Last Friday was the Scottish School Orienteering Festival. This year the festival was organised by St Andrews Orienteering Club, Glasgow (STAG) and was held at Drumpellier Country Park, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. This was the fourth time it has been held in Drumpellier Country Park having previously being held there in 2008, 2014 and 2017.

Issues with permissions might have meant that we headed for Airdrie for our 2nd Scottish Orienteering League (SOL) event of the year instead of the Trossachs but it didn’t mean we had any less fun! Forth Valley Orienteers rose to the last minute restriction of permissions in the Trossachs to bring us a new area at Limeriggs. The planner went as far as to say it had Swedish parts and while only some may have travelled far enough to reach them there was plenty to challenge.

A sheltered hall at the top of Morningside was an ideal location for the presentation of the 2022 Scottish Inter-Club Championship trophies by Peter Hodkinson and Richard Oxlade. Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO)were presented with the Senior and Junior Large Club Trophies (the juniors have to make sure the adults hand over the chocolates!), Roxburgh Reivers (RR) took home the Senior Small Club Trophy and East Lothian Orienteers (ELO) juniors very generously shared their Junior Small Club Trophy spoils with the other juniors in the room.

After the sheltered surroundings of Saturday’s trophy celebrations, the first event of the 2023 Scottish Inter-Club Championship took place in Holyrood Park at Edinburgh University Orienteering Clubs’s (EUOC) Seat Classic Race. The climb to the starts then saw competitors racing up and down and up and down Arthur’s Seat in gusty conditions.

On the 14/15th March, university orienteers from across the UK travelled to Wales for the annual British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Orienteering Championships. With competition spread across two days – individual races at Merthyr Mawr and relays at Clevedon Court Quarry – Scottish universities delivered an impressive set of results, alongside plenty of memorable moments. Teams from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Stirling made the journey down.

Thanks to both AUOC and EUOC for contributing the words for the article below.

Well February is always a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to weather and this year’s CompassSport Cup/ Trophy qualifier date (23rd February )was no different. Tayside Orienteering Club (TAY) had to content with weather warnings of wind and rain, trees landing on control sites and reports of those travelling from the north considering forecasts of high winds with rain, thunder and lightening for their journey.

The Scotland team converged on Cambus O’May near Ballater on Saturday 24th September ready to take on the 9 regions from England, plus Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Orienteering Champs came to the Lothians for the first time, for a weekend of sun, sea and sand around Gullane on 20th-21st May 2017.

Today features some key contributors that Forth Valley Orienteers have highlighted as members who are helping their club continue to flourish.

Young leaders have been stepping up to their new responsibilities – Sam Hunt and Grace Polwart supporting the FVO Stars coaching, with Sam also planning events, and Scarlett Kelly organising events.

Team Manager’s Report

Well done to all the team and thank you to our supporters over the weekend. Everyone put their all in to both races – and the disco! – and were a credit to Scotland. On Saturday at Simonside we had some excellent results on what was a very physically tough and demanding area.

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Scottish Orienteering’s Star Award Scheme is a personal performance award scheme aimed at encouraging and recognising skills development rather than event results. The L1 award can be delivered in a school or after-school setting, as well as by clubs, and can offer a great mechanism to help lead youngsters from participation at school towards their local club.

We have recently revamped the award to update the content and have developed a set of eye-catching resources for use by coaches, teachers and youth leaders. To help coaches understand the award and how they can deliver it we are organising a workshop for Thu 6^th May at 7pm.