Bonaly Park

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 17th Jun 2017

Type of event: Local-(D)
Near: Edinburgh

Organiser's comments
This was Bonaly at its best. Warm and sunny with just enough breeze to keep away the midges. Top quality courses (even if it was a bit hard going over the moorland on the longer ones). A huge variety of competitors, young and old, experienced and first-timers. Junior training beforehand, with a chance to practise new skills on a course afterwards. Lots of interest from other people, wondering what all the fun was about. Best of all, great team spirit from ESOC members new and old, young and old, who all pulled together to make this event happen. Special mention to Malcolm, all by himself down at Torduiff Road, saving the upper car park from getting totally overwhelmed. Thank you very much indeed to everyone who played a part in today's event.

Janet Clark Organiser.

Planners commentsBonaly is one of my favourite areas to run from in the Pentlands but unfortunately it does come with hills and rough open so even the white and yellow courses had a bit of climb and despite careful planning I couldn’t avoid quite considerable climb on the orange and green courses; and then it was very hot today…! As a fairly novice planner I really enjoyed my visits to the area and eventually built up an understanding of Condes, which I enjoyed using; but I found using the two files for different scales difficult as the maps were different and the paper map I used to plan on was different again. Many thanks to Judy for doing all my map corrections, including the addition of several paths which opened up the area to the West for the yellow and orange courses. My apologies for any confusion on the orange course around control 11 where the crossing point close by may have suggested that this should be used on the next leg.

Notes to self for next time just because you plan the course doesn’t mean that you can run the course without paying any attention to the map, and take an antihistamine before spending 7 hours surrounded by grass and pollen when you suffer from hayfever!

Many thanks to Margaret for all her help and guidance with planning, to daughter Katie for coping with all my computer crashes and for helping me put out the controls and to everyone else who helped put out and take in the controls - you are all brilliant!

Alison

Local event on an area suitable for orienteers of all skill levels.

Hillend Park

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Wed 10th May 2017

Type of event: Local-(D)
Near: Edinburgh

Organiser's Comments

Never before has a Hillend event been enjoyed with such enthusiasm by so many people! Take a sunny May evening with everlasting daylight, add a group of Beavers with unlimited energy and a group of Guides with equal energy (if not the same inclination to climb every available tree around the car park) to the regular orienteers who aren't scared of steep hills and the first-timers coming to see what it's all about, and you end up with the most tremendous buzz in the "Upper ski slope car park" where this all took place.
Phew..... we are all exhausted - but very happy to see so many happy orienteers. Please come to another event soon! You can see how compulsive it is!

Janet Clark
Some of the names are missing from the results, sorry but the entry procedure went awry.

These are the results

These are the winsplits

An evening event suitable for everyone.

Corstorphine Hill

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 08th Apr 2017

Type of event: Local-(D)
Near: Edinburgh

Results in revised spreadsheet format. See Organiser's Comments below for explanation of the different results format for this event.

ORGANISER'S COMMENTS: Corstorphine Hill redeemed itself today; all memories of last year's snowy February afternoon were quite forgotten in the warm sunshine, dry underfoot conditions and accompanying birdsong and budding green leaves which welcomed us today. It was just lovely to be able to sit around discussing routes and future plans, with the whole summer ahead.
The only thing which let us down was the faulty Start unit. It chose just the wrong moment to run out of battery. The accompanying Results are not quite complete, and are the product of much manual labour by Alistair; apologies to those affected, but I hope everyone will agree, whatever their results, that this was a lovely afternoon. For the ESOC Team who provided the event, it was a welcome change too, not to be wet and freezing all afternoon.
Many thanks to everyone who took part today; and hope to see you all again before long.

Janet Clark

A city area suitable for orienteers at all skill levels.

Dreghorn

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 18th Mar 2017

Type of event: Local-(D)
Near: Edinburgh

Results

This is the link to the results

This is the link for winsplits

Organiser's comments

The rain and low cloud this morning wasn't in the forecast. Worst affected were David and Margaret, putting out controls. Putting up the tents in the rain wasn't much fun either. The route to Registration was a sea of mud before we started. Would anyone come to this event?

Oh yes! Before we knew it, the rain had stopped and loads of people arrived; the usual mix of familiar faces and new ones, all warmly welcomed. We had a Birthday party, several people in Edinburgh for different reasons and looking for an event, some milestones achieved in running a White Course alone for the first time, and much appreciation of David's courses, which is very reassuring for a first-time Planner. We all got out of the car park and through the barrier without problems, and are grateful to the MOD who let us in. It's just amazing how much fun these events can be under any conditions!

Photos: There are some photos up on ESOC's facebook page, have a look at some fun in the puddles.

Planner's comments (written on evening of the event)

Well at 1230 today, when the rain was hammering down I must confess I wasn't expecting many people to brave the wet, wind and mud to come to our event...and on a rugby weekend.

My planning visits to Dreghorn flashed before my eyes, walking through a smoke grenade cloud between two groups of soldiers shooting at one another, finding bullets and booby trap trip wires when walking in the woods, helping rescue a trapped sheep...

But it got brighter and they came! It was good to see a group of girls splashing and kicking in the ankle deep mud to remember that orienteers, and the kids in particular, don't mind getting mucky.

As a novice planner I found the whole experience very interesting, from reading about course requirements, using Condes for the first time and getting out and about to see what was possible on the ground. I would recommend the experience to anyone and receiving the very polite and positive feedback from participants was a nice end to a long day.

My thanks to all involved in the day but to Margaret and Janet in particular for sharing some of their knowledge and experience and all their support and encouragement along the way.

The competition area at Dreghorn is part of the general area of the North Pentland Hills accessed from the Dreghorn Junction of the Edinburgh city bypass (A720).

Hopetoun House

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 11th Feb 2017

Type of event: Local-(D)
Near: South Queensferry

This is the results link

This is the winspilits link

The prospects for today were not good; snow in the forecast and on the roads not far away; beginning of school holiday week, a bit further to travel for Edinburgh people; a very wet cold morning.   However, we pressed on. Maureen and Bill spent a cold wet morning putting out controls. The Support Team set up at 12.30 safely sheltered in the Education Room.  The Juniors arrived for coaching at 13.00; a bit reduced in numbers but happy and optimistic.

It looked a bit quiet when Registration opened at 13.30, but before we knew it a steady stream of cars was arriving through the gloom and we were off! Several people had been at our Cammo event in January and wanted to do it again.   A good number came to try orienteering for the first time; and seemed to be happy to ignore the weather and enjoy the fun of finding the controls. Most habitual parkrunners confessed to having wimped out this morning so came orienteering instead.   It was a lovely mixed crowd of all ages, all getting a kick out of running around Hopetoun on a wet afternoon.

Special thanks to Mark Kassyk who manned the Start throughout and must have been frozen. Special mention to Calum Robertson who, after running two courses afterwards, was presented with his Gold Badge for completing 100 events. Very grateful thanks to Maree, the Hopetoun Ranger, who arranged this off-season entry to the Hopetoun House grounds for us.    We promised to avoid trampling any snowdrops, as she is holding a Snowdrop Open Day tomorrow.   And Walter was remembering his wedding here at Hopetoun, fourteen years ago.  An old University friend, his son and his Mum were here with him today!

Janet Clark

Local event with something for everyone, including scenic views of the Forth and over to the bridges. This area is used for bigger events as well as local events.

ESOC Sprint-O 2017 incorporating SOUL 2

An urban run followed by a parkland run.

Sun 05th Feb 2017

Type of event: District-(C)
Near: Edinburgh

The results for the races are given below:

The results for Bughtlin.

The standings for the SOUL league

Winsplits for Bughtlin

The results for Cammo

Winsplits for Cammo

Overall results

Routegadget for Bughtlin

Routegadget for Cammo

Notes from Controllers
At Bughtlin, control 112, on the junior courses was removed by vandals during the event and affected a number of runners. Rather than voiding the courses, we decided to remove the legs to and from that control on courses 6 & 7.
At Cammo, the start clock and start unit were 38 seconds fast, so overall times are short by that amount and splits to the first control were also 38 seconds too quick or, if you took less than 38 seconds, missing.
- Robin & Sheila Strain

Organiser's Comments
Thank you to the the planner and controller as well as all the volunteers that made this event possible. The competitors really enjoyed the Bughtlin Scottish Urban League event in particular. The emphasis from my side was informality as it was a cold day and I didn't want people hanging around for too long. This theme worked well particularly at the chasing start and there were some great sprinting finishes.
- Mary Williams

Planner's Comments
It was great to use the new area of Bughtlin, a map drawn by Murray Strain for his World Championship training - many thanks to Murray. It is still a work in progress - please send any comments to me at and I will pass them on. I hope you enjoyed the courses - my aim was to make them challenging without being tricksy, demanding concentration all the way. If you haven't already, please plot your route on Routegadget, as I'd love to see where everyone went. The area is complex enough to be used repeatedly, and I hope to have the opportunity to run there myself soon.
Cammo, in contrast, is an easy parkland environment. Recent ploughing removed a third of the area, and there was more running about in fields than I would have wished. Although I know that some of you much preferred Bughtlin, Cammo did have the excitement of the chasing start, giving head-to-head racing.
- Crawford Lindsay