SOL 2, 2025Limerigg, 13 April
Credit: Crawford Lindsay
FVO presented the second event in the 2025 Scottish Orienteering League, on a new map of the forest at Limerigg village, south of Falkirk.
Roger Scrutton comments:
“When the Organiser emails afterwards to say ‘The area proved quite the challenge..’ you can be sure it really was a challenge. It wasn’t difficult orienteering, navigation-wise, with a host of vegetation and marsh boundaries, ditches, fences, the odd track and even a contour feature or two to follow or cross, but it was a really tough physical challenge for many people - the long times and retirals in the Results reflect that. I couldn’t help comparing the event with SOL1 at Culbin, where the challenge was definitely a technical one, calling for accurate compass work and contour interpretation and relatively easy going underfoot. But, you have to take the rough with the smooth in orienteering, and yesterday there was the feeling of some satisfaction at having survived. Would I go back to another event at Limerigg? - I’m not at all sure.
As I staggered over the tussocks and felled areas, bashed though brambles, ducked through plantations, crossed numerous barbed wire fences, leapt ditches and sunk into marshes, it reminded me of something Yvette Haigh (still GB’s only individual Gold medallist in forest orienteering, Darnaway, 1999) said at a local event at Blairadam Forest - when asked if she had had a nice run, she said ‘I had a nice crawl’. I didn’t crawl yesterday but might have had to, to get across the Finish line.
Limerigg is a new area, and that is very welcome at a time when it is becoming more difficult to find new areas, although, as it happens, the next SOL, at Hartside Hill, will be on a new area too. It was interesting to have to walk through a wind farm from parking to the event, and lovely to be served with the largest slices of chocolate cake you have ever seen back at the Community Centre.“
ESOC results in the top half of their courses:
- Brown (45 competitors) – Rachel Brown (running as EUOC) 9th
- Blue (63) – Megan Brown 24th
- Short Blue (52) – Richard Oxlade 5th=, Kevin Harding 7th, Finlay Ross 15th, Crawford Lindsay 22nd, Helena Nolan 24th
- Green (33) – Alison Harding 10th, Les Dalgleish 14th
- Short Green (24) – Mary Williams 2nd, Janice Nisbet 3rd, Margaret Dalgleish 7th, Judy Bell 8th
- Very Short Green (16) – Eleanor Pyrah 7th
- Light Green (9) – Emma Daley 5th
- Orange (12) – Maria O’Hara 2nd
Full results, including Routegadget and other details about the event, are available on the SOL 2 results page of the FVO website.
See also this report on the Scottish Orienteering website.
Details of all the events in this year’s Scottish Orienteering League, and the latest league tables, are on the SOL page of the SOA website.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports