The third installment of the 2025 Community Conversation programme is on Monday 3rd March at 1930 and you can now sign up to attend.

The discussion will be once again be on the theme of development, but this time the focus will be on how to retain and progress current members. Mary Williams, the Development Director, will be chairing the discussion. This will be a great opportunity to share experience, and discuss successes, challenges, and ideas for practical support that SOA could usefully provide for clubs. Perhaps you’ve come across some great tools that have helped achieve positive results, or have gained some valuable learning from things you’ve tried that would be of interest to other clubs.

For those who attended the Club Conference on 15th April, a short summary of the data gathered and project proposal for Making the Most of WOC 2024 was provided to aid discussions on the day. The SOA Board are however aware that for most members they may have engaged with the data gathering carried out but have not had the opportunity to hear more about the results and the proposal. To that end, as previously indicated there will be a community conversation taking place on Monday 8th May at 7pm online providing a summary of the work carried out by Baroudeur and allow a discussion on the data gathered.

The days, weeks and months of training are complete; maps have been poured over and endless potential courses analysed, but now there is little more the athletes from all over the world can do to prepare for the World Orienteering Championships which start in Sarpsburg, Norway on Tuesday 13 August.

You can now watch Scotland’s first orienteering event to be broadcast on live TV on catch-up, after BBC Scotland’s “The Adventure Show” broadcast the coverage on the evening of Friday, 28 June.

A well-organised Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering 2019 saw a huge effort put in by many volunteers from across the south of England and as far afield as Moravian. Four days of racing, plus two days of Trail O (Temp O and Pre O) proved fairly demanding for anyone who went for the full weekend!

The idea of competitive pairs was mooted last year and we were delighted when Edinburgh University readily agreed to trial the concept at their Big Weekend. So why would anyone be interested in running in a competitive pair? It turns out there are lots of reasons!

The last Scottish Orienteering Urban League (SOUL) event of 2025 was hosted by Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club at Newhaven this year and saw the 2025 SOUL League winners receiving their trophies.

The event was based at Ganavan Bay on the outskirts of Oban. Thankfully we were blessed with great weather which made it fun for spectators, who had views of the runners in one direction and out to Mull and Lismore in the other.

The terrain was physical underfoot which added to the challenge and split the field at times. This year, the majority of teams were actually in the shortened 8 person version so FVO had little difficulty in claiming the trophy.

Prizes were awarded to the following teams and individuals:

11 Person

1st – Forth Valley Orienteers – Winners of 11 pairs of outdoor socks courtesy of Outside Edge – a great outdoor shop based in Oban and run by orienteer Dave Bleazard.

2nd – The Kelts (KFO+ELO+Tay+Stag)

8 Person

1st – Interlopers

2nd – Moravian

3rd – EckO

Course Winners

Green – Male: Arnis Saltmuns, Female: Kirsten Strain, Junior: Briony Kincaid

Light Green – Male: Jon Cross, Female: Fiona Berrow, Junior Male: Tom Lines, Junor female: Roanne Lilley

Tartan – Male: Murray Strain, Female: Claire Ward

Orange – Male : Steven McHarg, Female: Peggy Purves, Junior Male: Daniel Baird, Junior Female: Eilidh Shearer

Congratulations to all prize winners.

Results       Winsplits      Team Results

The good news is SEDS intend to organise the Inter Club Relay again next year so expect it to be bigger and b

etter!

We’d be grateful for any views on how to improve the event. We feel either 11 or 8 person per team (which would you prefer?) would be better rather than both and have some other ideas on how to improve it. Get in touch with us via seds@scottish-orienteering.org

Final Information

***Sponsored by Outside Edge, Oban***

Location and Parking

Ganavan Beach, near Oban

PA34 5TB,

NM862326

Follow the A85 into Oban, go straight ahead at the first roundabout. The second roundabout is at the shorefront. Take a right here; you should see the Cathedral to your right and the sea to your left. Follow this road for just under 3km. Parking is in the public car park at the end of the road at Ganavan Beach. If it’s a beautiful day and the car park fills up, retrace your steps along the road and find a space after the double yellow lines finish (about 500m). The assembly is adjacent to the car park, in the fields inland.

Organiser: Jess Tullie, SEDS (& BASOC)

Planner: James Tullie, SEDS (& BASOC)

Controller: Ross Lilley, EckO

Registration

On arrival, please can a team leader go to registration to pick up numbers, hired SI cards and any other additional information. Bring your own safety pins please. Any changes to team composition can be made here by 12.30 at the very latest.

Start

There will be a mass start for both relays (8 and 11 person) at 1pm. First leg runners’ call up will be at 12.45.

Spectators

Competitors on the tartan course will run nearby the arena roughly half way round the course, with competitors on both the light green and green passing the arena about two thirds of the way round. The orange doesn’t have a spectator control but incoming runners will be able to be seen from a fair distance away.

Course Details and Race Procedure

8 person relay misses out leg 3 (i.e. 3 runners).

All courses are gaffled apart from the orange (TD3).

To be competitive the team must comprise 11 (or 8) different members of the same SOA club. Non SOA Clubs, teams comprising members of more than one club and teams with runners doing more than one leg are welcome, but not eligible for prizes. There are no age group constraints.

First leg runners will start in a usual, mass start. When your first leg runner returns, they hand over to all 3 runners on leg 2 (one each of orange, light green and green). You then decide who hands over to whom for the 3^rd (and 4^th) legs.  For example, your orange runner may return first and handover to the 3^rd leg green runner. You decide, and you don’t need to tell us beforehand! Only when all runners on the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd (and 4^th) have finished can the last leg runner start.

We will attempt to keep you up-to-date on how the teams are getting on, but please do appreciate it’s not that easy to keep a track of!

Toilets

Public toilets are available in the car park

Safety

All courses will either cross or run alongside the tarmac cycle track. There will be no marshals, please look both ways as you cross for fast moving bikes and other people.

The area is well used by walkers, please be courteous.

There may be some cows in the area. They are heifers with no calves. It’s our intention that they will be herded away from the area covered by the courses.

First aid

Both the organiser and planner are first aid qualified, one of whom will always be in the competition arena. The closest A&E is on the south side of Oban: Lorn & Islands Hospital, Glengallan Road, Oban PA34  4HH.

Timing

SI will be used. Each team member must use a different SI card. Hire should be indicated on form sent out by Robin Strain.

Prizes

There will be prizes for the top 3 teams in each relay as well as prizes for other performances during the day. We are pleased to have Outside Edge sponsoring the 1^st prize of the 11-man relay. Outside Edge is a specialist outdoor sports shop in Oban, why not pop along after your run: www.outsideedgeoban.com If you do, do mention us!!

We will hold the prize giving as shortly after everybody has finished as possible.

Thank you to EckO for letting us use one of their areas for this event.

All money raised will go towards SEDS (Scottish Elite Development Squad) to help with SHI’s and training weekends.

Thank you to Robin Strain for helping with the timing.

Orienteering Live on BBC TV

For the first time in UK TV history, orienteering was broadcast live on Friday June 28 as the JOK Chasing Sprint was shown on TV and online, via the new BBC Scotland TV channel. Here’s our run-down of the event.

A full team of 24 made the trip down to JIRCs at Cranleigh near Gatwick at the weekend and had to make room in their luggage to bring all 5 trophies back to Scotland. Read More…