East Area hosts spookily successful Junior Inter Areas Weekend
The Halloween weekend saw East Area clubs hosting the Junior Inter Areas Weekend, which combines a relay on the Saturday with an overnight stay for all that wish and the individual event on the Sunday. The event saw juniors from our three areas, East North and West, travel to take part in the weekend.
The Junior Inter Areas Weekend aims to provide a fun social weekend for juniors from across Scotland to come together make new friends and spend time with old ones. The weekend involves as you would expect a relay competition and an individual event combined with a residential stay on the Saturday night with games, a quiz and plenty of running around in the dark for those who wish.
With East Area hosting this year the juniors travelled to East Lothian to see who could raise the various Trophies aloft. This year the relay was held in Vogrie Country Park which with its Halloween themed decorations provided a ideal location.
With the organisers allowing everyone to experience the delights of Vogrie Pumpkin Forest on route to the assembly everyone was embracing the Halloween themed weekend. The weekend coordinators had proposed a fancy dress costume relay and the juniors participants had risen to the challenge with face paints to the fore – North brought Alvin and the chipmunks to the party, West the Thompson twins from Tintin and the wicked witch of the West among others with East bringing some scary witches! There were Halloween themed orienteering games to keep everyone amused and the glorious autumnal weather allowed for plenty of socialising of juniors and supporting adults alike while the relays took place.
Courses were run the in the order of Orange, Yellow then Light Green and used the path network, open forest and former golf course, with the longer courses crossing the Tyne Water to steep woodland on the other side. There were girls only teams and open teams which included boys only and mixed. With many taking part for the first time the aim of the day was fun and there were some great relay team names following the spooky team from all areas! There was the option of running as pairs for those who wished. Having taken the relays seriously, once all were in everyone gathered for a prize giving which saw the Junior Awards presented (Recognising Junior Volunteers Article) followed by the relay podiums which saw North claim the first trophy of the weekend – Relay Trophy.
Once everything was packed up with the help of the juniors it was off to Broomlee Outdoor Education Centre for evening entertainment! Once everyone was settled it was time to get a quick dinner before gathering for a short feedback session with the SOA team where safeguarding, the junior newsletter, social opportunities and how we can improve the junior experience were discussed. Then it was time for the main part of the evening socialising! Head torches were out and so ensued many games of manhunt, football in the dark and for those who prefer their entertainment inside games and activities that catered for all. Once everyone was exhausted hot chocolate and cake warmed everyone up before the junior quiz! As usual the juniors outshone the adults supervising with their knowledge of current music and astounded some of the adults with their knowledge of flags before it was time to retire to recharge for the individual competition the next day.
Sunday’s individual competition saw everyone travel to John Muir Country Park where East Lothian Orienteers were able to combine the event with a SoSOL. The weather was dry and sunny but the earlier start to allow everyone who had travelled to get home at a sensible time there was a chill in the air. The forested part of the John Muir Country Park had suffered badly with windblow during Storm Arwen 5 years ago, but it is once again open to the public. This added to the challenge of the dunes area of the map, resulting in some interesting courses.
In these individual races, only the top 2 runners in each age category in M and W count towards the final result. It was a close event and East having always joked that they needed the wooden spoon for the last few years found themselves for a moment thinking that they had claimed the Individual Inter Area Trophy. Unfortunately the computing team refreshed the results and with only one point between North and East in the results, North claimed the trophy and with it the overall 2026 Junior Inter Areas title.
Final results can be found here 2026 Junior Inter Area Results. Well done for all who took part and for the fabulous team spirit shown by all and support and camaraderie all round. It was great to see the older juniors supporting and encouraging the younger ones, some of whom had not completed a yellow course unsupported until this weekend.
Our thanks go to the East Area team who organised the weekend Oleg Cheplin (Interlopers) and Fran Daley (ESOC) for an amazing event. Thanks must also go to Sasha Cheplin (Interlopers) the planner and Dave Kershaw (ESOC) the controller for the Relay Event and East Lothian Orienteers team of Jonathan Ellis/ Andrea Davison who planned and organised the Individual event supported by controller Roger Scrutton (ESOC) together with all of the many fabulous volunteers, area leads and travelling parents who made the weekend possible.
Photo Credits: SOA Team