Well some may say that the best things come in small packages and perhaps the same could be said about this weekend as it certainly packed a big punch, with the Scottish Middle Distance Championships counting towards the Scottish Inter-Club Championships on Saturday swiftly followed by the 2nd Compass Point Scottish Orienteering League event of 2023 on Sunday. Add to that the convergence of lots of students from as far afield as Cambridge for the 2023 BUCS individuals and relay orienteering event meant lots of excitement!
Some tense relay action near the finish Photo Credit Alison O’Neil
Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) held off the weather on Saturday to take us to Beecraigs Country Park near Linlithgow for the Scottish Middle Distance Championships. Full results can be found here with a full list of the Scottish Middle Distance Champions
The start may have been muddy but there was plenty of variety and the abundance of students made for a great atmosphere. The selection of cakes being sold certainly seemed to go down well with all in attendance!
The Scottish Middle Distance Championship was the third of the monthly events which form the Scottish Inter-Club Championship. This month’s results can be found on the Scottish Orienteering Championship’s page and using this link here
The Compass Sport Cup heat at Faskally – hosted successfully by St Andrew’s Orienteering Club (Glasgow) (STAG) – provided an excellent opportunity for clubs to gain some momentum in the 2023 Scottish Inter-Club Championship.
Faskally Photo Credit: Fredrik Nordvall Forsberg
This year’s new format sees one counting event per month with events spread geographically throughout the country. The best 20 club runners count towards a club’s score in the Senior Large Clubs and in the Senior Small Clubs it is the best 10 runners. In the Junior Large Clubs it is the best 6 runners and best 3 runs for the Junior Small Clubs. With one event per month there is ample opportunity for every member to help count towards their club’s total! Current standings can be found here.
In the Senior Large Clubs, Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC), after last year coming a close second to Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO), have taken an early lead with East Lothian Orienteers (ELO) lying in third and Moravian Orienteers (MOR) and Inverness Orienteering Club (INVOC) close behind.
In the Senior Small Clubs, Clydeside Orienteers (CLYDE) have the lead on Edinburgh University Orienteering Club (EUOC) with STAG and Badenoch and Strathspey Orienteering Club (BASOC) having only 29 points between them for third and fourth place. The current shock is that Roxburgh Reivers (RR), last year’s Senior Small Club winners find themselves in fifth place.
It will come as little surprise to most juniors that FVO are currently leading the Junior Large Clubs, but it is a close run things between MOR, ESOC and ELO for second, third and fourth place. Ayrshire Orienteering Club (AYROC) are currently leading the charge in the Junior Small Clubs from RR and BASOC.
The March event for the Scottish Inter-Club Championships is the Scottish Middle Championships being hosted by FVO in Beecraigs near Linlithgow. Entries close on 12th March so get your Scottish Middle Championships Entry in now!!
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.
In order to make the competition more inclusive to all forms of orienteering, the format of the Scottish Inter Club Championships (SICC) was changed for 2022 to include results for all five individual championships, the Compass Point Scottish Orienteering League, the Scottish Urban Orienteering League and regional events. This empowered members who don’t compete at championship level, or simply prefer urban or sprint orienteering, to contribute towards the overall result throughout the year.
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…
After the 11th event in the Scottish Orienteering Urban League last weekend, hosted by Interlopers (INT) in Livingston, the latest positions in the Scottish Inter-Club Championship have been updated and can be found here.
The Interlopers event allowed the club to climb into 4th position in the large clubs table but the top positions remain the same with Forth Valley Orienteers (FVO) in top spot and Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club (ESOC) in 2nd. For the observant few you will note that the MAR Orienteering Club (MAROC) and Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR) positions have changed when a bug in the calculating code was ironed out and the current tables are now correct.
In the small clubs table, STAG – St Andrew’s Orienteering Club (Glasgow) – had a good weekend but they were matched point for point by Roxburgh Reivers (RR) and it looks like Roxburgh Reivers are within touching distance of the small clubs title.
The 2022 Scottish Inter-Clubs Championship continued its successful campaign, with events in Inverness and Cumbernauld over the last two weekends.
With many of the top athletes occupied at the British Championships in Buckinghamshire and the Northern Championships in Northumberland, there was an opportunity for those who remained at home to boost their points total, as INVOC staged a regional forest race at Craig Leach, followed by STAG’s Scottish Urban Orienteering League fixture in western Cumbernauld.
STAG hosted a SOUL at Cumbernauld on 3rd AprilRead More…
The 2022 Scottish Sprint Championships were held in Dundee on Sunday, as part of the Sprint Scotland orienteering festival. The races acted as the first international trial for the GB senior national team, and newly-appointed BOF Performance Director Bernie Dietzeig was in town to watch a star-studded field of athletes race on a hilly course at Balgray.
A competitor in the Scottish Sprint Championships runs past Dundee’s Mills Observatory
There was a good division of the spoils at the end of the day, with no fewer than 11 clubs having an athlete on the champions podium. Results from all three races at Sprint Scotland can be found here (Scottish Sprint Champs is race 3), and a full list of champions is here
The races also counted for points in the 2022 Scottish Inter-Clubs Championship, and league tables after 13 events are here. There’s no change at the top of the Large Clubs division, although FVO made ground on ESOC’s lead. The Small Clubs division continues to be intriguing, as ELO retook the lead from RR after day 1, only for RR to snatch it back following the championship event.
The next SICC event will be a regional race organised by INVOC on Sunday at Creag Leach and Craig Dunain, although this clashes with the British Championships in England, so many of the top athletes may be occupied elsewhere.
The Scottish qualification round of the 2022 Compass Sport Cup and Trophy brought more than 400 competitors to Callander Crags for a memorable race in tough underfoot conditions.
Callander Crags (image (c) Solway Orienteers)
FVO brought out a new map of the area, but heavy rain in the hours leading up to the race meant that the steep slopes below the crags, which demarcate the Scottish Midlands from the Highlands, were quite slippery in places.
FVO won the Compass Sport Cup round by 76 points from ESOC, although as FVO is also hosting the final, and has a reserved place, both clubs progress. The Compass Sport Trophy round was the most competitive of any of the eight national qualifiers, with no fewer than 15 clubs chasing one of the three final berths. Three-time winners Interlopers booked their final place by winning the competition, including overall victories on both Open courses, and they are joined in the final by MAROC and Moravian, who were separated by only four points at the end of the day.
Results including WinSplits and Routegadget can be found on the FVO website
The event also counted for points in the 2022 Scottish Inter-Club Championship, and ESOC continues to lead the way in the Large Clubs division from FVO, who closed up slightly on their lead. INT now has more than 100,,000 points logged and remains 3rd.
The overall lead in the Small Clubs division has changed hands once again, as RR got in front of ELO to establish a narrow 400 point advantage. The Junior competition for small clubs is still led by ELO, with TAY moving into second position. Almost all of the clubs are now in play in the Junior Inter-Clubs, with only the student teams and TINTO yet to get off the mark.
The 2022 Scottish Inter-Club Championship continues to gain momentum, with a double header of fixures on both sides of the country at the weekend.
Dumbarton, venue for CLYDE’s SOUL races
CLYDE hosted the second race in the Scottish Urban League at Dumbarton, and ESOC continued their busy start to 2022 with a SoSOL event at Derghorn in the Pentland Hills.
Battle is well and truly joined in the Small Clubs division; RR fought their way to the top of the table following the SOUL races, only for ELO to stage a counter-attack to regain the lead after the Dreghorn event. STAG and TAY also picked up valuable points across the two events, while KFO remains in contention, despite being short-handed.
ESOC’s lead in the Large Clubs division is now more than 27,000 points, and they have the top five points scorers in the entire league, and seven of the top ten. However, the early season fixtures have gone very much in their favour, with six of the nine rounds in the Lothian area, three of them hosted by ESOC themselves. FVO remains in second place, and CLYDE made major ground to get back within touching distance of MAROC in mid-table.
FVO and ELO continue to lead the Junior Inter-Clubs, while ESOC has established a 2nd team in the Large Clubs competition.
The events come thick and fast, and the next SICC rounds will be an FVO double header this weekend, with the Scottish qualification round of the Compass Sport Cup and Trophy at Callander on Saturday, followed by a Middle distance regional race at Falkirk Wheel on Sunday
League tables after nine events can be found on this link
