ELO Festive Frolic 2015John Muir Country Park, 28 December
East Lothian Orienteers hold a Christmas score event each year, always with an ingenious twist. This year’s event was well-attended, with a large contingent from ESOC.
John Muir Country Park is on the East Lothian coast, just west of Dunbar. The area includes fairly flat mature pine forest with a good path network, and a coastal fringe with dunes covered in marram grass. The map has been extended southwards along the river to include hillier terrain around Foxlake.
The main event was a score course, with a choice of a 50-minute or 70-minute time limit, and a mass start. A Yellow course was also available.
For the score course, there were 29 controls, though only 23 were shown on the map. Controls 120-129 and 140-148 were worth 10 points; 130-139 (mostly further away) were worth 20 points. Clues to the locations of the mystery controls could be found at the controls whose number was a multiple of 11 (i.e. 121, 132 and 143). An additional twist was that although controls could be visited in any order, there was a 20 point bonus for each control with a higher number than any already visited. There was much criss-crossing around the map to maximise the points scored. As usual there were penalty points for anyone late back.
Registration and download were in the café of the East Links Family Park, and competitors made the most of the indoor facilities, food and drink while waiting for the prizegiving. The weather was dull but stayed dry, and it was quite mild.
There was some serious competition on the 70-minute score, and many visited all the controls in the correct order. ESOC members who achieved this were Martin Quirke (8th), Andrew Dalgleish (10th), Jonathan Ellis (11th), Jo Stevenson (12th), Andrew Lindsay (13th), Mark Wood (14th) and Rona Lindsay (15th).
Several ESOC competitors won prizes. On the 70-minute score, Martin Caldwell was 1st superveteran (19th overall) and Chris McLeod was 1st superveteran woman (27th overall). On the 50-minute score, Alastair Lessells was 1st superveteran (4th overall), Sally Lindsay was 1st superveteran woman (7th overall) and Anne Stevenson was 2nd superveteran woman (12th overall).
Other ESOC members in the top half of the results were as follows:
70-minute score (45 competitors) – Walter Clark 21st, Timothy May 22nd, Crawford Lindsay 23rd
50-minute score (49 competitors) – Heidi Ross 14th, Finlay Ross 16th, Margaret Dalgleish 21st, Katy Lessells 24th, Jim Clark 23rd, Robert Findlay 24th, Roger Scrutton 25th
Full results are available on the Festive Frolic item on the ELO website.
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