Wood with 13 rides converging at three different circles called Lord Haddington's Circle, Lady Haddington's Circle and Bruce's Circle. The majority was felled to help the war effort between 1942-45, with much of the timber being used to make the airframes for Mosquito fighter-bombers. It was replanted after the war and at just 60 years old is still relatively young. The many rides, paths and the large circles suggest very easy orienteering but it can be very tricky indeed for the unwary competitor!

The weather on the day was particularly kind with bright warm sunshine for the entire event. This was especially good for spectating and for the after event relaxation at nearby beaches.

Roger Scrutton planned some great courses to make the most of the area. Colin Eades controlled the event with his usual aplomb and Trina and her small but select team from East Lothian Orienteers put on the event smoothly and successfully. Keith Brown was the computing supremo for the whole weekend and Judy Bell was in charge of the results for the whole weekend. Many thanks to all these people for ensuring the success of the Relay event.

A closed event for teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales