Category: News

Recently, six young people joined us for a day of training at Stirling University. They will soon be accredited Coaching Assistants – ready, able and willing to support their clubs and local squads.

Well winter has arrived, and caused the last event of the 2022 Inter-Club Championships to be cancelled, but it did not stop our volunteer, Steve Scott, preparing the final Inter- Club Championship tables of 2022. See all the details in  2022 Scottish Inter Club Championship Table 

Our volunteers, Paul Hammond and Paul Caban, have been working hard collating all the results from this year’s SOL and SOUL events. We are very grateful for all their hard work and that of all the volunteers and clubs who made the events of 2022 happen.

Read on to find out how you and your club members have got on in 2022…

The fixtures calendar for next year has been finalised and we are very grateful to all of those clubs who have volunteered to host the key dates in the SOA calendar in 2023.

After the change to the Scottish Inter-Club Championship this year and before we formalise any dates for next years competition, we are looking for any feedback on the format of the event this year/ how it could be improved.  Please email fixtures@scottish-orienteering.org or nikki@scottish-orienteering.org with any comments before 31st December 2022.

Here are the dates for next year, to avoid disappointment, get them in your diary now!

As we enter the season of giving, we would like to remind new and present members that we can claim back Gift Aid against your SOA membership fee. It couldn’t be simpler to ensure your membership fee goes that little bit further please complete this gift aid declaration here

A mapping fund was set up following the 6-Day event in 2013 with the aim being to assist clubs with
mapping expenses, particularly those clubs who do not benefit from new or updated maps prepared
for a 6-Day event. There is currently just under £2,000 left in the mapping fund and the SOA would
like to invite clubs, in particular those who would satisfy the criterion noted above, to put forward
mapping proposals for consideration.

Applications should be sent to Nikki Howard at the SOA (nikki@scottish-orienteering.org) with full
details including the area(s) to be mapped, the estimated cost and the proposed timescale.

We are delighted to announce that Scottish Orienteering and British Orienteering have appointed Baroudeur Consultancy to lead on the ‘Making The Most of WOC 2024’ project. The initial project phase is 6 months to allow for scoping and consultation to identify opportunities and also create a delivery plan towards July 2024 and beyond. Some of the SOA staff and Board met with Baroudeur in Edinburgh earlier this week to identify key stakeholders and agree on the time lines of the project.

More details on the project brief are available here

After the 11th event in the Scottish Orienteering Urban League last weekend, hosted by Interlopers (INT) in Livingston, the latest positions in the Scottish Inter-Club Championship have been updated and can be found here.

The Interlopers event allowed the club to climb into 4th position in the large clubs table but the top positions remain the same with Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) in top spot and Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) in 2nd.  For the observant few you will note that the MAR Orienteering Club (MAROC) and Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR) positions have changed when a bug in the calculating code was ironed out and the current tables are now correct.

In the small clubs table, STAG – St Andrew’s Orienteering Club (Glasgow) – had a good weekend but they were matched point for point by Roxburgh Reivers (RR) and it looks like Roxburgh Reivers are within touching distance of the small clubs title. 

Last weekend ScotJOS gathered in Aberfoyle for their first camp of the 2022/23 session. Despite the
rain of last week, the weather brightened and the juniors enjoyed some very technical training.

Like most sports, engaging and retaining juniors and young adults is a challenge in orienteering. One of the best ways to address this issue is to look at good practice within other sports and how this can be applied to orienteering. This article is part of a short series of articles that will look at good practices within orienteering and within other sports to determine ways we can engage and retain people in orienteering. The first case study within this series is looking at Oban Sailing Club.