Viewforth Sprintelope

Wed 21st Jul 2021

Type of event: Local
Near: City of Edinburgh

Results are here.

How about entering ESOC's next Sprintelope at Penicuik Ladywood on 11th August? Full details here.

Viewforth Planner Jim Murdoch writes: First all I'd like to say thanks to everybody for coming and it was great to see lots of smiling faces in the sun at the start of the event. A special thanks to Janet and Robert for providing the technical assistance in getting the event running smoothly.
On a blisteringly hot Edinburgh evening the Sprintelopers gathered in a quiet corner of West End Edinburgh for a tour of the local streets. First of all taking in the big hill up Viewforth before a merciful dash downhill towards the Lochrin Basin and the flatter roads and paths along the canal. I hope everyone gave homage to the birthplace of Sir Sean Connery as they passed the plaque between control 12 and 13.
Mercifully no reports of people on the long course forgetting to turn the map over or those on the short course missing their cut-off.
The chat at the end of the event seemed to centre on the route choice between 22 and 23, with all choices deemed bad and too long on such a hot night! Especially when you're so near the end and ready for some strawberries and a nice cool drink. So I'd just like to apologise for planning such a vindictive route choice on such a hot night, but that is after all what a good orienteering planner should do.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the next planner has in store for us at Penicuik, Ladywood Sprintelope on 11th August. Hopefully something equally vindictive.

Informal urban sprint event

Calton Hill Sprintelope

Wed 07th Jul 2021

Type of event: Local, Sprint
Near: City of Edinburgh

The results for the Calton Hill Sprintelope are here

Planner, Oli Warlow writes: First of all, well done to all who took part in what was quite a physically demanding and for the later starters quite a wet course, also to Sasha and Laurence for quickest times on long and short respectively.

This was my first-time planning and it was good to hear positive comments about the courses at the end (nice to see groups hunched over their maps at the finish deep in conversation). I tried to make what I thought would be an interesting course and take advantage of the terrain available for some route choice and physical challenges. C19 on the long proved a little trickier than intended with the summer vegetation having grown up since I planned and the wet steep slope becoming very difficult for those in road shoes! The steps at the back of the Omni centre seemed to divide opinion, they were not mandatory for optimal route choice except for maybe the fittest hill climbers! Apologies to those on the short that C2 seemed to have been half ripped off leaving a very small stub, C4 on the long got moved at some point in the evening to a different bush and C9 also on the long was removed all together!

Thanks to Peter Halling for providing very useful input and guidance from the planning side, Janet for getting us all organised both beforehand and on the night and to Alistair Armitage for heroically sheltering under the brolly with his laptop manning the download.

See you all at another event soon!

Remember to enter our next Sprintelope at Viewforth on 21st July.

Informal urban sprint event

Craig a Barns

Scottish Individual Championships 2021

Sun 13th Jun 2021

Type of event: Regional
Near: Dunkeld

The results are here.

Winsplits are here

Routegadget is here

A full list of Scottish Champions and medal winners has now been posted on the SOA website.

NOTE FROM THE CONTROLLER, SARAH DUNN: Unfortunately, control 114 was incorrectly placed on a crag 20m to the north west of the boulder where it should have been sited. This affected competitors on the light green, blue and black courses. An official protest was made by a competitor on M60L. To make the results as fair as possible we have removed the split for the ingoing leg to 114 from each of these courses. The outgoing legs should not have been affected by the error, however, one competitor on M60L failed to find the control, so for that class only we have also removed the outgoing leg from 114. The results for M60L are now recorded as a separate course (BlueM60). Removal of the outgoing leg from other classes would have unfairly penalised runners who accurately navigated the following leg, compared with those that lost time there.

THANKS FROM THE ORGANISERS: A huge thank you to everyone who came to the Scottish Championships at Craig a Barns. The courses were well planned, the sun shone and the views from starts were spectacular. Hopefully everyone enjoyed this welcome return to high level orienteering in Scotland.
Thanks also to the whole ESOC team of volunteers and to Controller Sarah from MAROC.
It’s good to be in action again.

LOST PROPERTY: Car key found in parking field. Presumably a spare as there were no cars left at 5pm when car park closed. Contact: to describe it (manufacturer’s name) and arrange return.

Incorporates a Scottish Orienteering League (SOL) event. Ok

Sprintelope, Peebles (Hay Lodge Park & South Park Wood)

Wednesday 9th June

Wed 09th Jun 2021

Type of event: Local
Near: Peebles

Here are the results.

Planner, Peter O’Hara’s comments on the Evening: First of all, congratulations to the winners, Yotam Bertrand from MAROC on the long and Ben Brown from ESOC on the short, and to everyone else that made it around the physically and technically challenging courses on a clammy night in Peebles. The only respite was the cold darkness of the 500-metre long Neidpath tunnel. Although a runner did appear suspiciously wet at the finish so may have cooled down by opting for a ‘route 1’ across the River Tweed.

The red tapes were quite a challenge to find, especially as they were at times hidden behind or deep in the feature, moreso for the colour-blind competitor (noted for next time!). The nettles were a problem at a few controls, and just when legs were starting to recover from Gosford. Quite a few brave souls did the course in shorts too.

Thanks to Margaret and Janet for keeping me on track in planning the event, with spot on advice and guidance. I was a little worried that this event would be too much of an odd one out from the normal urban Sprintelope, but we were very pleased with both the turnout in Peebles and the positive feedback on the ‘challenging’ courses and especially the tunnel experience.

Liberton Sprintelope

Very informal local urban event

Wed 26th May 2021

Type of event: Local
Near: City of Edinburgh

Here are the results from the Sprintelope (revised 28/5/21).

Many thanks to Helen Bridle for excellent courses with plenty of intricacy to keep the
brains working. She was unlucky to get soaked putting out the controls, but everyone else only encountered the odd shower and it was great to finish up in lovely sunshine and a bit of warmth. Many thanks to Alistair for the computing and to Jayne for helping to set up. It was such good fun to see everyone in real life!

Corstorphine Hill

ESOC Local Event

Sat 15th May 2021

Type of event: Local
Near: City of Edinburgh

Provisional results are here

Report of the event from Alison Cunningham:
It was lovely to see such enthusiasm for our local event today and to see both experienced orienteers and novices enjoy a proper event managed carefully within the covid regulations. The woods were looking beautiful with spring bluebells and fresh green tree foliage, all washed gently by the rain!
Corstorphine Hill woods provide a great orienteering challenge with numerous paths and contours and the courses, especially green, required careful route planning and the need to keep in close contact with the map. Lots of chat about errors made and rusty techniques needing a brush up! Lots of different routes taken on the longer legs - well done Alistair for the interesting courses.
As a floating helper - ready to stand in to cover any problems - I was kept completely redundant, with a small but quietly efficient team keeping everything under control. Well done all!
Thanks to everyone for coming, especially those that travelled from as far afield as FVO, ELO, Clyde, MAROC and KFO - welcome back!
Alison