CompassSport Cup Scottish Heat 2023Faskally, 12 February
There was a great turnout from ESOC for the CompassSport Cup & Trophy Scottish heat.
The 2023 Scottish heat for the CompassSport Cup and Trophy was organised by STAG, at Faskally Woods, west of Pitlochry. This is a lovely area of mixed woodland, and although small, it has lots of variety. It’s quite hilly, featuring intricate contours, crags and boulders, a small loch, and a network of paths and tracks. There was a long walk from the town centre car parks to the start, near the middle of the woods. Registration, download and the all-important ScotJOS cake stall were at the Pitlochry Scout Hut, at the other end of the town, and orienteers could be found socialising at all points along the route through the town.
The weather was fine, and it was dry underfoot.
ESOC now counts as a small club, and was competing in the CompassSport Trophy heat, against 14 other Scottish clubs. Interløpers won, with 1257 points, followed by INVOC with 1248, then MOR with 1241 and ESOC with 1220. The first 3 clubs qualified for the final, which is in the Forest of Dean in November.
ESOC’s counting scorers were:
2 - Short Brown: Mark Rowe (90)
3 - Blue Women: Alison O’Neil (98), Katrina McLeod (95)
5 - Green Women: Helena Nolan (90), Fran Daley (89)
6 - Green Men: Keith Brown (97), Crawford Lindsay (93)
8B - Junior Women: Megan Brown (94), Maja Robertson (90)
9A - Junior Men: Calum Robertson (96), Tom Uutela (90)
10 - Supervet Short Green: Mary Williams (100), Janice Nisbet (98)
In the Trophy competition, a club’s best 13 results count, with a maximum of 2 in each class. Other ESOC members who were in the top half for their course were:
3 - Blue Women (33 competitors) - Sabine Oechsner 12th, Heidi Ross 17th
4 - Blue Men (39) - Finlay Ross 17th
5 - Green Women (41) - Hanne Robertson 18th
6 - Green Men (31) - David Robertson 14th
Alison O'Neil (ESOC Club Captain) commented:
"After 40 sign-ups, it was great to see 35 ESOC members across the age/gender/ability spectrum make it to the start line at Faskally - this was fantastic participation. This time around, we also organised a Saturday night pre-event 'geeking session' in which we checked the final details and debated route choices on past courses at Faskally via Routegadget, which hopefully put everyone in the right mindset. Special mentions to Mary who won the Supervet class, Helena, Fran and Hanne who continued their close intra-ESOC battle in the Green Women Trophy class, dominating the 11th-13th placings, and to Hamish who completed a Short Brown course after only a few months of orienteering. Overall, well done and thank you to everyone who came and supported - we'll be back in 2024!"
Full results including team scores for both Cup and Trophy, along with Routegadget, are on the CompassSport Cup & Trophy Scottish Heat 2023 page of the STAG website.
Further information about the CompassSport Cup and Trophy is available on the CompassSport Cup Coordinator’s page.
This event was the second in the 2023 Scottish Inter-Club Championships. After this event, ESOC was leading the Large Clubs division, and lying 3rd in Junior Large Clubs. For further details and the league tables after two events, see this news item on the Scottish Orienteering website.
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