SSOF 2024Drumpellier Country Park, 7 June
Credit: SOA
The 2024 Scottish Schools’ Orienteering Festival was organised by STAG (St Andrew’s Orienteering Club), and ESOC juniors enjoyed the day, with some great results.
Drumpellier Country Park is near Coatbridge, to the east of Glasgow. The terrain includes mixed woodland, open grassland and lowland heath, with a good network of paths and tracks and some gentle hills.
David Robertson reports:
When the SSOF was last held here the courses all circled Lochend Loch, but this year the start was south of the Crannog adventure playground and courses were ‘out and back’ with the finish situated not far from the start.
ESOC’s Ian Pyrah was controller, and ESOC helpers included Judy Bell, Margaret & Les Dalgleish. David & Hanne Robertson took a group of 33 from various East Lothian schools, and Elspeth Bleakley was there with another group of 16 from George Heriot’s. Start times were from 10:15 am until noon. There was a heavy downpour before the first start but during the festival the weather was cool and blustery with some very light passing showers.
As usual, there were teams from schools all over Scotland, and over 300 pupils took part in the Festival. The competition classes are based on academic year, from P5 upwards. There are team trophies for each competition class, worked out from the total time of the best 3 results for the same school.
Congratulations to Stewart’s Melville College, who won the Secondary Schools trophy.
Results for ESOC juniors:
- P5/6 Boys - Seb Bleakley 12th
- P5/6 Girls - Ianthe Bleakley 4th, Aphra Muir & partner 22nd, Arielle Muir 26th
- S1 Girls - Emma Daley 1st
- S1 Boys - Jonny Brydie 3rd, Ian Moir 4th
- S2 Boys - Ewan Arnold 3rd
- S2 Girls - Ursula McColl 4th, Sophie Robertson 14th
- S3 Boys - Jamie Crawford 3rd, Calum Robertson 5th, Cameron Chapman 13th
- S3 Girls - Thea Thomas 6th, Alexis Gow 8th
- S4 Boys - Tate Woodhouse 4th
- S5/6 Boys - Hamish Hamilton-Meikle 2nd, Muhammad-Ali Khurram 8th
Further details about the event are on the Scottish Schools Orienteering Association website, and the SSOF 2024 results are here. See also this report on the Scottish Orienteering website.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports - Juniors - Schools