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.
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!
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
What has happened to the Spring? It was a very cold and wet evening for racing round Dreghorn. Thanks to 3rd Rifles for giving us permission to race in the area - a great little sprint area with lots of challenges. Huge thanks to Margaret and Les for running the start in very wet and cold conditions.
Organiser's Comments: It was so exciting to finally be able to put on our first "Real" event; The logistics and the short December day were a challenge, but comments from competitors more than compensated:
"REAL CONTROLS. Fantastic to be back orienteering traditional style"
"Fantastic fun, great course and amazing organisation. I give it 10/10"
"Lovely to have brief and socially-distanced catch-ups with many of my orienteering family; I miss that".
"Thanks to everybody involved. Thoroughly enjoyed the Green Course".
I couldn't have put it better myself! Sincere and grateful thanks to one and all
JanetClark
STOP PRESS: TRAVEL UPDATES & FINAL DETAILS & AND START LIST now available.
