Race The Abbeys Weekendput on by Roxburgh Reivers

A wonderful weekend of urban orienteering in the Scottish Borders

A wonderful weekend of urban orienteering - This was an urban double-header in the Scottish Borders over the weekend of 11th-12th June.

KELSO was the venue for the event on Saturday 10th June and JEDBURGH the venue for Sunday’s event (12th June). Both are typical Borders’ towns and, as the name for the weekend suggests, both have ancient (ruined) abbeys. Kelso sits on the banks of the river Tweed near its confluence with the river Teviot. Jedburgh is on the Jed Water.

The settings in both Kelso and Jedburgh were stunning, enhanced by the very sunny weather. Perhaps even too warm for running for some people. After running many people took the opportunity to become tourists in the towns. Ice creams were very popular!

The older town centre area of Kelso was a little less complex than that of Jedburgh which had a network of alleyways, some covered, requiring very solid concentration.
In Kelso the longer courses went past the Abbey as well as visiting the banks of the river Tweed. In Jedburgh all senior courses passed the Abbey, crossed the Jed Water and criss-crossed the A68 via underpasses. Generally, the courses in Jedburgh were slightly shorter than in Kelso but the concentration level needed was more intense.
An extra bonus in Jedburgh was the setting for the main car park with adjoining playing fields (where prizegiving was held) which had a spectacular view of the Abbey.

Each event was a World Ranking Event (WRE) for Elite urban orienteers. The WRE courses were run separately by the elites immediately before the larger urban events with separate starts.

All in all a grand weekend of urban orienteering.

ESOC members in the top half (or, in the case of the elites, very close to it) of their class at KELSO:
M Elite (42 competitors) – Ben Brown (24th)
W Elite (24) – Rachel Brown (ESOC/EUOC) (14th)
M Open (6) – James Ball (3rd)
W Open (8) – Heidi Ross (4th), Lucie Hamplova (5th)
M Vet (18) – Martin Quirke (6th)
W Supervet (25) – Helena Nolan (4th),
M Ultravet (26) – Martin Caldwell (3rd), Les Dalgleish (12th)
W Ultravet (21) – Janice Nisbet (4th), Margaret Dalgleish (9th)
W Hypervet (9) – Eleanor Pyrah (2nd), Katy Lessells (3rd)

ESOC members in the top half of their class at JEDBURGH:
W Elite (26 competitors) – Rachel Brown (ESOC/EUOC) (4th), Helen Bridle (7th)
W Open (6) – Lucie Hamplova (3rd)
M Vet (17) – Terry Johnstone (7th)
M Supervet (22) – Keith Brown (4th),
W Supervet (23) – Helena Nolan (2nd)
M Ultravet (24) – Martin Caldwell (8th), Les Dalgleish (10th)
W Ultravet (18) – Margaret Dalgleish (4th),
W Hypervet (9) – Eleanor Pyrah (2nd), Katy Lessells (3rd)

No ESOC winners either on individual days or when the results were combined for weekend prizes however there were 4 combined weekend podium places with Lucie Hamplova taking 3rd on Women's Open. Helena Nolan taking 2nd place on Women's Supervet and Eleanor Pyrah and Katy Lessells taking 2nd and 3rd places respectively on Women's Hypervet.

ESOC's Ian Pyrah was Controller for the urban event on Sunday at Jedburgh.

Links to the full range of results are on the Roxburgh Reivers website. Reports are also being added from the main event/weekend officials.

Points were available in several different leagues as follows:

Both races were SOUL events (Scottish Orienteering Urban League with current league standings shown here).
The Kelso event was also event 9 in the 2023 UK Urban League. Details about this league are available on the UK Urban League website.
These were the 17th and 18th events in the 2023 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the updated league tables, on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. With the scores for these events included, ESOC is lying 28th in the club league. The latest score for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups) - so the club members whose scores are included have changed as the year goes on and more events are included.

This weekend of events was a huge undertaking for a small club such as Roxburgh Reivers but what a weekend it was!

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