Edinburgh Big Weekend 201326/27 January 2013
There was a great turnout from ESOC for the Edinburgh University Big Weekend, with wins in several classes at the Edinburgh City Race, which was followed this year by a Chasing Sprint on Sunday.
The Edinburgh City Race on Saturday 26 January had 6 courses this year, all starting and finishing in Bristo Square. There were good opportunities for spectating, especially since there was a runthrough in the square too.
The courses visited the Old Town, the university buildings around George Square, the Quartermile development at the old Royal Infirmary site, and The Meadows. As in previous years, there was constant route choice and most were confused in various places. Despite wintry weather all week, the day dawned bright and clear, and fairly mild, so there was very little ice left.
Best ESOC results came from Claire Ward, who won the Women’s Open race (and received a splendid new trophy), Mark Wood, who won Men’s Vet, and Ben Brown, who won Young Junior Men.
ESOC members in the top half of the results were:
Open Men (101 competitors) – Ray Ward 10th, Alistair Hindle 23rd, Andrew Dalgleish 31st, Craig Nolan 37th, Jonathan Ellis 38th, Mehmet Karatay 45th
Open Women (80) – Claire Ward 1st, Heather Thomson 8th, Rona Lindsay 21st, Gemma Karatay 31st, Andrea Davison 35th, Fran Daley 38th
Veteran Men 40+ (48) – Mark Wood 1st, Clive Masson 16th
Veteran Women 40+ (39) – Alison Cunningham 7th, Helena Nolan 13th, Maggie Scrugham 15th
Supervet Men 55+ (37) – Martin Caldwell 8th
Supervet Women 55+ (20) – Janice Nisbet 3rd, Sally Lindsay 6th, Mary Williams 7th
Ultravet Men 65+ (13) – Roger Scrutton 2nd, Ian Pyrah 4th, Ben Bate 6th
Ultravet Women 65+ (4) – Eleanor Pyrah 2nd
Young Junior Men 12- (6) – Ben Brown 1st
Young Junior Women 12- (7) – Rachel Brown 3rd
This event was the first in the 2013 Scottish Orienteering Urban League - a link to the 2013 SOUL tables is
available on the SOUL page of the SOA website.
It was also the first event in the 2013 Nopesport Urban League - for more details about this series, see the Nopesport Urban League website.
The Saturday night ceilidh was well-attended as usual, with much energetic dancing despite the rigours of the day.
Sunday’s event was a chasing sprint, with the prologue on Arthur’s Seat and the chase in the town again, in the area west of Holyrood House. The prologue used a new map, which was much more accurate than the old one. The start was on the east side of Whinny Hill, and the courses looped through the gorse and over the hill, finishing near the west end of St Margaret’s Loch. There were some sharp showers early on, followed by sunshine, and it was quite muddy in places, but luckily not icy.
The chase started W of Dynamic Earth, and the courses headed straight into the confusing buildings and pathways of Dumbiedykes, then into the closes of the eastern Old Town, and finished with some controls around Dynamic Earth and the Scottish Parliament buildings. The chase courses were gaffled (i.e. they had variations, with not everyone going to the same controls) and there were lots of mispunches. The weather was dry but chilly for most of the afternoon, with more sharp showers later on.
ESOC competitors in the top half of the overall results were:
Open Men (56 competitors) – Alistair Hindle 11th, Jonathan Ellis 16th, Terry Johnstone 20th, Raphael Bleakley 27th
Open Women (39) – Heather Thomson 4th, Gemma Karatay 10th
Veteran Women 40+ (20) – Rachel Fawthrop 6th, Maggie Scrugham 8th
Supervet Men 55+ (29) – Crawford Lindsay 5th, Ian Pyrah 7th, Alastair Lessells 9th, Dave Kershaw 15th
Supervet Women 55+ (16) – Sally Lindsay 1st, Eleanor Pyrah 8th
Full results and Routegadget from both events are available on the Edinburgh Big Weekend 2013 Results page.
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