INTrepid weekend - 2017Livingston/Drummond Hill, 28/29 October
This double header weekend featured the penultimate Scottish Orienteering Urban League event of 2017, and also the final Scottish Orienteering League event.of 2017. There was a good attendance and some great results from ESOC members.
SOUL 10 on Saturday 28 October was an urban race in the northern part of Livingston, with the event centre at Deans Community High School. The planning was sprint style, so there were more controls than usual (45 on the longest course), and the control descriptions were very long. The start was 1km to the east of the event centre, along a road and over a railway bridge, then the courses zig-zagged through various housing estates in Knightsridge and Deans, with grassed areas and some woodland. Route choice was crucial; many small pathways offered shortcuts, though some were dead ends. A taped route at the railway crossing beside the station confused many. The weather was windy, but mild and dry.
ESOC members in the top half of the results were:
W Open (3) – Helen Bridle 1st
W Vet (21) – Alison Cunningham 1st
M Supervet (20) – Keith Brown 3rd, Martin Caldwell 5th, Crawford Lindsay 7th
W SuperVet (9) – Sally Lindsay 3rd, Rhona Fraser 4th
M Ultravet (13) – Dave Kershaw 2nd, Ian Pyrah 4th, Les Dalgleish 6th
W UltraVet (5) – Margaret Dalgleish 1st, Eleanor Pyrah 2nd, Fiona Findlay 3rd
W Hypervet (1) – Janet Clark 1st
M Junior (7) – Ben Brown 1st
W Junior (5) – Rachel Brown 1st
M Young Junior (5) – Joseph Lawlor 1st
W Young Junior (9) – Maja Robertson 1st
For a list of all this year’s Scottish Orienteering Urban League events, and a link to the latest league tables (click on “BTO SOUL Series Results”), see the SOUL page of the Scottish Orienteering Association website.
SOL 7 was on Sunday 29 October at Drummond Hill, at the east end of Loch Tay. Parking was on forest tracks, and the Assembly area was high up the hill, with the start 2km to the east along a forest track giving beautiful views along the loch. The hill lies roughly east-west, with a series of tops, highest at the western end, and a very useful wall runs along the ridge. The terrain was mostly very pleasant, with little undergrowth, though there were some areas of fallen trees where the going was rougher. Intricate contours and rock features gave a good variety of features. Courses looped around the hill and finished on a track near Assembly, with wonderful views of the hills to the north.
The weather was cool, and breezy to start with, though the sun came out later, bringing a glorious autumn afternoon. Underfoot conditions were mostly quite dry, but there was one particularly deep marsh.
ESOC members in the top half of the results for their course were:
Short Brown (28 competitors) – Jim Martin 7th
Blue (60) – Keith Brown 12th, Tyler Morrison 25th
Short Blue (37) – Alison Cunningham 4th, Finlay Ross 7th, Roger Garnett 13th, Dave Kershaw 17th
Green (47) – Sally Lindsay 14th, Alastair Lessells 16th, Judy Bell 23rd
Short Green (29) – Margaret Dalgleish 1st, Eleanor Pyrah 3rd, Anne Stevenson 4th, Fiona Findlay 10th
Light Green (36) – Rachel Brown 13th
Orange (34) – Maja Robertson 10th
Full results from both events are available here, and further details can be found on the Interløpers website.
Details of all the events in this year’s Scottish Orienteering League, and the league tables, are on the SOL page of the Scottish Orienteering Association website.
The Scottish Junior Inter-Area competition took place in conjunction with these events; the Relays on Saturday at Dechmont Law in Livingston, and the Individual as part of Sunday’s SOL event. Several ESOC juniors competed for the East area team. The North area won the competition. Full results and points are available here.
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