Edinburgh Big Weekend 201122/23 January
The Edinburgh City Race took place on Saturday, followed by SoSOL3 (also the East of Scotland Championships) on Arthur’s Seat on Sunday, and there was a great turnout from ESOC, with some excellent results.
The Big Weekend was organised by Edinburgh University Orienteering Club. The Edinburgh City Race on Saturday 22 January started from Holyrood Park. This year, there were 3 courses – long (5.9 km), middle (4.3km) and short (3.2 km), but these are the straight-line routes, and everyone ran a lot further. All started off with the confusing buildings and pathways of Dumbiedykes, then into the closes of the eastern Old Town. Long and Middle then went over Calton Hill, and all 3 courses finished via Abbeyhill and out into Holyrood Park again. As usual, most people visited places they’d never been before, and there were many route choice challenges. There was also a children’s course for the under-16s, that involved no road crossings. The weather was cloudy but bright, with some sunny intervals, and although it was chilly, there was luckily no frost.
ESOC members in the top half of the results were:
Senior (138 competitors) – Helen Bridle 14th (1st woman), Claire Ward 16th (3rd woman), Andrew Dalgleish 24th, Mark Wood 32nd, Jonathan Ellis 36th, Rona Lindsay 41st, Andrew Lindsay 51st, Walter Clark 55th, Mark Rowe 58th, Heather Thomson 68th, Gemma Richards 70th.
Vet (100) – Chris Huthwaite 7th, Mike Stewart 21st, Helena Nolan 22nd (1st woman) Clive Masson 25th, Ronnie Nolan 32nd=
Supervet (92) – Roger Scrutton 10th, Crawford Lindsay 14th, Ben Bate 15th, Mary Williams 21st (3rd woman), Les Dalgleish 23rd, Ian Pyrah 25th, Sally Lindsay 32nd, Margaret Dalgleish 46th.
Children’s course (25) – Craig Nolan 2nd, Jamie Cunningham 10th
As usual, there was a ceilidh on Saturday night, which was very enjoyable, though it involved almost as much effort as the courses in the day!
Sunday’s event on Arthur’s Seat was the third in this season’s South of Scotland Orienteering League, and was also the East of Scotland Championships for 2010 (the original event in December having been cancelled due to snow and ice). The start was by St Margaret’s Loch, so the longer courses included lots of climb, and there were some long legs with interesting route choices, as well as butterfly loops high on Whinney Hill. The weather continued cloudy and quite chilly, but still dry, and underfoot conditions were mostly good, though damp in places.
ESOC competitors in the top half of the results were:
Brown (69 competitors) – Chris Huthwaite 33rd
Blue (97) – Claire Ward 16th, Rona Lindsay 20th, Roger Scrutton 24th, Keith Brown 38th, Gemma Richards 39th, Alastair Lessells 47th, Helena Nolan 48th=
Green (86) – Andrew Dalgleish 3rd, Ian Pyrah 15th, Raphael Bleakley 17th, Elspeth Bleakley 22nd, John McLaren 24th, Margaret Dalgleish 27th, Maggie Scrugham 29th, Pawel Bugajski 39th, Rachel Fawthrop 41st, Judy Bell 42nd
Yellow (20) – Kerry Wood 9th, Ben Brown 10th.
White (12) – Rachel Brown 3rd
Full results and Routegadget from both events are available on the Edinburgh Big Weekend 2011 Results page.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports