The Scottish Student Championships 2022

It has been an exciting weekend for the Scottish University orienteering clubs as the Scottish Student Championships were held for the first time in three years. The 2022 event was of particular significance as it was the first Scottish Student Orienteering Championships to be affiliated with Scottish Student Sport in 10 years. Six Universities took part in the event: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Strathclyde and Durham as a guest University. The event was sponsored by Durty Events who provided the championships with a new trophy for the overall winning university 

The new Scottish University Championships trophy sponsored by Durty Events
Read More…

2022 Senior Home Internationals (SHIs) – Find out more..

The Senior Home Internationals is the annual competition between teams from England, Ireland (Northern Ireland and Eire), Scotland, Wales – the home nations. It would normally involve 3 men and 3 women in the M/W 20 age category (aged 20 and under) and 6 senior men and 6 senior women (aged 21 years and over). It is an important event for offering international competition opportunity and experience to many up and coming British and Irish elite athletes.

This year’s competition had a number of challenges – the location near Southampton (almost as far as you can get for most of our athletes!), the November date (out of competition season for the top runners), and the clashes with various other competitions (such as JWOC and cross country races) and life events (university open days) – all of which made selecting a competitive team very difficult. Despite asking a number of athletes, we were unable to fill the team in M21 or W21, but fortunately Alex Carcas took a day trip out from working in London, and Lorna Eades kindly stepped up from helper role to make sure that we at least had 3 full relay teams for men and women.

Two of the 2022 SHI relay teams:
Top: Mairi Eades, Fiona Eades and Kirsten Strain, Bottom: James Hammond, Graham Gristwood and Alasdair McLeod
Photo Credit: Murray Strain
Read More…

The sun shines on the 2022 Scottish Score Champions

2022 Scottish Score assembly Photo Credit: Heidi Ross

Well they say that the sun shines on the righteous.  The forecast for Sunday did not portend well and most who travelled to Cumbernauld had a damp journey there but the sun emerged in time for the 2022 Scottish Score Championships!  

Read More…

Senior Home International Team

We are excited to announce the Senior Home International team. The team heads down to England this weekend to represent Scotland in the Senior Home Internationals.  On the Saturday the team will compete in relays at Hogmoor, followed by individuals on Sunday at the New Forest hosted by Southampton Orienteering Club. 

Best of luck to everyone taking part!

Read More…

Roxburgh Reivers Earlston High School Project

The Scottish Orienteering Association has a small pot of money available each year for clubs to support the development of grassroots orienteering. These sports development grants are funded by sportscotland to enable clubs to make a tangible difference in their area. Roxburgh Reivers (RR) applied to the SOA development fund last year to support the appointment of a club development officer to initiate and deliver their Earlston High School project. The application was successful. They additionally sourced funding from Build Back a Better Borders, Live Borders, Toddleburn Wind Farm and the Orienteering Federation to make the project possible.  

A picture containing grass, outdoor, sky, field

Description automatically generated

The project involved RR hosting orienteering at Earlston High School during school time which was attended by P7s at each of the cluster primary schools as part of their transition to High School after the summer. This was followed up by ‘Come and Try’ (CATI) events hosted at each of the cluster primary schools. The CATI events would then feed pupils into the RR so they could continue to engage with orienteering. 

The cluster Primary Schools session at Earlston High School was very successful. With 158 pupils taking part on a sunny day, activities could take place outside. During the session pupils could try out three different activities including linear, score courses and an orienteering maze. The linear and score courses were particularly well received from pupils, who enjoyed using a dibber and getting a print out of their splits at the end. The maze had mixed feedback as some pupils were too slow creating a queue meanwhile others loved it and raced round. The maze format may work better for smaller groups. 

Giving pupils a positive orienteering experience in schools is great, however this needs to be followed up to engage them in the sport and get them involved in the local club. In order to do this the next stage of the project was a series of CATI events at Earlston High Schools cluster primary schools. The events were at the schools to take the activity to the pupils rather than them having to travel. If they did need to travel it wouldn’t be far. Come and try it events were held on a mix Wednesday, Saturday and Sundays to suit a range of availability. The CATI events were free of charge to pupils and their parents. 

The CATI events took place throughout August and were promoted through the RR mailing list, Facebook and through posters around the schools where the events were hosted. Two of the schools circulated the information about the events through their Parents Group App. These were also the schools which had the best turn out, highlighting the importance of involving their parents when engaging children in orienteering. Pupils were also given a flyer after the first session about the CATI events. 

Apart from the first CATI, they were well attended. Over the month 81 beginners attended the CATI events however, there wasn’t a huge number of P7’s attending. Many people commented that they’d always thought they’d like to try orienteering. At one of the CATI events 26 newcomers came along. 

Following on from the CATI series RR have hosted one local event where two people from the series attended and ran an orange. Most people who attended the CATI events gave the RR their email address and are now on their mailing list for more follow up activity and events.

Overall the project has been a success and has increased awareness of the RR and orienteering in the area. Going forward the club is planning on implementing a similar series of events for next year and learning from feedback from teachers, parents and pupils to make next year’s programme even stronger.  

The club is planning on implementing a schools league next year between the Earlston High School cluster primary schools. This is where an orienteering training session would occur during school time and out of school pupils can attend local events hosted by the club and compete for their school. Hopefully this will motivate more P7s to come along to the events. Hosting a Schools League has been very successful for other clubs such the South Yorkshire Orienteers. We are very excited to see how the schools league goes next year for RR!

At SOA we are very keen to support the development of grassroots orienteering. If you have a project in mind or want to discuss an idea please contact us or submit your applications to Fran.Loots@scottish-orienteering.org. Applications for financial support for club development projects are welcomed from SOA clubs, groups of clubs, regional associations, or squads.  Depending on demand, the likely upper limit for funding is usually around £1000.

View from the Chair

Keith Dawson, SOA Chair

When I started orienteering 47 years ago I had no idea of the riches the sport would gift to me. I honestly cannot imagine my life without this wonderful sport of ours. I will be forever grateful to the two sixth form teachers who introduced me to the sport and then further encouraged me. The experiences of places visited, races and events completed, events planned and organised, forests mapped and athletes coached. A motivation to keep fit, the great people I have met, the sense of club community and of course the great fun, have all enriched my life beyond measure.

Having been a member of clubs in four different countries, and orienteered in over thirty, I know that wherever I travel in the world I can find a community of like minded people with whom I can share and enjoy the fun. How do you feel Orienteering has enriched your life? To introduce a newcomer to our sport and encourage them is a wonderful timeless gift to bestow.

Read More…

ScotJOS Selections 2022/23

Congratulations to the following juniors who have been selected to be part of the Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) for 2022/23.

The ScotJOS team are looking forward to working with the new squad members to support their orienteering development and we hope to have a lot of fun along the way as well as plenty of hard work.    

Read More…