At a successful SOA AGM on Monday, Richard Oxlade the President of Scottish Orienteering announced that Jon Cross of Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) had been awarded the SOA President’s Medal for 2022.
His selection was based on the following nomination:-
“On behalf of Forth Valley Orienteers, we wish to nominate Jon Cross for consideration as a candidate for the 2023 Scottish Orienteering President’s Medal. For the past 24 years, Jon has served as the FVO team captain, and during his captaincy, the club presence in major events has increased exponentially, due in no small measure to Jon’s diligence and extensive range of contacts within the sport. In Jon’s first year as captain, FVO was able to enter five teams to the Scottish Relays with the best place a 3rd in the ad-hoc; by this year, the number had increased to 20 teams, with seven medals across the board. Perhaps Jon’s greatest achievement as team captain was in 2015 when, after overseeing eight consecutive victories in the Compass Sport Trophy (for “small” clubs), Jon masterminded an FVO win in the Compass Sport Cup, while we were still strictly speaking a “small” club. From 2015, when we had 97 members, the club has continued to grow to the level that we are now a bona-fide “large” club with more than 250 members, and this is due in part to the massive effort that Jon puts in, year on year, in recruiting athletes to run in major competitions for FVO. Jon has the deepest address book in British orienteering, and can always be relied upon to recruit a spare runner on the few occasions that we’re short a number. Jon served a two year term as Club President during an extremely difficult period for the sport nationally, with COVID protocols restricting what we could do, and thanks to his innovative leadership, we emerged from the lockdown period in an even stronger shape than when we went in. Key to this was the expansion of the Club Development Officer role from one day a week to two days, and Jon line-managed the CDO and ensured that all activities related directly to the long-term vision of the club.
In late 2021, when it appeared there would be no British or Scottish Relay Championship, for the first time since the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, Jon took it upon himself to (almost single-handedly) organise a stripped-down version of the championship to enable continuity of the event, with nearly 50 teams taking part. Jon stepped down in 2022 from his role as a selector for the GB Squad after more than 15 years, many of which were spent as Chairman of Selectors. During the pandemic he lent his support to the Performance programme as volunteer team liaison, helping with the considerable logistical issues of getting athletes abroad to attend international competitions. Jon is one of the Directors of Masterplan Adventure responsible for staging the Sprint Scotland series, Race the Castles, Coasts and Islands and other quality events. In 2019 he and Graeme Auckland contrived to have the Adventure Show stream the JOK Chasing Sprint live on TV, from Callendar Park Falkirk, complete with live commentary, which greatly enhanced the public profile of the sport. Jon’s involvement at the highest levels of the sport continues, as he will be one of the planners for WOC 2024 in Edinburgh, and was in Denmark last summer to cheer on Team GB and to share good practice with the Danish organisers. Jon is always collaborative in his approach to orienteering activities, and is very willing to share his extensive experience with new event officials. He recently qualified as a level C controller, and will play a major role going forward in enhancing the profile of our club, and the sport nationally.”
Many congratulations from everyone in the SOA to Jon on being awarded the President’s medal for his contribution to orienteering in Scotland.
What a way to start the 2023 Compass Point Scottish Orienteering League (SOL)! There was snow, some great terrain (albeit the snow hid some of the marshes a little too well) and the sun even deigned to show its face after a cold start at Errochty.
Errochty Forest in the snow later in the day Photo Credit: STAGRead More…
Well winter has arrived, and caused the last event of the 2022 Inter-Club Championships to be cancelled, but it did not stop our volunteer, Steve Scott, preparing the final Inter- Club Championship tables of 2022. See all the details in 2022 Scottish Inter Club Championship Table
Scottish Inter Club Championship Senior TrophiesRead More…
Our volunteers, Paul Hammond and Paul Caban, have been working hard collating all the results from this year’s SOL and SOUL events. We are very grateful for all their hard work and that of all the volunteers and clubs who made the events of 2022 happen.
Read on to find out how you and your club members have got on in 2022…
In the Large clubs, Forth Valley Orienteering Club (FVO) remains at the top of the table with Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) trailing by 18,0000 points in second position which is possibly too large a gap to make up in such a short period. Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR) and Mar Orienteering Club (MAROC) lie in third and fourth position respectively but are in all likelihood too far off the pace to challenge the top two at this stage given the location of the last few events. There is however potential for MAROC to overhaul MOR and take third place if they can get a better turn out for the final fixture at Balmedie.
For the Small clubs the race for the title is still wide open! Roxburgh Reivers (RR) are at the top of the table lying 2400 points ahead of the second placed St Andrew’s Orienteering Club Glasgow (STAG). The last weekend proved a good scoring weekend for STAG but with four of the last five events based in the Lothian region can they get the counting members to travel? East Lothian Orienteering Club (ELO) are currently in fourth position and 12,000 points off the pace, but they are hosting two of the remaining five events this may give them the opportunity to climb up the table as it gives some of their lower scorers an opportunity closer to home to shine.
The picture is similar to the seniors for the Junior Large clubs table with FVO topping the table but MAROC lying in second. MOR have six runs in hand which could allow them to overcome MAROC if they can get their runners out.
Whilst in the Junior small clubs, ELO are at the top of the table and as we said before as they are hosting two of the last five events this might give the edge to hold on to the first spot. RR have potential to gain a few more counting runners as events are relatively local but possibly not enough to challenge.
Looking to the overall individual scores, the juniors are leading the way with James Hammond of FVO in top spot, Finlay McLuckie of MOR climbing after a great run at the weekend into second and Sam Hunt of FVO being knocked down to third. The only senior in the top five being Will Hensman of FVO.
As we near the end of the year your feedback on the structure of the Inter-Club Championships would be appreciated. This is the first year of the competition in this format and are looking to incorporate any learning/ concerns into the structure of next year’s format. Please direct any feedback to either Steve Scott at fixtures@scottish-orienteering.org or Nikki Howard at nikki@scottish-orienteering.org before 31st December.
