Compass Sport Cup Qualifier 2026
Credit: Crawford Lindsay
Another successful day for ESOC as 9 competitors made it onto today’s podium, with a further 3 just missing out in 4th. Congratulations to Sally Lindsay and Kevin Harding who both came 1st in their age class and a special mention to Kirsten Tinsley for coming 7th in the W14 age class, despite only being W10.
Margaret Dalgleish writes:
The CSC, on Sunday 22nd February, was held on the southern part of the mapped area taking in the areas both east and west of the access road to Loch Katrine. There was some limited overlap with the area used for the Scottish Middle Distance event the day before but this enabled the finish to be the same both days.
The Trossachs has a reputation for being one of the most technically challenging areas in the UK as well as being one of the most physically challenging. Those hoping for an easier day on Sunday compared with Saturday would be disappointed! The area was a tough mix of very complex contours, crags ranging from modest to enormous, high heather (up to the waist in places) and deep bog. The bogs were in fact something of a relief after having to negotiate steep rocky slopes covered in waist high heather.
Mercifully, the temperatures were good for the time of year, the rain mostly held off and the wind seemed worse in the car park than out in the competition area.
There were 2 starts, East for most of the courses and West for the longest courses 1-3. The West start enabled use of the area west of the access road to Loch Katrine for the early controls on the longest courses. The East start had a 12 minute initial call up so competitors had 8 minutes to negotiate terrain, slide down a steep slope, cross the access road and continue their way to the actual start area for a 4 minute call up.
The Planner had to take account of environmentally sensitive areas - a condition of permission to use the area. This was done very well; the map was good, the courses were very good and all provided great navigational challenges. Total concentration and focus was required at all times. Never was the mantra ‘ground to map and map to ground’ so important!
The Trossachs is not an area for the faint hearted orienteer but for those who managed to hold their concentration and nerve, the reward was immense satisfaction at a job well done. There was reward too for those who did lose focus at times and that was to actually finish their course (or most of their course) on this most challenging of areas.
Well done to all the ESOC competitors - your Club is very proud of you all.
ESOC results in the top half:
- M18-45+ (11) - Matt Tinsley 4th
- M65+ (7) - Kevin Harding 1st, Crawford Lindsay 2nd
- M75+ (4) - Peter Halling 3rd
- WO (8) - Rachel Brown 2nd
- W14 (9) - Emma Daley 3rd, Kirsten Tinsley 7th (running as M10)
- W18-45+ (15) - Fran Daley 4th
- W60+ (6) - Alison Harding 2nd, Helena Nolan 4th
- W70+ (5) - Sally Lindsay 1st, Mary Williams 2nd, Margaret Dalgleish 3rd
Results can be found in full here with Routegadget and Livelox.
With rule changes, ESOC were in the Cup (for larger clubs) rather than Trophy competition this year. This left the club in 3rd place and, unfortunately, we therefore did not qualify for the final in East Sussex.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports