Falkirk Wheel provides stunning backdrop for those racing to Score!

Forth Valley Orienteers brought the Scottish Orienteering Championship season to a close in the shadow of the Falkirk Wheel with the Scottish Score Orienteering Championships. Unfortunately autumnal weather meant there was no sun to cast any shadows but they did get the delights of contrasting the feat of 21st century engineering against the roman history of the Antonine Wall while they got wet! They even got the option to use the Roughcastle Tunnel as a route choice which is 180m long and forms part of the canal tow path.

A Score Orienteering competition is planned so that participants are challenged to visit as many controls as possible in any order in a fixed time period. The planning should mean that no one person can visit all the controls within the time period. The event is planned to cater for all age classes from M/W10 to M/W90.

The map of the area had been newly extended in time for the event and thankfully for those running FVO had arranged for the electric fences on the area to be turned off for the event! Participants had a varied time constraint depending on their age – from 45 minutes for the under 14s through to 70 minutes for the M/W 20s, 21s and 35s. Different controls were awarded different points depending on their location and therefore tactics and consideration of optimal routes were in important in deciding who could claim the trophies available.

There were lots of smiling faces despite the weather and the Scottish Orienteering Score Championships has an amazing variety of trophies to be awarded. Well done to all who took part and a huge thank you to those hardy volunteers who made it all possible especially Neil Polwart the planner, Ted Finch the organiser and Clive Masson from Tayside Orienteering Club who controlled the event. Caroline Clarke of FVO who organises all of the trophies for the Scottish Orienteering Championships is one of our often overlooked volunteers who took over from Sally Lindsey a few years ago and now does an amazing job keeping track of who has the trophies and making sure they are retrieved for the next event.