Scottish Turf Open Event weekend 2023Edinburgh, 29 September - 1 October
The Scottish Open Turf event weekend was a great success, with many visitors from other parts of the UK and Scandinavia.
The first Open Turf events in Scotland took place on Saturday 30 September, as part of a weekend of events and socials, attracting competitors from far and wide.
Full details about the whole weekend are here: Final Details Turf Open 2023
Friday 29 September
The weekend's events kicked off with a fun 45 minute evening foot Turf "Welcome Event" from 18:30 to 19:15. Fancy dress in green and yellow (Turf logo colours) was encouraged. The event took place in south central Edinburgh, with zones spread from The Meadows through Marchmont and The Grange, south to the railway line and west as far as the canal. The event centre was at Summerhall arts venue, with socialising in the courtyard all evening, prizegiving for the welcome event, and repeated Crowdy takes on a new zone centred there, and new medals for some people.
Saturday 30 September 2023
The main events of the weekend, the Scottish Turf Open Championships, were on Saturday. There were two 90 minute events:
Bike Turf event - 11:15 to 12:45
Foot Turf event - 13:30 to 15:00
The Open events were again based at Summerhall. Zones for the bike event were spread over a wide area south of The Meadows, stretching from Gorgie Road to Duddingston, and the foot event covered a smaller area, but including Blackford Hill. Again there was chat and fun all day in the courtyard at Summerhall, with much turfing as well, including guided tours for visitors.
In the evening, there were drinks and an all-you-can-eat buffet meal at the Salisbury Arms, nearby. The open events awards ceremony took place during the evening, as well as more Crowdy takes in the RoyalPoolZone, which was specially modified for the occasion. There was a new Crowdy record for the UK: Crowdy-55.
Sunday 1 October 2023
In the morning, there was a Mountain Bike Orienteering Event at Craigmillar Castle Country Park, from 10:30 to 12:00. The event centre was at Bridgend Farmhouse on Old Dalkeith Road. There was a range of courses for different abilities, all on tracks/paths.
At 11am, the new Turf round started and many made the most of the opportunity to take zones in Edinburgh while the start of round neutral bonus was available.
In the afternoon, there was a "Crazy Closing Event" from 13:00 to 13:45. This was another fun foot Turf event, in Inch Park, with some very interesting zone shapes, often very close together. Fancy dress was again encouraged, with prizes for the best outfit. Competitors met up afterwards at Bridgend Farmhouse, with tea/coffee and the event prizegiving as well.
Everyone enjoyed the weekend, and there were many complimentary remarks on WhatsApp. Some of the Scandinavian visitors stayed on for several days to explore Edinburgh and the surrounding area.
Here's a report from ESOCWalter and kjtindall, which appeared in the Turf Insider review of the September round:
"Edinburgh was the centre of the Turf world for the weekend of 29 September to 1 October. This is because it was hosting the inaugural Scottish Open Event featuring the Scottish Turf Championships – what excitement! We had over 100 participants over the three days across a number of events (foot turfing, open championships and MTB Orienteering) including very welcome visitors from Scandinavia and England.
When we had the idea for the first ever Scottish Turf Open Champs event, we had a vision that it would be fun, welcoming to all and also action-packed! Since we had those Turfers that were travelling over from Sweden and elsewhere, we were keen to make the trip worth their while and showcase the best of Edinburgh. With our organising team having been to the last two Bonanzas, inspiration was taken from a few things we’d seen work really well there, such as the name stickers everyone had in Umeå, which we did as well, and we all made some new friends because of it. And before we knew it we had Turf logos on bunting, stickers, pens, temporary tattoos - we also had Turf Scotland T-shirts and playing cards (featuring a different Scottish Turf zone on each card), so there was a lot on offer, plus there was a can of Scotland’s delicious best-selling soft drink, Irn Bru, in everyone’s welcome pack. And we got lots of great feedback on what we could do in future.
It was so cool to see everyone come together in Edinburgh for the events, and for the Turf map to light up with so many turfers grabbing unique zones and enjoying the events. There was a great feeling right through the weekend and people got right into the spirit of it, with the yellow and green dress code for Friday (Turf colours), blue/white/tartan theme for the Saturday night (Scottish colours), etc., as well as throwing themselves into the Crazy Closing event, chasing after one of our team dressed as Turfo, and tackling the weirdest zone shapes you have ever seen!
We were so extremely grateful to everyone for making the effort to come to Edinburgh and you were all so well behaved that you would be welcome back any time (well most of you anyway!)
Special congratulations to MarkkuEsoc who won the bike event and Fozzie who won the foot event on Saturday. Both events were very tight and very hard fought right to the end. It was also great to see juniors with fantastic performances from schnappi.jr in the bike and Mathsboy in the foot.
Of course, the last day of the event was yellow dot Sunday and it was amazing to see so many people hoovering up unique zones in Edinburgh and we even had a Swedish King for a while – we let magnusn borrow our Scottish crown for a while :) Now the question is whether it will happen again next year. The answer is, of course it will, but only on the condition that you all come back and bring some more turfers to make Edinburgh the turf capital of the world once again!"
The Turf event maps and full results are available on the Turf website:
Welcome event
Open bike event
Open foot event
Crazy closing event
Last updated: 7 October 2023
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