Month: November 2022

As we enter the season of giving, we would like to remind new and present members that we can claim back Gift Aid against your SOA membership fee. It couldn’t be simpler to ensure your membership fee goes that little bit further please complete this gift aid declaration here

A mapping fund was set up following the 6-Day event in 2013 with the aim being to assist clubs with
mapping expenses, particularly those clubs who do not benefit from new or updated maps prepared
for a 6-Day event. There is currently just under £2,000 left in the mapping fund and the SOA would
like to invite clubs, in particular those who would satisfy the criterion noted above, to put forward
mapping proposals for consideration.

Applications should be sent to Nikki Howard at the SOA (nikki@scottish-orienteering.org) with full
details including the area(s) to be mapped, the estimated cost and the proposed timescale.

We are delighted to announce that Scottish Orienteering and British Orienteering have appointed Baroudeur Consultancy to lead on the ‘Making The Most of WOC 2024’ project. The initial project phase is 6 months to allow for scoping and consultation to identify opportunities and also create a delivery plan towards July 2024 and beyond. Some of the SOA staff and Board met with Baroudeur in Edinburgh earlier this week to identify key stakeholders and agree on the time lines of the project.

More details on the project brief are available here

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. 

Last weekend ScotJOS gathered in Aberfoyle for their first camp of the 2022/23 session. Despite the
rain of last week, the weather brightened and the juniors enjoyed some very technical training.

Like most sports, engaging and retaining juniors and young adults is a challenge in orienteering. One of the best ways to address this issue is to look at good practice within other sports and how this can be applied to orienteering. This article is part of a short series of articles that will look at good practices within orienteering and within other sports to determine ways we can engage and retain people in orienteering. The first case study within this series is looking at Oban Sailing Club.

With only five events left it will be a challenge for any club to alter their positions in the 2022 Scottish Inter Club Championship Table but never say never…

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.

It has been an exciting weekend for the Scottish University orienteering clubs as the Scottish Student Championships were held for the first time in three years. The 2022 event was of particular significance as it was the first Scottish Student Orienteering Championships to be affiliated with Scottish Student Sport in 10 years. Six Universities took part in the event: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Strathclyde and Durham as a guest University. The event was sponsored by Durty Events who provided the championships with a new trophy for the overall winning university 

The Senior Home Internationals is the annual competition between teams from England, Ireland (Northern Ireland and Eire), Scotland, Wales – the home nations. It would normally involve 3 men and 3 women in the M/W 20 age category (aged 20 and under) and 6 senior men and 6 senior women (aged 21 years and over). It is an important event for offering international competition opportunity and experience to many up and coming British and Irish elite athletes.

This year’s competition had a number of challenges – the location near Southampton (almost as far as you can get for most of our athletes!), the November date (out of competition season for the top runners), and the clashes with various other competitions (such as JWOC and cross country races) and life events (university open days) – all of which made selecting a competitive team very difficult. Despite asking a number of athletes, we were unable to fill the team in M21 or W21, but fortunately Alex Carcas took a day trip out from working in London, and Lorna Eades kindly stepped up from helper role to make sure that we at least had 3 full relay teams for men and women.

Well they say that the sun shines on the righteous.  The forecast for Sunday did not portend well and most who travelled to Cumbernauld had a damp journey there but the sun emerged in time for the 2022 Scottish Score Championships!