Scottish Championships 2023Creag Mhic Chailein/Inverawe 27/28 May
The West Area clubs organised the 2023 Scottish Orienteering Championships, which were held in Argyll. There were 3 Scottish champions from ESOC, plus other podium places at both Individual and Relay events.
The Individual event took place on Saturday 27 May, at Creag Mhic Chailein, near Connel. The area has three distinct sections: mature birch woodland in the SW, with detailed contours and rock features; rough open in the centre, quite marshy with tussock and bog myrtle on hummocky terrain; forest in the E, with a few denser areas of conifers and steep slopes. It was quite rough going, and there were some long times. After a damp start in the morning, the weather was mostly fine during the event itself, with a little drizzle but also some sunny spells.
ESOC’s Ewart Scott was the Controller for this event.
There were 3 trophy winners from ESOC: Rachel Brown (W20E, running as EUOC), Sabine Oechsner (W21L), and Margaret Dalgleish (W70).
Other ESOC members in the top half of the results for their class were:
M14A (11 competitors) – Tom Uutela 4th, Calum Robertson 6th
M16B (1) – Olly Simmers 1st
M65L (25) – Crawford Lindsay 13th
M65S (2) – Richard Oxlade 1st
M70L (15) – Peter Halling 3rd, Les Dalgleish 7th, Roger Garnett 8th
W21E (17) – Alison O’Neil 2nd, Helen Bridle 6th
W45L (7) – Fran Daley 3rd
W50S (7) – Judy Bell 2nd
W55L (13) – Helena Nolan 3rd
W65L (11) – Sally Lindsay 5th
W70L (9) – Mary Williams 3rd, Janice Nisbet 5th
W75 (9) – Eleanor Pyrah 2nd
Full results and Routegadget are available on the Scottish Championships 2023 results page of the FVO website.
The Individual event was the 14th in the 2023 UK Orienteering League – more details about this league are on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. With the scores from this event included, ESOC has moved up to 34th in the club competition. The score for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups). The club members whose scores are included will change as the year goes on, and there are a few new names included now.
The Relay event on Sunday 28 May was at Inverawe Country Park, near Taynuilt. This is a very varied area, starting with deciduous woodland around fishing ponds, then the junior courses stayed on the lower ground, while senior courses led up a very steep hill in beautiful mature beech forest, onto open tussocky moorland, then descended again and finished with several controls on flat grassy land along the River Awe. There was a lovely view up Loch Etive from the higher ground. The assembly area was in a flat field below the car park, with plenty of room for club tents and a spacious handover area. The weather was sunny and warm all day.
ESOC had 8 competitive teams. Like last year, our best result was in Women’s Open, where spottESOCs (Helen Bridle, Katrina McLeod, Alison O’Neil) came 2nd.
Other ESOC results:
Open (13 teams)
muddESOCs 9th (Vicente Lopez Sanchez Simon Gregersen, Keith Brown)
Age-class: 17+ (21 teams)
stripESOCs mp (Hamish Simmers, Catherine MacColl, Mark Kassyk)
Age-class: 20+ (9 teams)
smellESOCs 5th (Richard Oxlade, Megan Brown, Helena Nolan)
woollESOCs 6th (Crawford Lindsay, Sally Lindsay, Rona Lindsay)
Age-class: 23+ (13 teams)
navESOCs 5th (Mary Williams, Leslie Dalgleish, Sabine Oechsner)
frillESOCs 6th (Margaret Dalgleish, David Nisbet, Fran Daley)
Junior 44- (10 teams)
stinkESOCs 5th (Olly Simmers, Emma Daley, Calum Robertson)
Non-competitive teams:
In Age-class: 23+ fluffESOCs (Robert Simmers, David Robertson, no 3rd leg runner)
In Junior 36- yELOwESOCs (Jessica Naylor, Ben Clatworthy, Ted Clatworthy) – shadowed
Also, in Women’s Open, Rachel Brown ran 2nd leg in the EUOC team that won the competition.
Full results, Routegadget and pre-event details are available on the Scottish Relays event page of the STAG website.
Alison O'Neil, ESOC Club Captain, commented:
"There were some fabulous results from the ESOC contingent at the Scottish Champs, both individually and in the relays, with 12 top-3 placings in the Individual, a 2nd place for our Women's Open team (Helen, Katrina, myself) and a 3rd place for our ELO/ESOC alliance mini-relay team (Jess, Ben, Ted). Great to see such a mix of ages and abilities amongst the ESOC participants, and I was delighted to hear a few ESOCers comment on the benefit of our pre-weekend map geeking Zoom session - we'll do it again! (I'm claiming some credit for your 3rd W55L placing Helena ;)) A special mention must go to Emma Daley who lost a shoe at number 5 and ran the rest of the course with only 1 shoe - that's going above and beyond! And to Paul Clatworthy who shadowed all 3 mini-relay team members, making a total of 12km! Finally, many thanks to David and Calum Robertson who brought/pitched the ESOC tent each day, it was much appreciated and fostered some great club spirit."
last updated: 2 June 23
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