The university club is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. 

Anyone that has been a part of EUOC past or present is invited to join us to celebrate 60 amazing years of orienteering, friendships and amazing memories. The main celebration is the annual AROS Ball which is being held on Saturday 9th November at Marchmont St Giles’ Parish Church (TBC). There will be ceilidh dancing 8:30-11:30 and food provided (TBC). It is sure to be a night to remember! There is also going to be an informal 2×2 relay earlier in the day in Bonnyrigg.

We know that this is short notice but would be great to see as many people (from as many eras) as possible! 

For more info (including a form to sign up) click this link: AROS Ball 2024 – Bulletin 1. 

Our great sport always needs people to help introduce others to a fantastic new activity or support those already participating to be the best they can.  These people are our coaches and we have a variety of courses to train you to join their ranks – it’s easier than you think.

With the 2025 calendar having been pulled together slightly later than anticipated due to the World Orienteering Championships having taken all of the focus earlier in the year, controllers are now requested to have a look at the opportunities available. A spreadsheet of opportunities has been prepared which allows controllers to see what organising and planning opportunities may be available in order to keep up their experience.

The spreadsheet is located on SOA website in Resources/ Event officials and rules/Event controllers/Controlling Opportunities

Following feedback on the need for SI training Robin Strain has also offered to answer queries from controllers at an online meeting on the evening of 2nd November.  David Rosen has provided advice on the subject on the BOF website Sport Ident Advice for Event Advisers and Controllers.  Any queries to be discussed in the meeting should be forwarded to nikki@scottish-orienteering.org before 21st October to allow Robin time to consider the queries.

On 7th/ 8th September saw an opportunity for the Scottish athletes to compete on home turf, for the Senior Home Internationals, as it was Scotland’s turn to host the event. Forth Valley Orienteers were hosting the event with the individual races taking part at Edinchip and the relays at Callandar Crags.

David Robertson of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) is never one to blow his own trumpet! So much so that after the award of the President’s medal to him at the AGM he was asked to send in a photo so we could do a post and we haven’t seen it yet!

Last weekend saw a Scottish Junior team make their way to the South West for the Junior Inter Regional Championships. This event takes place every year and sees juniors from all 12 regions of the UK come together to compete for their region but most importantly to socialise with fellow orienteers from their regions and beyond. With over 200 juniors attending and everyone staying in the same location orienteering is on the agenda but catching up on their social life is just as high!

Saturday saw the individual event take place at Mallards Pike in the Forest of Dean. The terrain was runnable with a network of ditches and old mine workings to test their navigation. As is standard the juniors set up camp, got down to face painting to ensure everyone was in the team spirit and provided vocal support to all coming through the spectator control.

By Peter Molloy (Forth Valley Orienteers)

An impressive total of 10 Scottish or Scotland-based athletes have just returned from competing for GB in Kuopio, Finland, where the final round of this year’s Orienteering World Cup was held. This set of races was doubly significant for the team as Kuopio is the host of the 2025 World Orienteering Championships, thus allowing runners to get a feel for the terrain and planning challenges they will be up against in July of next year. 

Having spent a few days familiarising themselves with the characteristics of forest in this region of Finland, which can offer both varying runnability and visibility whilst still always (nearly always) leaving you with a smile on your face, the first race was the long distance. The 20 degrees drop in temperature from the European Championships was greatly appreciated, and GB capitalised on this with some strong performances. 

Ralph Street (17th) and Megan Carter-Davies (22nd) produced the strongest results of the day, however they were followed closely by Scots Josh Dudley (MarOC) in 37th and Grace Molloy (FVO) in 35th. A special mention should also go to Matthew Gooch and Eilidh Campbell (both EUOC and MarOC) for making their senior international debuts in this race and achieving 68th and 94th respectively. There isn’t much more of a brutal start than racing the Scandinavians in Scandinavia, so they should look forward to building on these results in future. 

Following a rainy rest day the athletes were back out into the forest on Saturday for the middle distance; a discipline which is perhaps the hardest to achieve a strong result since the margin for error is so vanishingly small. Josh Dudley was the top performer for the Scottish men, finishing in 48th despite only being 5:50 down on the winner. Saturday was also the chance for Euan Tryner (EUOC) to make his senior international debut and despite catching a cold in the lead up to the race he turned in a solid performance to come 70th. Grace Molloy, with no help whatsoever from the Norwegian runner starting two minutes behind her, improved on Thursday’s result to sneak into the top 30, whilst Jo Sheperd (INVOC) ran well to finish 52nd. Rachel Brown (EUOC) finished in 67th whilst Niamh Hunter (also EUOC) finished in 85th. 

Sunday’s relay promised and duly delivered fast and exciting head-to-head racing. The men were off first and all produced solid performances: GBR1, anchored by Josh Dudley, finished as 8th nation, with GBR3 featuring Peter Molloy (FVO) and Matthew Gooch finishing only 3 minutes behind them. In the women’s race GBR1, featuring Jo Shepherd and Grace Molloy, likewise finished as 8th nation, with Fiona Bunn recovering from previous ankle soreness to run a strong anchor leg for GBR2.

The Club Networking Day held on 14th September together with an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to elect a new Chair of the Board and two new directors.  

The day started briefly with the EGM which saw those present vote to amend the Articles of Association as follows:-

• To remove the restriction on a maximum of two directors from one club and replace it with a statement encouraging the Board to encompass representation from as many clubs as possible.
• to provide that in the event that there are no candidates for the post of Chair or President the membership may by special resolution appoint a candidate to the post of Chair until the next AGM a candidate who would not otherwise be eligible. 

There was discussion about whether a maximum limit on the percentage of the SOA Board should be included in the articles but it was felt that practically this was unlikely and the additional statement obliged the Board to be as diverse as practical.

Following the amendment of the articles Richard Oxlade was elected as Chair until the next Annual General Meeting.  Pat Bartlett was then elected as Finance Director and Katherine Ivory as Marketing and Communications Director.  Welcome to Pat and Katherine and our thanks to Keith Dawson and Ben Hartman for all their efforts, especially related to WOC 2024 and ensuring its sensible delivery, as Chair and Finance Director respectively.

After completion of the EGM those present then got to the main business of the day – the Club Networking Event.  The new Scottish Orienteering Strategy, which will be launched in November, was briefly outlined to those present and the members from 11 clubs got down to the important business of the day discussing current issues and swapping information which all tied into the Scottish Orienteering.  The topics of discussion were

• how to simplify events
• welcoming newcomers
• the benefits of club development officers
• marketing and social media
• volunteer training and
• whether we are doing too many events. 

All those there felt they gained useful points to take back to clubs and especially from Nic Crossley, the coordinator for the Scottish 6 Day in Deeside 2025 who was able to provide social media/ marketing guidance from the experience she has gained through putting on ultra/ trail events over the years.

We will look to hold another Club Networking Day next year to provide the opportunity for clubs to come together and exchange ideas.  Thanks go to the efforts of Suzanne Robins Bird, our Coaching and Volunteer Officer, for organising the event and Clive Masson for providing the lunchtime orienteering activity which tested everyone with false control descriptions and blanked off areas of the map.

Clubs are always looking for more volunteers to take on event official roles and help spread the load. Would you like to help out but don’t know where to start? Our accessible courses, run by experts are all designed to help ease you into new volunteering roles in a non threatening learning environment.

Last Saturday, SOA organised an Introduction to Orienteering course with the British Deaf Association Scotland. Held in Alexandra Park in Glasgow, members of the deaf community came along to learn all about orienteering and how they could go about teaching it to their peers! For most, this was their first experience of orienteering so the course began with the basics of understanding maps, along with a shout out to the Deaflympics which orienteering is a part of. The day progressed outside where competitive spirits were encouraged with some games – here provided a great example of the adaptability of these games to make them inclusive for all when musical-o proved a great success! The concluding challenge was a group task in which star and loop exercises were planned for each other to have a go at – including their first efforts at having to hang controls.

This was a great day with loads of learning generated for both the participants and IntrO tutors. It’s also wonderful to see how orienteering can provide an inclusive and welcoming opportunity for everyone! There was lots of enthusiasm which we hope will spread through the deaf community.

A huge thanks to DRP Transitions and the BDA Scotland for helping to organise this and to Judy Bell (IntrO tutor) for putting in so much effort to ensure the course content met the needs of the participants whilst also being fun, exciting and informative. SOA would like to thank STAG Orienteering Club for the use of the map of Alexandra Park and Terry for all his help and advice in choosing what proved to be an excellent venue. Thanks too to John Gormlie and Krystian of the Milnbank Housing Association for use of their facilities. This project was jointly funded by BDA, BOF and SOA.