Roxburgh Reivers Orienteering Club

Urban League

kirstinmaxwell — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:25:21 +0000

5 Roxburgh Reivers (the Maxwell family and Douglas Henderson) decided to go south to the smooth streets of Sheffield and Lincoln rather than the rough Grampian forests last weekend and produced some good results on both days.

Sheffield City Race:

This race consisted of a prologue of less than 1k with up to 19 controls around a small housing estate followed by a normal sprint race of about 2.3k with total time deciding the placings and attracted almost 200 competitors..

Karen Maxwell produced the best Reivers performance in the prologue finishing 2^nd on the Junior Women’s course only 1 second down. Unfortunately Eileen miss-punched and Ian suffered a leg injury but both decided to run again in the 2^nd Sprint race. (Ian at a jog).

Karen again produced a good performance in the longer sprint race to again finish 2^nd loosing a further 14 seconds.

Results:

Karen:2^nd Junior Women

Kirstin:4^th Women’s Open

Douglas:7^th M55+

Ian:32^nd M40+

Eileen: MP (12^th W40+ Sprint race).

Lincoln City Race:

The next day’s race in Lincoln was a complete contrast with longer courses (M40+ 6.3k) around the narrow streets, cathedral and castle in the city centre.

All of the Reivers had good runs here with Karen winning the Junior Women’s class and Kirstin finishing only 37 seconds down on Women’s Open winner Jenny Johnston after being held up at a road crossing for at least 30 seconds.

Results:

Karen: 1^st Junior Women

Kirstin: 3^rd Women’s Open

Douglas: 3^rd M55+

Eileen: 4^th W40+

Ian: 10^th M40+

O Ringen report from Fiona Forrest

robinsloan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:32:27 +0000

O-Ringen 2010

This annual event was held in mid July in the central Swedish town of Orebro. Lying on the shores of Lake Hjalmaren, Orebro is located on the banks of the River Svatan and has a fortified castle forming a magnificent backdrop.

Over 11,000 competitors needed to be transported to the events each day, a task which never fails to impress. Generally the weather was wet with the campsite becoming a mud field and new mud trails forming in the forests. Luckily some people were staying in a hotel

The terrain was described as mature coniferous / pine forest with detailed rocky ground, typical of Swedish forests. Runnability was good.

Three Roxburgh Reivers took part. Sarah finished a very creditable 11th in D18L and Karen finished in the top half of a very large entry in D15. In D35L I was first non-Scandinavian but this was nearer the bottom of the class results.

It was an enjoyable week of orienteering, testing navigational skills. It was my first orienteering event since Easter (due to an ankle fracture) and was good to be back.

Fiona Forrest.

WMOC – verse 1

robinsloan — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:07:56 +0000

The Masters terrain was Alp, crag and grot

Five Reivers had entered – gave it all that they’d got,

Lindsey was best, her finals two “A”s

Jim, Rob and Robin had up and down days

And Doug(las)’s French was a winner, but (malheuresement) his “O”ing was not!

World Masters O Championships 2010

lindseyknox — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:20:13 +0000

A party of 5 Reivers (Douglas, Rob, Robin, Jim and Lindsey) travelled out via Geneva to WMOC2010 which was based this year in the watch-making city of La Chaux de Fonds. We chose to stay in a wine growers B&B in the lovely village of Boudry not far from the shores of Lake Neuchatel, and an easy tram ride into Neuchatel from where caught the train each day to the events. All transport within the area was free for the week on production of our race bib.

Our B&B

The first weekend was the Urban Sprint qualification and final. It was baking hot for the qualification in La Chaux despite the late afternoon start, and a software problem meant long waits at download for later starters like Lindsey (over 1 hour). Douglas unfortunately got the wrong map and lost 4 minutes swapping it. Robin and Lindsey produced the best performances, both finishing 11th in their heats and making the A finals. The final was held in Neuchatel, another baking hot day, the most notable result coming with Douglas’ win in M55D. The day was Swiss National Day and we admired evening fireworks from the vantage point of Boudry Castle.

Monday was a training day but it bucketed rain all day. Douglas, Rob and Robin braved the miserable weather but Jim and Lindsey spent the afternoon in the dry of the Time musuem (opened specially for the orienteers and with free entry).

Tuesday was Long Qualification 1 held on an area which was a mixture of trees, semi-open and open but with few contours so it was very difficult to read the ground. Douglas forgot to punch a control near a crossing point and was disqualified but would have had a good result otherwise. Robin and Lindsey finish in 24th and 18th places. A hot and sweaty Lindsey was interviewed by the local press after her run and was quoted in the paper next day.

Wednesday was Long Qualification 2. Fairly unpleasant forest with brashings covering most of it, and with patches of limestone crevasse below. Lindsey’s course had quite a few path running options which she took, the others weren’t so lucky. Final allocations: Rob in M45C, Douglas in M55E, Robin in M60B, Jim in M60E and Lindsey in W50A.

Thursday was another rest day so it rained heavily again. Rob and Robin went a gorge walk, Douglas went a hilly walk, and Jim and Lindsey took the train to a butterfly and tropical garden.

Rob and Lindsey on Final Day, with club tent

The Final area was similar to the brashed forest of LQ2 but with wet brashings now, slightly less rock and many more paths in irregular patterns, very confusing when trods appeared too. Lindsey has to relocate twice, losing 10 minutes each time. Douglas gets his money’s worth too but Rob has a good run to finish 15th. Final placings: Douglas 19th, Robin 28th, Jim 44th, Lindsey 71st. Rob and Douglas sample some of our hosts wine cellar before the evening meal, and appear on the communal terrace all smiles !

We travelled home on Saturday, spending the last day in Geneva. All in all a great holiday, disappointing Final area, and a lingering feeling of “if only…”

Results are here

That's a big watch !

ELOphant trophy 2010

lindseyknox — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:02:13 +0000

The Inter-club trophy for the East of Scotland clubs took place at John Muir Country Park on Saturday. Pity it clashed with the Eildons Hill Race and the Junior Inter Regional Championships in Wales. (John had a good result at the Eildons – 1st M50 and helped Teviotdale Harriers to the team prize for the first time in ages. And Kirstin had an excellent run in Wales, winning W18)

Anyway, RR mustered 3 and a bit runners (Lindsey and Jim plus new member Duncan Shiell). Susan Shiell isn’t yet a member but I would have fought the case if her score had been crucial ! In any event we did our best (unlike the English football team) but finished 4th, unable to replicate our win of 2006.

Results here

York Urban Race, May 31st

robinsloan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:42:53 +0000

I didn’t have enough brownie points banked to merit a detour through Perthshire on the way home from holiday in Argyll last weekend, so missed the SOC races at Rannoch. Instead, opted for a day trip to York for the Nopesport Urban League race in York on the Monday, along with a good entry of about 250. Catching an early morning train from Berwick, I was joined by Douglas Henderson at Newcastle. We Borderers miss out on rail travel – I was impressed to arrive in York bang on time and just a short distance from the assembly in the town centre. Douglas, as defending champion in the M55+ class and knows what he’s talking about, had advised an early start, before the streets got too busy – even then it was like Melrose High Street on Sevens day. Route choice might be quite different if you could anticipate the lanes choked with slow moving families.

The map covered all the old centre of York, plus a school and university campus, giving some interesting control sites in back alleys amongst the dustbins – possibly more secure from vandalism than on busy streets. I managed to flow reasonably well round the B course, after making a three dimesnional error at control 2 – being at the right spot but at the wrong level. Douglas should have been 4th, but for an electronic foul-up at control 11 and I was quite happy with 8th=.

So that’s the technical training over for the WMOC Sprint races in August, though I suspect the town centre of Neuchatel will be a bit less flat (Switzerland!) than York.

Sorry to miss the SOC as the terrain and courses looked great – and also to miss cheering John and Kirstin onto the podium. Well done both!

Scottish Championships 2010

lindseyknox — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:26:10 +0000

After a 10 year gap orienteering returned to the shores of Loch Rannoch for the 2010 Scottish Championships and one of the most enjoyable runs of the year (for me anyway despite a mistake near the end, and the hard run-in causing havoc with my sore calf). The severe winter weather in Perthshire meant the bracken was only just appearing, and consequently the underfoot conditions were fast. Mapping had been delayed because of lingering snow and at one point, apparently, postponing the event was discussed.

Roxburgh Reivers again acquitted themselves well, especially Kirstin who won W18 and John who had an amazing and very unusual dead heat for first place, with Martin Dean, on M50 after almost an hour of running. John might be ruing the 12 seconds that Martin took off him on the long run-in ! This takes John onto 3 wins in 3 years, a tremendous achievement. Douglas T pulled out another great run to take 2nd place on the Elite Men’s course, finishing just behind a Russian bloke, to take the Scottish Native trophy. Other runners making the top 5 were: Robert Cranston 3rd, Jim Knox 3rd, Sarah Tullie 4th, Lindsey Knox 5th.

Kirstin and John - 2010 winners

Jim and I had a nice meal in the Macdonald Loch Rannoch Hotel before the SOA AGM. The tea and shortbread were nice but the meeting went on a bit too long. Rob and Andrew, who were camping next to the Assembly area, ended up in the Dunalastair Hotel which helped avoid some of the heaviest rain.

Douglas Tullie - 2nd M21E

As a result of work and imminent exams the Tullie and Maxwell families headed home after the Individual Championships leaving a depleted crew for the Relay Championships but the sole Roxburgh Reivers team of Rob Cranston, Jim Knox and Andrew Armstrong excelled themselves to finish 2nd in the 15+ class. Unfortunately they had to be declared n/c because Rob took the place of an injured Lindsey and Rob’s handicap points are less than Lindsey’s.

All in all an excellent weekend of quality orienteering, a nice change from the terrain at SOLs 2 and 3.

Results are here

Bowhill Event Results

kirstinmaxwell — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:23:59 +0000

Although it was a very cold day there was a good turnout at the Maxwell’s Bowhill event recently. The results are as follows:

Yellow
1st MacDonald family 18:57
2nd Holley family 24:32
3rd Catriona MacDonald and Mhari Dempster 26:32
4th Jaffrey family 30:03
5th Katie and Robin Lothian 30:10
6th Jamie Cattermole and Neil Martin 44:39
7th Jenny Cattermole and Angie Martin 48:37

Orange
1st Gareth Owen 28:42
2nd Alan MacDonald 28:45
3rd Iain Cattermole and Jacob Stewart 59:40
4th Karen Maxwell and Ellie Thomson 1:08:11
5th James Purves 1:15:38

No paths
1st Rob Cranston 49:37
2nd William Hoffin 1:04:30

We hope to see everyone again this Saturday at the Selkirk Hill event.

Selkirk Hill 22/5/10

lindseyknox — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:45:28 +0000

See the right hand side panel for a link to the event details.

The map has been updated and extended. The Training course will be an Orange’y/Light Green course using tiny markers so you’ll need to be spot on with your navigation ! Good practice for the following weekend’s Scottish Championships.

SOL2 Dalbeattie

lindseyknox — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:58:01 +0000

Not sure if I’m the right person to be writing a report on SOL2 at Dalbeattie. I had been looking forward to it as I’d enjoyed the last SOL there, even the mention of thinning hadn’t put me off too much despite the fact that I hate orienteering over sticks. I just hadn’t twigged that the WHOLE forest was recently thinned and that there were branches everywhere ! In short, it wasn’t very pleasant and I had a rubbish run.

Kirstin had another good run though, winning Blue and W18 comfortably. Sarah got 2nd on W18. Robin also ran well, running up to Short Brown for BOC practice and beating Ian by 3 minutes. I managed 2nd W50 and Jim was 2nd in M60S. Andrew A has his driving licence back and drove to the event but dnf’d, and Rob got his money’s worth.

Results are here