ASSOCIATION

ORIENTEERING ORIENTEERING

SCOTTISH

magazine of the of magazine

Plus lots more... lots Plus

Strategy & Performance & Strategy

Development,

SOA

Spòrs Gàidhlig Spòrs

Adventure

and Masterplan Masterplan and

Sprint Scotland Scotland Sprint

Juniors in Europe in Juniors

Elites and and Elites

ORIENTEERING SCOTTISH OF HOME THE SEPTEMBER 2018 SEPTEMBER RE SC Welcome

JUST AS SUMMER goes quickly, so goes my time as SCORE Editor – this month marks two years since I raised my hand to volunteer. In this issue there are several pieces that highlight the importance of volunteers in delivering orienteering all along the spectrum, new SCORE Editor: orienteers to elite. From the SOA offices to an island in Sweden, Sheila Reynolds educating and developing orienteers requires a tremendous amount SCORE@scottish-orienteering. of effort on the part of volunteers, and we are lucky to have so many org that are committed to furthering the sport and its participants. About Orienteering: Personally, I am very grateful for all of our excellent members who Information on orienteering or have made my position as SCORE Editor easier through contributing any SOA activity can be pieces, providing advice and support, and being patient as I learn the obtained from the Association Secretary: secretary@ ins & outs of orienteering and SCORE – thank you. scottish-orienteering.org As some of you may know (if you’ve been following SCORE since my Addresses of clubs, details of beginning as its editor), I don’t orienteer, but can often be found groups and a short guide to at events as a volunteer, or cheering on my husband, Scott, and the sport are available from: National Orienteering Centre daughter, Charlotte (or both). If you see me, say hello! Glenmore Lodge, Aviemore PH22 1QZ As always, I encourage all of our members to contact me if you would Tel 01479 861374 like to contribute a piece, or have a comment or question regarding Sarah.Hobbs@ SCORE – I can be reached at [email protected]. scottish-orienteering.org

SCORE Advertising: Full page: £90 Half page: £60 Discounted rates available for Contents multiple issues. Contact us to discuss: communications@ News from the Board ...... 4 scottish-orienteering.org News from SOA’s Development Director and Chair, Anne Hickling

Design by: Education News ...... 5 MediArtStudio Volunteers’ Day and Education Matters www.mediartstudio.co.uk [email protected] SOA Strategy ...... 6-8 SOA’s President and Strategy Director, Richard Oxlade, shares the Printed by: results of the recent Strategy survey and SOA’s plans Groverprint & Design, Studio 2B1, Industrial Estate, Introducing New Board Members ...... 9 Newtonmore Meet Nick Barr, SOA’s new Marketing & Communications Director PH20 1AL Introducing New Board Members ...... 10 Cover image: Meet Tim & Helen O’Donoghue, SOA’s new Co-Coaching Coordinators Grace Molloy, FVO. Photo by Chris Bell, Sprint Scotland ...... 14 Deeside Camera Club. Kirstin Maxwell and family experience the inaugural Sprint Scotland Spring Series The views expressed by contributors to SCORE are not Masterplan Adventure ...... 16-17 necessarily those of the SOA Introducing SOA’s newest member club Board, nor of the Editor. Gaelic O ...... 20-21 Spòrs Gàidhlig has been orienteering its way around Scotland Ticks & Lyme Survey ...... 22-23 Researching Ticks & Lyme – can you help?

2 www.scottish-orienteering.org 14

Photo credit: Hanne Robertson

36

Photo courtesy of Stephen Wilson WMOC 2018 20

A week of varied competition at WMOC 2018 in Denmark Credit: Sarah Hobbs

Athlete Profiles ...... 26-27 Meet the McLuckie family of Moravian Orienteers Physical Training ...... 28-29 Mehmet Karatay offers tips on Strength & Conditioning O Training ...... 30-31 Helen O’Donoghue offers some tips on pacing, map scale and more, in Distance Judgement Part 2 24

REGULAR FEATURES Photo credit: woc2018.lv J. Ligats 4 News from the Board Copy deadline 5 Education News for next edition 32 Junior News 38 Events & Clubs list 2 November 39 SOL/SOUL Schedule

32

Photo credit: jwoc2018.hu) www.scottish-orienteering.org 3 News from the Board By ANNE HICKLING (GRAMP) SOA Board Chair and Development Director

THIS NEW FEATURE in SCORE replaces the ‘President’s Piece,’ and the intention is that there will be contributions from all of the Directors over future issues. I’m sure that this will be of interest to the membership, and will keep you all better informed about what the Board is doing for orienteering in Scotland.

Since the AGM in May I have held two of orienteering (see Sarah’s article positions on the Board – as Chair and as elsewhere in this issue about MapRun), Development Director. For this piece helping with funding applications, or I’ll concentrate on the Development – the first stage in all of this – helping role; the job of Chair is, I think, self- clubs focus on their priorities and draw explanatory, so I’ll just say this time up development plans. that I feel we have a strong group of Over the past year Rona Lindsay directors on the Board now, and I’m (RDO South/Central) has been working looking forward to working with all of hard on the SOA Club Accreditation them over the coming year to move scheme, and this is now being rolled Scottish orienteering forward. out. We hope that all clubs will Development is key to advancing achieve the bronze level over the the sport across the country. We need next few months, and that some will to continue to attract new people to be working toward the silver and orienteering, to retain them in the gold levels. There’s no Scotland-wide sport and to develop their skills – and sports club accreditation scheme enjoyment – in orienteering through (though some local authorities have high-quality coaching and training. their own), so SOA has set up the club Much of this is the work of the clubs, scheme to demonstrate to funding and of course we all depend on them to bodies, landowners, local authorities continue to stage the great programme and the public that our clubs are of events and activities that we all properly constituted and well run, and enjoy. Club members, as volunteers, offer quality orienteering in a safe take on the many vital jobs required to environment. run a club and its programme, and we I’m sure that you’ve all heard the need to encourage a continuing pool great news that the 2022 Sprint of volunteers and ensure that they are World Orienteering Championships recognised and appreciated. are coming to Edinburgh. This is Our Development staff team, funded a wonderful opportunity for us to by sportscotland, is there to support present orienteering to the Scottish the clubs in all of that work; SOA’s public, to show what an exciting sport it two RDOs (Regional Development is for everyone, and inspire them to get Officers) are between them looking involved. It will be a lot of work but the after the two halves of Scotland (North benefits should make it all and South/Central). Together they worthwhile! are providing a variety of support to clubs, such as developing a programme of ‘come and try’ events to draw new people in, exploring new ways

4 www.scottish-orienteering.org Volunteers’ Day and Education Matters By HILARY QUICK (BASOC) SOA Education Manager

As mentioned in the last edition of SCORE, we will to consolidate and extend their skills. See elsewhere be holding a Volunteers’ Day this year at Kinnoull, in this edition for their first contribution in that near Perth, on Saturday 22nd September. The two capacity. main sessions are primarily intended to strengthen UKCC Status and extend the skill levels and raise the confidence The history of the UKCC (UK Coaching Certificate) of people who have some experience of officiating and orienteering’s involvement with it go back more at small events and are considering taking on than 10 years, UKCC having been established with something larger, such as league events or a day the aim of getting a common standard of coach of the 6 Day Event. The morning session will look education across all sports. It’s a long story, but now at event organisation and the afternoon will focus sportscotland are leading a review of it in Scotland, on planning and controlling. Both sessions will be alongside consideration of the practicalities of highly practical, and we will share the combined awarding coaching qualifications, which is currently learning gained by those who’ve done the roles on done through the SQA (Scottish Qualifications many occasions. To a certain extent the content will Authority). While those discussions are continuing, be driven by the needs of those who attend, so do we are implementing the Scottish Qualifications in please let me know of any particular topics you want Coaching Orienteering (SQCO), which reflect the to cover. existing UKCC standards but with a particular bias Alongside those sessions we will hold some towards the needs of coaches in Scotland. informal coach CPD (Continuing Personal sportscotland’s Coaching Framework sets Development) sessions to share good ideas and significant store by the societal needs for coaches to have an excuse for a run-around outdoors. engage the non-sporting population in meaningful Bookings are coming in and I would urge you and enjoyable physical activity, as well as improving to book soon to avoid disappointment. Space is standards of competitive participants at all levels. genuinely limited so we can’t take more than 12 This framework suits orienteering well, and we are people on each indoor session. Numbers for the already aware that people stay longer in the sport if outdoor coach CPD are more flexible, and non- they feel they are improving their skills. coaches are welcome to come and be coached or We’ve been examining delivery options for coach just have a run. education that would allow us to exploit technology There is no charge for attendance; tea/coffee and better in order to be flexible in timing of learning, a DIY sandwich/buffet lunch will be provided. but there are many complex considerations, so There’s more on the website at https://www. progress is slow. Whatever happens, there is general scottish-orienteering.org/soa/page/volunteers-day, consensus that we must be consistent in applying where a link to the booking form can also be found. appropriate standards of tutoring and assessment. The EGM has been cunningly arranged to follow At the time of writing the detail is still very fluid, so at the same venue, and we are also offering the watch the website for announcements and updates. inaugural Scottish Orienteering Young Leader … and finally… course the same day, in Perth. This is an excellent I’ve now been employed by the SOA for 15 years, opportunity for young people aged 14-17 to and have decided that it’s time for a career change. take the first steps in learning some of the art I’ll be leaving at the end of September, by which of coaching. Details are at https://www.scottish- time I hope my successor will have been appointed orienteering.org/soa/page/proudly-launching- and we will have had an orderly handover. I will scottish-orienteering-young-leader. continue to coach, organise, plan and control, and Coaching Coordinator(s) to work as freelance tutor, assessor and verifier, and I’m delighted to confirm that Helen and Tim hope to persuade my various failing joints to let me O’Donoghue (SOLWAY) have taken on the role of at least jog round orienteering courses from time Coaching Coordinator, and will be playing a key role to time – so I hope to continue to see you in those in communicating with coaches and encouraging all sunny forests. www.scottish-orienteering.org 5 Strategy Review By RICHARD OXLADE (ESOC) SOA Strategy Director and President

The Future of Scottish Orienteering – The Strategy Review

WHEN I JOINED the SOA Board a year ago Roger suggested that I take the grand title of “Strategy Director,” so I “A common complaint decided that it would be a good idea to take a look at the SOA strategy and see about these types of how we were getting on. conferences is that a It was easy to start. The SOA has a well-written and comprehensive lot of good ideas are 2016-2020 Strategic Plan, agreed with sportscotland, who provide us with a generated but as we can’t lot of financial support. Not surprisingly do everything, we do I soon discovered that not many orienteers had read it. I guess that’s nothing. So, our challenge quite understandable - most of us would is put these ideas into rather be running in beautiful Scottish forests than reading long strategy practice, and to do this documents! Initially I talked to the SOA staff and we need to turn them the Board, and had the inevitable ad hoc into a set of properly conversations in wet fields. I also went to a sharing best practice session held by resourced action.” the Scottish Sport Association and was struck by an extremely positive Scottish Gymnastics talk about their strategy constructive and appreciative of the – it was club-focused and began with efforts that the SOA staff and volunteers wide ranging conversations with the put into the sport in Scotland. There members. It seemed like a good idea. are some real positives that we should So, it was time to put together some celebrate: questions, dig out the clipboard and • We have some of the best terrain in have some conversations. We know what the UK it’s like to be approached in the street • We put on a lot of quality events or at the airport by someone carrying – some are outstanding (World a clipboard, so we started with some Championships, 6 Days) trepidation. Fortunately, everyone we • We have a lot of very experienced and spoke to was very generous with their enthusiastic staff and volunteers time and we heard lots of opinions; in • Membership numbers are steady the end we gathered feedback from (they’re falling in some sports) about 120 orienteers. Inevitably many • We have been given significant funding were very experienced, but some to support development of the sport were newer to the sport and their To provide some data (we love data!) contributions were particularly valuable we asked everyone to assess our (and different!). progress against the five aims in the What did we learn? Strategic Plan using a scale of 1 - 4 (1 – The feedback was nearly always Quite poor, 2 – OK but could do better, 3

6 www.scottish-orienteering.org – Quite well, 4 – Outstanding). These are athletes as much as we the average results: could 1. Promoting orienteering 2.6 • We could always do with 2. Developing clubs 2.7 more 3. Developing members 2.8 money! 4. Developing talented athletes 3.2 Club conference/strategy 5. Improve governance 3.2 workshop This tells us that we are doing “quite Armed with this well,” but from the conversations it information, about thirty appeared that there were a few areas orienteers met at the where members thought we could do National Scout Centre better. A few themes emerged: at Fordell Firs near • We could market the sport better – in Dunfermline at the end of April. Most PAUL particular newcomers to the sport think of the SOA staff were there, some of MCGREAL, it’s difficult to find out what’s going on the Board members, and members from POLKA DOT • We could provide more support to our a number of clubs. Our request: help SHORTS THANKFULLY volunteers – experienced volunteers us identify some short- and long-term NOT IN sometimes feel overloaded, and actions to address the themes that were EVIDENCE inexperienced volunteers are put off identified in the survey. by the complexity of the sport and can The workshop was a great opportunity feel excluded for some of the staff to describe • We could be better at sharing best what is already going on. Sarah Hobbs practice so that clubs don’t re-invent shared the new marketing plan with its the wheel emphasis on attracting and welcoming • The event calendar could be more new members. Sarah Dunn and Rona balanced and publicised more clearly Lindsey described the work that they’re (especially for new orienteers) doing as RDOs to help clubs develop. • Event presentation could be improved I also asked Paul McGreal (World for some of our higher profile events Orienteering Championships 2015 • We don’t always value non-elite Director, professional event organiser, >>

ONE OF THESE PHOTOS SHOUTS ‘COME ORIENTEERING!’ www.scottish-orienteering.org 7 Strategy Review

and occasional orienteer with RR) if he be put into practice in the short-term could come along and be provocative. and over the long-term. He was. Both sartorially (my biggest What happens next? regret is not getting a picture of him in A common complaint about these his polka dot blue shorts) and verbally. types of conferences is that a lot of Drawing on his own experiences good ideas are generated but as we organising triathlons, his challenges for can’t do everything, we do nothing. So, us were: our challenge is put these ideas into • Presentation of the sport. Are practice, and to do this we need to turn we too amateur? For example, we them into a set of properly resourced don’t take care with our photo actions (i.e. time and money is allocated opportunities that would help to them). This is the stage that we’re non-orienteers imagine themselves at now. The Board has discussed taking part. I inadvertently helped the proposed actions and we have a him demonstrate this with my intro strategy review with sportscotland, our slide (below, left) in contrast to the largest financial supporter, on the 10th one used on the SOA website (below, September. In the future you should right)! How would you like to imagine see progress in the following areas: yourself? 1. A renewed focus on marketing: • We use too much jargon (we love a. More time spent on social media jargon!). Too much jargon is simply driving traffic to the new website off-putting to newcomers. b. A more understandable and • We should use more smiling faces in accessible events calendar to attract our marketing. If the people doing & retain new orienteers the sport look happy, people will be c. New promotional materials to attracted to it. help clubs introduce the sport to • We could benefit from more newcomers professional organisation. It’s not just about the planning and the 2. More help for clubs in addition to courses. You could say ‘of course that already being provided: Paul would say this’ – but there’s a a. Resources to help clubs be more point: many of our competitors (e.g. efficient adventure racing) use professional b. Standardised event guidelines to organisers. improve presentation of the sport • We should focus on participation not 3. More support and recognition for just membership. Participation in the volunteers: many activities and events that we run a. More events to reward and is an important measure of the health incentivise volunteers and share best of the sport so we shouldn’t get too practice focused on membership numbers. b. More systematic & tangible We spent the majority of the rewards for volunteers conference in separate workgroups c. Refreshed training for organisers developing a comprehensive set of and planners. ideas and actions for each theme. Finally, thanks again to everyone who There isn’t space in this article to list provided honest feedback, and special the output – but it’s fair to say that thanks to the folk who came along to there were many good ideas that could the conference to help us.

8 www.scottish-orienteering.org Marketing & Communications News By NICK BARR (MOR) SOA Marketing & Communications Director

Now that I’ve been in post as the Marketing and Communications Director for a short time, it may be a good time to introduce myself to those who don’t know me.

In terms of orienteering, I’m a member of Moravian Orienteers and have been for over 10 years. I’m married to Liz and we have Andrew and Kathryn as our son and daughter. We live in what I would describe as a near perfect location for orienteering, 25 miles east of Inverness – 6 minutes’ run from Culbin and 15 minutes from Darnaway, up in Moray. NICK BARR

We have Roseisle, Lossiemouth and the Photo by: Liz Barr Cairngorms on our doorstep. I was first introduced to orienteering with relevant information for existing by Mike Rodgers of Moravian Orienteers members, whilst also hopefully be about 10 years ago, largely on the back attractive to people looking to give of local school orienteering and my orienteering a go for the first time. It’s son Andrew. As both our off-spring so important that we evolve with time took to the sport, Liz and I developed and we ensure that we have a good a liking for it too and we’ve ended up influx of new people and new ideas. travelling far and wide in support of I work closely with other members of junior orienteering and the elusive the SOA Board, and in particular Sarah ‘perfect run’ for ourselves. I get a lot Hobbs at Glenmore Lodge and Pamela of enjoyment from orienteering; I will Carvel, our Independent Director. As I also admit to being very frustrated at become more involved in the evolution times if I don’t think I’ve been able to run of Scottish orienteering, and try to properly. I love orienteering in runnable understand more about what people forest and open moorland – the sense of want to hear about, I’ll try to ensure moving quickly and (hopefully) knowing that’s reflected in our communications. where you are makes a very satisfying I’d also like to acknowledge the combination! enormous effort that Sheila Reynolds I’ve eased up on my main work, (SCORE Editor) puts in to ensure that we at least for a while, so when the have the quality magazine you’re reading opportunity arose to volunteer to be now. I’ve just read Sheila’s analysis the Marketing and Communications of the latest SCORE survey results – Director, I went for it. At the moment, interesting reading!! It would appear my SOA focus is on the new website that you’d like self-deprecating humour – which we hope will go live early hence my inclusion of my gormless face. September. This new site will offer us a Until next time…. And in the really good opportunity to be proactive meantime, enjoy running! www.scottish-orienteering.org 9 SOA Coaching Coordinators By HELEN & TIM O’DONOGHUE (SOLWAY)

We are now in the process of taking on the SOA Coaching Coordinator role and welcome the opportunity to introduce ourselves through the pages of SCORE. Our membership in Solway Orienteers reaches 25 years this year, and we have been fully involved with the running of the club for many of those years – both on the organisational side and also with competing. Our run of consecutive Scottish 6 Day events attended HELEN & TIM O’DONOGHUE currently stands at 11 and we Credit: Isla O’Donoghue already have accommodation lined up for 2019. The 6 Days events of 2.5 hours, and this coaches aimed at sharing of is a useful way of remembering will continue for the next 3 ideas, issues and learning. our wedding anniversary as years. our honeymoon was the 1995 3. Encourage and foster Our main coaching interests coaches working together event. focus on encouraging the We are both licensed across clubs as a means ordinary orienteer to develop of spreading learning and coaches: Tim at Level 2 and and expand their skills, as we Helen level 1, and Tim is also experience and developing see this as essential to the support. a Grade B controller. Both health of clubs and the sport. 4. Review delivery approach our daughters orienteer, but Neither of us are qualified to for CPD materials with the neither has developed the train new coaches. intent of ensuring higher ambition or glint in the eye As we’ve become involved levels of use of CPD for required for aiming at ScotJOS with the Coaching Coordinator coaches. membership. role we have identified initial We have been involved in priorities, which we set 5. Mentoring – encourage the design and running of out here (with the proviso coaches to get involved with string courses for the Solway that they can alter as time this developing theme. day in the 6 Days for the last progresses): We look forward to working 5 events. We are retired, with clubs and individuals although with one daughter 1. Communicate with SOA to encourage and foster at university and the other member club coaches (UKCC the growth of the coaches, still at school, along with all and coaching foundation experienced, new, and yet-to- of our orienteering activities, trained) on a reasonably be, within SOA. If you have we have yet to identify any regular basis, providing any questions or comments slackening in the pace of life. information that should regarding our plans, or Few people living north of hopefully be of interest and coaching development in Perth will recognise us as we useful. general, please feel free to tend to apply a maximum 2. Encourage and foster contact us at coaching@ travel time rule to single communications between scottish-orienteering.org.

10 www.scottish-orienteering.org SOA Performance News By GRAHAM GRISTWOOD (FVO & MA) SOA Performance Director

Performance Focus good situation. We have a more, can be found at https:// My first couple of brilliant team taking over, with www.ontheredline.org.uk/. months have already been Marjorie Mason remaining as a busy period for Scottish Treasurer, and Jon Musgrave, Have your Performance, with my first Esther Gooch and Judy Bell say on Scottish tasks being to appoint coming in as Lead Coach, Team a replacement ScotJOS Manager and Administrator Elite Orienteering management team and respectively. As part of my new role, I arrange selection and I would also like to am very keen to engage with publication of the teams thank Marsela McLeod, as many people as possible for the Junior Inter-regional my predecessor in the who have an interest in elite Champs, the Junior Home Performance Director Role, orienteering – whether it be at International and the Senior for her years on the board Junior, Senior or even Veteran Home International! of Scottish Orienteering, level! We have very strong teams during which she has overseen I would like to hear your for all 3 events, and we have unprecedented Scottish thoughts on what we do also had a huge number success on the international currently, what we could do, of Scottish and Scotland- scene. and what we should do in the based athletes selected At the time of writing this, future. for JROS (Junior Regional the following have taken Orienteering Squads) and place: Support our British Orienteering Summer • European Youth Elite Athletes Tours, as well as for the Championships in Bulgaria, I am also trying to build Great Britain team at various where Megan Keith (INVOC) up a team of people who are international competitions took an amazing Gold Medal willing to support our elite including the European in the W16 Sprint. athletes – specifically those Youth Championships, the • World University representing, or aiming to Junior European Cup, the Championships in Finland, represent, Scotland and Great Junior World Championships, where Alex Chepelin (EUOC) Britain in orienteering. the World University was 5th in the Sprint and There are many ways to Championships and the World 8th in the Middle, and part support our athletes – it could Championships. It would of the team that came 4th be as a coach/planner/control take several pages to list all in the Mixed Sprint Relay hanger on junior or senior the selections, but you can with Jonny Crickmore (also training weekends, but it could find them on the Scottish EUOC) in the team as well. also be in an administrative Orienteering Association • Junior World role, as a selector, or helping website. Championships in Hungary, out with fundraising activities. I would like to say a massive where Matt Fellbaum The work need not be thank you to Elizabeth Furness (EUOC) took a fantastic onerous, as many hands make for her work managing and Silver Medal in a tricky light work, and many people coaching ScotJOS over the last Sprint, and Grace Molloy contributing half a day would couple of years. She had big (FVO) was part of the Relay make a big difference. shoes to fill, and I think it is fair team which came 4th. Please contact me on to say that she did an excellent Further news regarding performance@scottish- job and has left Scottish elite results, as well as athlete orienteering.org, or speak to Junior Orienteering in a really pieces, Team GB news and me at an event. www.scottish-orienteering.org 11 Development News By SARAH DUNN (MAROC) SOA Regional Development Officer North

MapRun A Tool for Simple Club Training and More

After reading about the MapRun smartphone my most satisfying experience being setting up a app in the Dec 2017 issue of CompassSport I course at Lochgoilhead Scout Centre (which I had decided to see if we could trial it in Scotland. never visited before) and then turning up on the The app was developed in Australia by Peter weekend for a run round and finding everything Effeney and allows users to set up “virtual” working perfectly. orienteering courses, without the need for any The developer recommends the tool for use in physical controls, using your smartphone. It an urban/park setting where control placement utilises a satellite signal to record your GPS can be achieved very accurately by selecting location and match it against the real-world features that are visible on satellite images (i.e. locations of controls on your orienteering course, identification of real-world GPS coordinates using and registers when you’ve reached a control by GoogleEarth). However, as many of our maps emitting a beep. It is most suited to urban and are now based on Lidar contour information, the park areas – for reasons I will come to – but I real-world locations of distinct mapped contour believe it offers great potential for helping to features should, theoretically, be quite accurate. develop orienteering in some of the following To test out the potential utility of the app in a real ways: forest setting, I set up a course in a relatively open • As a simple means of setting up a club training part of Dinnet Muir, using hill tops and depressions activity as the control sites. The performance of the • For use with school or youth groups, especially app here was more varied – one participant ran where leaders do not have orienteering expertise smoothly round the course and declared it to work • To set up local “Strava” style leagues that might “just like SI Air” whilst others found the response entice runners to give orienteering a try time at control sites to be slower, presumably due to the effect of tree cover on the satellite signal. App Performance I have now set up some ten MapRun courses in Uptake and Interest Deeside and have run informal training sessions To date, uptake and interest in the app has been in Aboyne, Banchory and in a relatively open part slower than I had hoped, both from a participation of Dinnet Muir. At each of these we have had perspective and a visionary perspective. Over the a mixture of success with the app, with some summer holidays I arranged for a new MapRun complications linked to user, but also with more course to be released and publicised on the random effects linked to the strength of satellite MAROC website every week. The main target signal and the quirks of different phones. I have audience for this was families, as a fun holiday tested each of the courses myself and have activity. However, only ten different people have always been successful, although there have so far recorded results on one or more of the been occasions when the tool has been very courses. Having said that, there has been some slow to respond. This could cause some issues very positive feedback from these folks: with more novice participants if they are not “Using the MapRun app was great. I got totally confident that they are in the correct location. hooked on orienteering and have since bought my For urban/park type areas I have also had very own thumb compass. I really liked the fact that you few problems with armchair planning the courses; could go anytime that suited you to do the courses

12 www.scottish-orienteering.org and of course you could go back and better your time! MapRun is such a clever idea and I’m sure it will be very popular with kids/adults of all ages. It was very easy to set up and use and handy that it can get sent straight to Strava....” [An adult runner who had not tried orienteering before]

“Enjoyed using it, like the flexibility of being able to do it when it suits, but get frustrated sometimes when it’s not beeping at a control” [An experienced 11-year old orienteer]

“Provided an opportunity to make training runs almost as interesting as a real orienteering event. Helps me to do training runs in terrain, compared with running on tracks and trails, and complements more technical club training. Not quite as much Give it a Try! fun as taking part in events with other people and I would love to see lots more people trying out some issues with GPS which we traced to a heavy- the app so that we can get a better feel for its duty phone case” [a top W14.] appeal and strengths. To me the attributes of the system sell themselves: I ran one session for Aboyne Academy running • No need for physical controls to be set out, saving club, in place of their usual Monday run. The time and effort course was set out using the school campus map, • Courses can be planned and set up remotely including a small area of adjacent woodland. Many • Courses are available for as long as you wish, for of the non-orienteers in the group really enjoyed use at any time the experience, and there is definite potential for • Personal results and GPS tracks can all be building on this with schools. automatically saved and uploaded I also used the app to help support a child • Ongoing leaderboard maintained as along as the with a severe visual impairment so that he could event is open participate in his school orienteering festival. By equipping him with a smartphone he was able to So how do you go about giving it a try? First, get the audio feedback from reaching controls download the MapRun app to your phone from that had been marked up for him on a simplified your smartphone app store. As a participant you tactile map. can have a go at any of the courses that have Having promoted it around the north area already been set up (please contact me if you need clubs, several other people have also had a go at a PIN for some of them). If you want to have a go planning, and there are courses set up in Perth, at planning a course for your club, then I can help to Elgin, Westhill and Stirling Uni. Comments from get you started. the planners of these are: “I think it has great potential. Some of the There is also more information on how to use the limitations will improve as the technology improves app available on the MAROC website: - software, phones, GPS signal” https://www.marocscotland.org.uk/virtual- orienteering-MapRun-in-aboyne “Seems a good idea but has not met with much https://www.marocscotland.org.uk/maroc- enthusiasm in the club” MapRun-madness www.scottish-orienteering.org 13 Sprint Scotland 2018 By KIRSTIN MAXWELL (RR)

Masterplan Adventure recently staged a multi-day Sprint event, Sprint Scotland, that included four days of sprint events in the Falkirk area, with coaching and talks taking place the first three evenings. Kirstin, a member of Team GB, attended the event with her father, Ian, a veteran orienteer who has represented Scotland in several VHI events, and her mum, Eileen, and has provided the following write-up about their Sprint Scotland experience.

a really good session and I did some of my best orienteering in a long time on this course! We are all too good at analysing the negatives, so I was careful to also analyse why this went well to hopefully find that good feeling in a race soon! Lastly was visualisation, which mum found particularly useful, showing that she does not pay enough attention to where the control is in the circle, often not reading the control descriptions. It was decided to do the last part of this course as a duo at race pace, DENNY WEST putting together everything learned

Credit: that day with Dad shadowing, which Masterplan As a family we are big fans of sprint was especially fun, racing hard with Adventure orienteering, so when the Sprint everything going well under pressure! Scotland team were putting on four days The following day the Scottish of training and racing not far away there summer did not disappoint, and we were was no doubt several Maxwells would greeted by rain for our visit to Hallglen be there. housing estate in Falkirk. For those who Grangemouth may not be high on have not been, it is almost as if the area most people’s list to visit but it is a had been built with sprint orienteering haven for sprint orienteering, with an in mind, as it consists of a maze of little endless supply of tricky housing estates. passageways between the houses and The Masterplan team had put on three even has the added complication of a exercises for the day, and with the sun steep slope. On offer was a map memory shining it was a very enjoyable day. The course with map extracts at each control first of these a “starts” exercise with where you had to memorise the next leg several small map extracts showing the and run without a map. start and two controls only. I’ve been I found this difficult, but eventually working on my start a lot this season, so both Mum and I realised we could it was good to reinforce this. remember more than we thought which Following this was a map memory has given us confidence when applying exercise with one long leg followed by this technique in race situations. As you two short legs; the idea was to plan the cannot remember everything in entirety, short ones with running the long then this session trains the brain to remember not read the map while running them. more and to recognise the important Sometimes things just click, and you have things to look for.

14 www.scottish-orienteering.org Following this was route choice – Dad people out. This was my best result of and I ran it head to head, which made it the weekend and I was happy to finish more exciting and showed that different 13th against such tough competition. routes are better for different people. The second race was entirely different I also found myself subconsciously in character, starting straight into the using the map memory technique from scrubland before long route choice legs earlier, so the training had obviously had in the housing estate. I made an error an effect. at the first control and didn’t really Finally, there was a line course. I get back into my flow after it, but Dad wondered what I could get out of this continued to show his dominance in the session since following accurately Scottish urban orienteering, taking two with head in the map is something I’m wins, and Mum showed that the two good at and trying to get away from. days’ training had paid off, with a 2nd Fortunately, another of Sprint Scotland’s place and a win, going into the last race offerings was having experienced only seconds down overall. coaches on hand to provide advice on It was back to the delights of how to structure the sessions to suit Grangemouth for the final race where individual needs, and Chris Smithard we were presented with a course recommended that Dad and I go featuring lots of subtle route choices. together, with one person in front doing I unfortunately got too many of these the line course, the other following wrong, but still feel like I’m making along and at some point telling the progress. other to put the map away to see how Mum was reminded that sometimes long they could keep going. After things do not always go right when completing half of the course in this her visualisation training went out the way we switched back to orienteering window with a big mistake on number individually and both found that we 1, but fought back hard to claim second could plan ahead and flow through the overall. Dad took another win and controls much better than previously. was happy to take home a big box of Definitely a session I’d do again. shortbread, but was disappointed when It was good to have a set of races it was presented to him by the Men’s following the training to put everything Elite winner Kris Jones rather than into practice. Particularly from my point the Women’s Elite winner and World of view, since all three were World Champion, Maja Alm, who blew away Ranking events and had attracted an the rest of the field in all 3 races. incredibly high-class field including It was great to see everyone from members of the British, Belgian, Danish, young juniors to ultra- vets alike all Finnish, Norwegian, Austrian, New enjoying a high-quality weekend of Zealand and Czech national teams training and racing with elite runners preparing for the World Champs just a taking the time to mingle and inspire few weeks later. the next generation. Hopefully with Both Saturday races took place on Sprint WOC coming to Scotland we will a new map in Denny. The first course see more events like this. A huge thanks was mostly in a typical Scottish housing to everyone involved in putting on a estate with the last few controls in a great weekend. We are certainly already tricky scrubland requiring a change looking forward to the next Sprint of technique which caught a lot of Scotland… www.scottish-orienteering.org 15 Club News By GRAHAM GRISTWOOD (FVO, MA)

Introducing Masterplan Adventure

MASTERPLAN ADVENTURE volunteer activity at events membership or volunteer is a new orienteering club • Support our members base, but they do have maps registered with British to achieve their sporting and a desire to have events Orienteering and the Scottish ambitions locally in order to service Orienteering Association. The idea of creating this existing members, and also The club’s Constitution club came about when Graham grow membership. The aim is and Development Plan (both Gristwood, Fanni Gyurko that we would be able to use available on the website) and Kris Jones, with support our expertise and experience include the following aims and from Forth Valley Orienteers, in planning, organising and objectives: organised Sprint Scotland in mapping to put on events • To promote the sport of 2016. It was a great success, with these clubs with mutual orienteering but it was also clear that benefits. • Organise a program of there was a need to find a Frequently Asked Questions: events that is high quality, way to organise events like Since the inception of highly visible and a credit to this within British and Scottish the club, there have been the Scottish Orienteering Orienteering, but outside of a number of questions and Association and British the existing ‘club structure’ - topics consistently raised by Orienteering which is not designed in such people when discussing the club – • Identify new areas for a way as to allow a group of Where is the club based? orienteering in new places like-minded individuals to put We have decided to be a and produce high quality on interesting orienteering non-geographical club, partly maps events and activities in a creative way, unbound by so that we are not tied down • Identify and fill gaps geographical boundaries or by where we can and can’t geographically and in the inter-club politics. An example put on events, but also so orienteering calendar to of this is that we saw an that we are not competing provide more people with opportunity to put on a sprint with any other club for more opportunities to go race in Ballater the day before members – we are not trying orienteering the British Orienteering to grow club membership, and • Help other Scottish Championships in Balmoral; would specifically direct any Orienteering clubs who don’t the organising team and local newcomers to join whatever have enough members to put clubs would have had no the local club might be. Most on the program of activity time or spare volunteers to Masterplan members are that they would like to organise this event, but they members of other clubs as • Increase membership of both were happy to have it, as it well. the Scottish Orienteering added value to the event as a So, who can join then? Association and Scottish whole. We are not looking to increase orienteering clubs At the moment we are in membership, as Masterplan • Offer opportunities for discussions with a couple of Adventure is not intended coaching clubs regarding potential to be a competitive club. • Support Scottish Junior partnerships – there are a We are, as noted above, a Squads and Elite teams number of clubs in Scotland club that has been formed financially in exchange for who do not have a huge specifically for the purpose

16 www.scottish-orienteering.org of planning, organising and to an arrangement whereby in staging orienteering events exchange for some assistance in the UK. Currently there at our events, we give a are eight members of the proportion of all event income club, members who support to support SEDS and ScotJOS our aims and objectives, and activities. From entry money are willing to contribute for Sprint Scotland this year, significantly in various ways we were able to contribute to the activities that we put £400. on. All members continue to So, what do members get represent our first-claim clubs out of it? when competing. If the club makes money at the an area of expertise for Are you a club or a end of the year, the intention us, so most of our events company? is that the Management have a sprint focus. Our We are a ‘normal’ orienteering Committee will give training biggest events are Sprint club, subject to the same rules grants to some members, Scotland (sprintscotland. and regulations, and financial much in the same way that co.uk) as well as an Autumn restrictions, as every other other clubs do to support Wednesday night sprint series orienteering club. their talented athletes. These in conjunction with FVO. We But you earn money from training grants are designed also plan to have an annual the events? to support our members with New Year’s Day Resolution First and foremost, the club any costs associated with Sprint race (we had a test operates like any other club achieving their international event in Hallglen this year). financially, and we have a ambitions, such as the cost of We will look at opportunities constitution and governance travelling to training camps to put on forest (and possibly which has been approved by or championships. Of course, urban) events in the future both British Orienteering and the Committee will take into as well. the SOA. Money goes into the account the financial future Why the wolf logo? club accounts, and covers all of the club, with regards to The logo comes from the the normal running costs, such budget planning for future famous ‘Stirling wolf’ who as mapping costs, affiliation years. There are other ways allegedly roused the locals to fees, etc. Any expenditure that the members will benefit defend against Viking invaders has to be approved by our from the club activities as - just a small nod, as Stirling Management Committee, and well, such as payment for the is the home of many of our our accounts will be audited as creation of event maps, and members, and the first Sprint is the case with any other club. for any coaching activities that Scotland event was based in But you give money to we may engage with in the Stirling. SEDS and ScotJOS? future. You can find contact details, Yes, as a club with a very small So, do you only do sprint and information about us and membership, we would be races? our events, unable to put on anything We identified that there is on our website: more than local events on our a lack of sprint races in the www.masterplanadventure. own. We therefore have come British Orienteering calendar, uk. www.scottish-orienteering.org 17 Map Analysis ROB HICKLING (GRAMP)

Lakes 5 Days 2018

THIS WAS THE seventh Lakeland five- the tarn in clear weather, but the path day event, continuing the successful option to the north was favoured by series which started in 1994. Being many in the cloud. the closest “foreign” multi-day event to Scotland, it always receives SILVER HOWE & BLEA RIGG a strong Scottish entry (though no statistics are available, I’m afraid). And because the hilly terrain often suits Scottish runners, we tend to do rather well in the results.

Over the years there has been rather an unfortunate Lakes 5 Days tradition of heavy rain, causing rising rivers, flooding of campsites, and washed out races. After the driest May-July for many years, the rain gods decided to have another go at the event this year. We had one very wet day (Day 1), one wet morning (Day 5) and another day when the organisers required cagoules to be carried just in case (Day 2). Fortunately the car parks stood up well, and on Day 2 Map Credit: Warrior O.C., Surveyed O.C., & Drawn by Martin Bagness Map Credit: Warrior the farmer kindly provided an alternative parking field when the original field was By contrast, the visibility was perfect rendered unusable by the previous day’s on Day 2 at Angle Tarn Pikes, and rain. straight routes and fast times were the norm. Route choice was more limited, Three races were on tree-less high though there was a “left or right” choice moorland (Days 1, 2 & 4). The ambient for many on the longer courses, which conditions on Day 1 at Silver Howe & had a long leg from one side of Angle Blea Rigg were very unpleasant, to say Tarn to the other. The eastern route was the least; strong westerly winds and less marshy underfoot but most faster horizontal heavy rain. Because of the runners chose the western side and thick mist and lack of distinctive catching seemed to make time gains. features, it paid to apply techniques from night orienteering: conservative ANGLE TARN PIKES route choices using linear features such as the more prominent valleys and streams, etc. Much better to take an extra few seconds for the leg, but stay in close contact with the map. An example was leg 8-9 on course 4; most people would take a fairly direct route south of Map Credit: MDOC, Surveyed & Drawn by Stirling Surveys, Updates by Martin Bagness

18 www.scottish-orienteering.org Day 3 at Whinlatter was in steep those with less running speed and better forest, with moorland legs on the longer technical skills. courses. After two days of open moor, plenty of mistakes were made by the DALE PARK inattentive in the lower vis forest. The results showed many new names in the top ten positions in the classes.

There were interesting route choices caused by steeply incised valleys. This was dramatic in some cases – see

example. Roundabout track routes, OC,Map Credit: Lakeland Stirling Surveys which avoided climb through the green, often proved best, as the forest floor There were plenty of controls and was quite cluttered. people running in all directions! It was hard to ignore other runners and WHINLATTER concentrate on your own navigation. Many mistakes were made within and near the circle; even the class winners admitted to multiple small time losses! The decision had been made to enlarge all the maps to 1:7,500 due to the (excessive?) level of mapped detail. It was certainly tricky to judge distance, and tick off features along a chosen route at middle distance race pace (in the rain).

It was a week of well-planned courses, Map Credit: WCOC, Dick & Andy Warner, Pete Nelson Pete Map Credit: WCOC, Dick & Andy Warner, good maps and good organisation. Askham Fell on Day 4 was open There was a well-attended urban limestone terrain with gentle slopes event on the rest day, which I cannot and many depressions and pits. It was comment on as I didn’t go there, but very fast (suiting the speed merchants) by all accounts went well. Minor and courses were one third longer than organisational gripes were the absence the first three days. Straight line routes of arena wi-fi results, the slow posting were almost invariably best. But it was of results on the web each evening, the a beautiful day and everyone had fun ... lack of points scores (not published until and had dry feet at the finish. Day 3), and inaccurate information in the programme about the walk to the The final race at Dale Park was a start on Day 5. But the Lakes organisers middle distance race on a compact map should be congratulated on delivering of delightful and very complex oak another fine holiday event for us to woodland. It gave a chance to shine to enjoy. www.scottish-orienteering.org 19 Spòrs Gàidhlig By DÒMHNALL MORRIS, Spòrs Gàidhlig Development Coordinator

Gaelic Goes Orienteering

Spòrs Gàidhlig, a Gaelic-focused outdoor activities social enterprise, has been orienteering its way around Scotland. We enjoy orienteering and all that it involves, and also see the many benefits when young people take part in orienteering. To orienteers the benefits are obvious: fun, learning new skills and developing existing ones, moving through new environments, learning how to navigate. All of these are valuable and well understood.

to orienteering, we offer gorge scrambling, climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and others. These can be standalone or part of a programme with specific objectives such as increasing confidence. Over the last 3-4 years we have been very lucky to have the support of the Scottish Orienteering Association through Hilary Quick, who lives up to her name. We have quickly learned how to offer a variety of orienteering programmes and events in Gaelic. We have held orienteering tournaments HILARY QUICK AND SPORS GAIDHLIG INSTRUCTORS in Glasgow, Inverness and Skye, usually with 60-100 children from local Photo credit: Sarah Hobbs schools. Using SI equipment has made Our focus at Spòrs Gàidhlig is everything easier apart from when it’s to provide young people with the not set up properly and you have 100+ opportunity to use Gaelic in a fun, children wanting to know their results! engaging and safe environment; this We use the word ‘sligheadaireachd’ is very important from a language as the Gaelic equivalent of development point of view. If we ‘orienteering.’ ‘Slighe’ means ‘route,’ do not provide opportunities to as we are literally ‘routing.’ No power young people to use the language in tools are involved though. We have engaging settings, they will not use developed new terminology for every the language at all. We aim for high aspect of orienteering, and our events quality experiences in Gaelic but we are delivered in Gaelic. Each language also welcome those new to Gaelic and element has been carefully considered those actively learning. In short, we are so that it makes sense and its meaning open to all. is clear. Orienteering is one of the activities The great thing about maps is that Spòrs Gàidhlig offers to schools and they generate discussion and interest. other groups. We also use it as part The Gaelic word ‘coille’ means ‘forest’ of our residential camps programmes and is something we use a lot. Colour and as a standalone activity. In addition and numbers are also easy to use with

20 www.scottish-orienteering.org INTRO O SESSION FOR SPORS GAIDHLIG INSTRUCTORS O INSTRUCTION FOR THE SPORS CREW

Photo credit: Sarah Hobbs Photo credit:Sarah Hobbs an orienteering map. As it happens, we it is to plan for the future with such a also own the largest map of Scotland low human resources base. We are very in existence; it’s called Mapland Alba fortunate to have dedicated staff willing and is a 1:50,000 OS map of the whole to deal with the ups and downs of an country with no insets apart from organisation working all over Scotland Sealltainn (Shetland) which is in its box with limited resources. unfortunately. Our ambition is to operate a dedicated Our parent organisation, Comunn na Gaelic outdoor centre somewhere in Gàidhlig, employs development officers the Highlands, and orienteering will in various areas and these dedicated certainly feature as a core activity in our individuals have been delivering programmes. Until that day, hopefully orienteering programmes in their local not too far in the future, we will deliver schools. Children really do love learning both at Glenmore Lodge and also how to read an orienteering map. We throughout Scotland. have learned, though, that they know Orienteering is a great activity their own playground like the back of and lends itself to many different their hands! environments. It’s an activity that Spòrs Gàidhlig is based at Glenmore can be used in any language, in any Lodge near Aviemore. ‘The Lodge’ as environment and with any person. We many know it, has been very supportive hope to expand what we are doing, hold of everything we do and we are indebted more tournaments and programmes and to their staff for being so adaptable and welcome more young people. practical in their support. Spòrs Gàidhlig can be contacted Our current focus is to train Gaelic- through our website at www.spors.scot speaking instructors and we will begin or [email protected]. Although we are recruiting our second intake as you read based at Glenmore Lodge, we operate this article. People are key and it’s not throughout Scotland and welcome all easy to find dedicated individuals. Add inquiries. to that the need to be fluent in Gaelic, and you can understand how challenging Suas leis a’ Ghàidhlig! www.scottish-orienteering.org 21 Tracking and Mapping Ticks By RITA RIBEIRO & DR. HARRIET AUTY

Improve mapping of ticks and Lyme disease risk in Scotland – your participation needed!

Rita Ribeiro, PhD student, Scotland’s Rural College and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, and Dr. Harriet Auty, Veterinary Epidemiologist, Scotland’s Rural College.

My name is Rita Ribeiro, and I started my PhD in October 2017 with the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). The main objective of the research is to identify areas in Scotland with higher risk of tick bites and of Lyme disease infection. As orienteers you will know that the number of reported cases of Lyme disease has been increasing in Scotland, especially in the Highlands. However there is little information available about the rate at which people encounter ticks in the environment, which would help us to understand the reasons for the increasing reporting RITA COUNTING TICKS

rate, and how we might reduce Lyme Credit: Dr H. Auty disease risk. The ecology of the tick (Ixodes ricinus in Europe) and the whilst engaging in outdoor activities, bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.) such as camping, walking, running, that cause Lyme disease are complex cycling, climbing, orienteering, or and depend on factors related to forestry work. The results of this project the presence of suitable hosts (such will help to provide better and more as rodents and birds which can both up to date information on tick-human feed the tick and that can transmit encounters and high-risk areas for ticks. the bacterium to the tick), habitat and For this project we are aiming weather. This means that tick density, to engage with people who work and the rate that people encounter outdoors, or regularly participate in ticks, is very variable. activities outdoors, i.e. people who are In order to learn more about tick frequently exposed to the risk of tick encounter rates, and how they vary with bites. We are therefore particularly different geographical areas, habitats keen for orienteers to participate in this and times of year, my supervisors and I project, given the range of different have developed a citizen science project geographical areas and habitats used where volunteers report the number of for the sport and how frequently many ticks or tick bites they find on themselves of you get ticks!

22 www.scottish-orienteering.org What does participation involve? to September 2020. Although we PORTION Participation involves making a quick encourage volunteers to participate OF TICKAPP report after each outdoor activity that regularly, you do not have to commit DATA ENTRY you do, telling us a few things about the to continuing to report until the end of FORM. activity and whether you found any ticks the project – any reports are welcomed. or not. We have developed a website All volunteers will be informed of the and an Android app through which results and how we have interpreted you can report, with a few quick and the data we have collected. easy questions. Important points in the We will also be attending some website and app are: orienteering events where we will • We are only interested in ticks seen on collect information on how often people - either crawling on the body people have picked up ticks during the or clothes or as a tick bite. Please do event and carry out sampling of ticks in not report ticks seen on vegetation the environment, so we look forward or pets. to meeting some of you over the next • Data on tick absence is as important year or so. as data on tick presence, so please do report all of your activities, even if How do I get involved? you do not find any ticks. Please do get involved in this citizen science project by following the link Extract from TickApp data https://epidemiology.sruc.ac.uk/ collection form projects/lyme_disease_risk/ Data collection started from June and help us to gather more information 2018 and we currently have several about the risks that ticks pose. In the groups of volunteers collecting meantime, if you have any questions, data. The project will run every tick do not hesitate to contact me – rita. season (March to October) through [email protected]. www.scottish-orienteering.org 23 From the Field – Elites in Europe

By SASHA CHEPELIN (EUOC, Halden SK)

World University Orienteering Championships 2018, Kuortane, Finland

THE BI-ANNUAL FISU World University Long. The Middle the next day was no Champs took place this year in Kuortane, exception, as it hit a very humid 33°C, 2.5m-contour-interval-Finland. The event with a number of retirees and medics is unique, most notably since only 3 instructed to extinguish finishers with athletes podium in each race (not 6), and water because of the temperature. I every champion is celebrated by playing suffered after a good start, but it was the rather bleak FISU national anthem one of those cases where although I (every. single. time.), but also because walked as much as I ran the last few the races are somewhat inferior to the controls, so had everyone else, so my larger championships. Don’t get me result was better than it felt. The terrain wrong though – it’s a big deal to win the was beautifully typical of Scandinavia, so I SASHA races, as they often become precursors was happy to finish as first non-Nordic, as CHEPELIN for upcoming stars in orienteering. someone nicely pointed out afterwards.

Credit: JWOC2017 Marjo Lalli For me, the races were perhaps the The following Sprint was excellently most relaxed major champs I have ever planned but still proved to be very fast run. After having lived and trained in with 7m of total climb. Thankfully, my Halden for several months, I was keen legs had recovered well and let me to see how my form had changed spend more of my focus on the intricate since last season. I had no goals; these route choices. I had a near-perfect race, would serve no purpose for me except losing maybe ten seconds, but it took disappointment should they not be me a further three hours to be awarded reached, especially as my current 5th place, as two of my controls hadn’t orienteering technique could produce registered and some control-watching any kind of position. However, with GB’s saints vouched for me once the race excellent result two years ago in the was finished. I was aware that my pace sprint relay, it was tempting to think needed work, but I’m proud to have run something similar could happen. as well as I did on another very warm day.

This was my debut at the event and Unfortunately, the Relay didn’t go it was exciting, with the highlight being to plan with my team suffering slightly the pre-race jog over to the changeover after the tough week, although I was with everyone on your leg. At WOC relieved to run a bit more relaxed and it this may have been the most awkward was lovely to see the GBR B team finish process ever, but here there was some as 7th nation! I’m happy with the results, great pre-race chat with some athletes but after being dominated at O-Ringen taking to the F1 swerving technique to the following week my hunger for warm up their wheels. In the end, the improvement is enormous and I hope to courses were almost solely dependent perform better at the 2018 World Cups on speed but we still fought for a at home in Halden! credible 4th position, classic GBR. Full results, video and photos can be Middle races are interesting in that found here: they can often be much tougher than a http://www.wuoc2018.com/

24 www.scottish-orienteering.org

By ALAN CHERRY (EBOR, Nydalens SK)

World Orienteering Championships 2018, Riga, Sigulda, Latvia

The forest floor was hard and fast but the dense vegetation and fallen trees made progress slow.

The middle race was tricky and saw many top runners making big mistakes. Including our own Ralph Street losing almost two minutes on the first control, but then turning his run around and finishing only two minutes down on gold in a very good 13th place. In the women’s race Megan Carter Davis came a respectable 20th place.

The forest relay was held in similar terrain, and while the women’s race ended in an unfortunate mispunch for GB, the men’s race was an exciting battle. After two very solid legs from Peter Hodkinson and Kris Jones, Ralph Street was sent out in 3rd place, but with ten or more other teams with world class ALAN CHERRY runners. After a nail-biting finish, team

Credit: WOC2018 JLigats GB came 6th place.

THE WORLD ORIENTEERING The final race was the long distance. Championships 2018 were held in the Some new information about the terrain streets of Riga city centre and the was given at the last minute, and the steep, densely-forested river valleys of race would start with pit hunting in flat the Guaja River, one hour east of Riga. green forest before entering the usual ravine terrain. Alan Cherry was very The week started with the sprint pleased with a respectable 26th in a competitions. Team GB managed a strong field (and beat Hector Haines!). full house through the qualifiers and Jessica Tullie had the best result from GB the top results were Alice Leake with a with 25th place. fantastic 8th place, and Kris Jones with 10th place. The sprint relay was again WOC 2018 was a great week, but one an exciting battle between many teams, that was characterised by many ‘near- and team GB ended up in 7th place after misses’ for team GB. The squad is strong, being caught up by the Maja Alm train. full of the ’91 vintage, and hungry for more. Next stop Norway 2019! The focus was then shifted to the forest. The terrain was mostly scary Full results, video and photos can be green slopes with few obvious features. found here: https://www.woc2018.lv/ www.scottish-orienteering.org 25 Athlete Profile

Peter & Morag McLuckie, and their children, Kate and Finlay, are members of Moravian Orienteers, and live in Elgin, Moray.

THE McLUCKIE FAMILY

Photo credit: Morag McLuckie

How long have you been for me. I have gradually made Which clubs have you been a orienteering? How were you my way up to running my age part of? introduced to the sport? category with my first major We’ve all only ever been a Morag (W45) attempt being the Scottish part of Moravian. It is a great I was introduced to Champs this year. club to be a member of, with a orienteering by my Dad in Kate (W10) thriving group of Juniors. the 1980s, when it was a I started orienteering about very new sport in Moray. I 4 years ago at the Moray & What’s your clearest early then orienteered as a Forres Highland Junior championships memory of orienteering? Academy pupil, with maths organised by Mike Rodgers. I Morag teacher Peggie Gordon went along because I had got I have happy early driving us to events all over a leaflet at school about local memories of orienteering the country – in a landrover! I orienteering events. I also as part of a W15 team in the stopped orienteering for about got really inspired to do more British Schools championships 25 years before re-starting, orienteering when Tessa Hill in Birmingham (I think!) I also thanks to my children. I initially (now Strain) came to our school remember the Tayside’85 and just shadowed them on White to talk to us a few years ago. Loch Lomond ‘89 Scottish 6 courses but then ran W40S Finlay (M10) Day events being highlights courses two years ago and I did my first event in of my early orienteering days. started running W45L last year. Culbin in 2014 when I was 5 My worst early memory is Peter (M45) years old. My Mum and my of a failing headtorch at a When the rest of the family sister persuaded me to do Night O Event (in Darnaway?) started orienteering a few orienteering one Saturday and feeling very alone and years ago, I helped Finlay to instead of football. I thought very lost! It took a lot of begin with and eventually, as it was really fun but everyone courage for me to attempt he became more confident, I else seemed to do it very and complete the Scottish decided to have a go myself. quickly! After that I started to Night O Champs in Darnaway In truth, he became too fast do more events with my family. last year.

26 www.scottish-orienteering.org their own level. I love being How do you train? outdoors and orienteering Morag offers such an incredible We go to as many events variety of different outdoor as we can fit in around experiences (as was other activities (although demonstrated at the recent thankfully, at the moment Lakes 5 Day!). It also offers everyone seems happy to constant physical and mental make orienteering events challenges and although it can a priority!) We go to Club be extremely frustrating, this training sessions when they only seems to make me want happen, do the Moravian to get out and do more of it! Athlete Development (MAD) Peter courses which are great Being outdoors and and go out and practise exercising is the main draw. with old maps occasionally I am a fairly stubborn person (which we call “imaginary KATE AND FINLAY and get incredibly frustrated orienteering”). Photo credit: Morag McLuckie by mistakes when orienteering Peter (of which I make too many). I Training is mainly ‘on the Peter want to prove to myself that I job’ given other commitments I remember seeing can do it well and live in hope during the week. I keep fit by orienteers in the Boat Inn in that the dream will become running and cycling. I do enjoy Aboyne (my local-ish) in the a reality at some point. Also, the de-briefs after events with early 90s when there must I would be on my own at the rest of the family involving have been a major event on in weekends otherwise. the perusal of maps and the the area. In those days I was Kate ‘why on earth did I do that’ more into navigating around Orienteering makes me conversations. That’s kind of pubs than forests and fells. happy and I aim to stick training for me. Kate with it for my whole life Kate I remember when I was because I don’t know what I always try to go to training really little, doing a type of I’d do without it and have big and events when they are string course with my Grandpa ambitions for the future!! I on. I do have to juggle in the Park in Aberlour. There think it builds up your level of orienteering with lots of other were pictures of Disney resilience a lot and I now will activities, such as orchestra, characters at each control. never give up on anything, no swimming and theatre group Finlay matter how long it takes or at the weekends. I can remember my first how challenging it is. Finlay event in Culbin which was Finlay I sometimes train with the the Moray & Highland Junior I’ve stuck with orienteering Moray Roadrunners Club Champs. My Dad shadowed because I like maps and I like in Elgin which improves me around the White. running - and it is a really good my running. I’m also in the challenge. Once I started going school running club which What about orienteering has to events, I just wanted to go happens once a week. made you stick with it? back and do more! Also I have Over the course of a week Morag made friends in Moravian and I also do other sports such Everyone in the family all over Scotland that I enjoy as tennis, badminton and enjoys it and can do it at seeing at orienteering events. football. www.scottish-orienteering.org 27 Strength & Conditioning By MEHMET KARATAY (BASOC)

Use Your Glutes - Part 1

HOW DID YOU perform in last if needed. Before doing these tests, and your upper back. There should be month’s movement screen? We perform a five-minute warm-up a natural hollow between your lower looked at energy leaks, and how focusing on getting your body active; back and the doorframe. Can you poor movement patterns can set an easy jog or some star jumps, tilt your pelvis backward to remove you up for injury. If you did the followed by a run-through of the this gap? screen you may have found several exercises before doing them as tests, Try it on both sides. If you can, points that need work. Over the is ideal. During the warm-up avoid great; your hip flexor muscles have next two issues we’ll delve deeper holding the test positions statically, sufficient mobility to allow you to into how well you use your glutes instead focus on moving in and out of use your glutes well. If you struggle, and find out how to improve, if the positions. this test is also a good stretch for needed. When you get this right, Mobility increasing your mobility: work on your running feels like you’ve Good mobility lets your body coming in and out of the position shifted down a gear to overtake! physically get in position to use the twenty times, trying to go a bit The gluteus maximus is your right muscles at the right time. The further each time. Massaging your largest muscle and its main role is required mobility is sport-dependent. hip flexor may also help. If you easily keeping you upright and propelling A road runner needs less hip mobility removed the gap then there is no you upward and forward[1]. In than a steeplechaser; orienteering need to work on improving your hip the Western world it is chronically is somewhere in between. These flexor mobility, and doing so may underused due to the hours we two tests will focus on the mobility even lead to other issues. A similar, spend sitting each day. Large muscles around your hip joint. more detailed, test can be found produce more force and avoid fatigue here: https://youtu.be/KCADorwJ6Ik. for longer, especially if they are The second test looks at hamstring strong. How well are you using your flexibility. Lie flat on your back and glutes? When you run uphill which then raise one leg as high as you can part of your legs feel the burn? If the while keeping it straight. Measure the answer is your bum, you are probably angle your leg makes with the ground on track already, so well done. and then repeat for the other leg. 70° is good for road runners, 90° degrees Initial position, for hurdles and steeplechasers. For showing hollow in back running through terrain 80° degrees is a better number to aim for. If you can’t quite manage these angles, Gluteus Maximus you will be slower running through terrain, or using other parts of your To use any part of your body well, body to compensate, leading to three things are needed: mobility energy leaks as described in the of the area, control of the muscles, previous issue. Improving mobility and strength. In this piece we’ll focus takes time, and this test itself can on checking and improving mobility Pass position. The flat become a useful exercise, although and control, and leave strength for back removes the hollow there are also plenty of others. Work the next issue. Following are simple on this on your rest days and after tests of your glute function and For the first test, kneel in a your runs. Please, please, do not do some remedial exercises that can doorframe with the door frame these stretches as part of your warm- be performed to optimise function touching the inside of your back leg up for orienteering.

28 www.scottish-orienteering.org Control in your glutes is fine. If you The Clam (https://youtu.be/y- Good control means your brain experienced lower back pain, then s7nasg18o) and the Donkey Kick knows when and how to send you have some major movement (https://youtu.be/SJ1Xuz9D-ZQ) electrical signals to your muscles to flaws and are initiating movement are great exercises to teach you get them to work as needed. Your with your lower back instead of your to initiate movement from the brain also needs to know which glutes, which will be happening as glutes as well as improving stability muscles to coordinate for maximum you run as well. and control. These exercises are power and stability. If you managed 30 seconds with about control, not strength, so no pain, take a break and then try aim to be able to do plenty of the single-leg glute bridge: lift one repetitions, perhaps three sets of leg so that your shoulders-hips- 50 comfortably, before you move knees-and-ankles are in line. to strength training. These should be at a low intensity so they only get difficult near the end of the set, if at all. One way of learning to engage your glutes, once you are able to do the clam and donkey kick exercises Initial position comfortably, is to do the glute bridge with someone pressing down on your hips with most of Straight line = pass their body weight. Your lower back won’t be strong enough to hold this position so you’ll have to use your glutes. Strength Once you have the required mobility and control, it’s time Straight line = pass to work on getting your glutes To check your level of control stronger. This will help you increase your endurance and over your glutes and smaller Hip drop = fail stabilising muscles, lie on your your power to enable you to use back on the floor with bent knees, This time check if your hips stay your new movement patterns. keeping your hands off the ground. level throughout or if one side of If the muscle tires, weaker and Push your hips up to make your pelvis drops. You should be less appropriate muscles will a straight line between your able to hold this position without compensate leading to an energy shoulders, hips and knees. Can cramp in your hamstrings. If you did leak. Stronger muscles keep going you hold this glute bridge for 30 experience a pelvic drop or cramp, for longer – part two of ‘Use Your seconds? Stop if you have discomfort you need to work on hip stability Glutes,’ in the next issue, will in your lower back; discomfort before working on strength. discuss this further.

Suggested Reading: Run Like an Athlete, Jay Dicharry, Lotus Press, 2013 Citations: (1) Library of Congress, Science Reference Service, https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/muscles.html www.scottish-orienteering.org 29 Distance Judgement. Part 2 By HELEN O’DONOGHUE (SOLWAY)

I hope you have had the opportunity to practice using “ticking off” and “catching features” - the techniques mentioned in the last article. These won’t always be enough to get you round some of the more technical courses, so it’s now time to add pacing to your skill set.

PACING • Pacing is important if you are heading down a track or ride which Put simply, pacing is a technique peters out - the location of the end which allows you to work out, from of such a feature may have moved the number of paces counted, since the map was drawn and it will roughly how far you have gone or be important to have a feel for this. need to go. Developing this skill takes a bit of time and effort, and the However, a word of warning: first thing to do is to work out how this method has its limitations and many steps you take to cover 100 should be used in conjunction with meters. other orienteering techniques. It is not 100% accurate and the typical Situations where this technique can error is about 10%. Being 10m out be useful include: on 100 is not too serious, but 40m • When running in an unfamiliar in 400m could create problems, so area it aids making the map it follows that it is not suitable for “fit”. This is especially true if the sole use in judgement of longer terrain is very complex where distances. Whenever possible you knowing the distance covered should ‘tick off’ distinctive features assists in identifying features or to confirm your position and restart distinguishing between similar counting from zero. It is also worth features. remembering that in some situations • If there is a section of track running, pacing is of little use, e.g. on very pacing will help to prevent over or steep or extremely rough terrain under estimation of the distance where your stride length will be covered. inconsistent.

MAP SCALE & ATTACK POINTS

Remember that orienteering maps are not all drawn to the same scale so it is important that you check every time you go orienteering as to which scale is in use for that competition. The information is usually shown in two forms, a ratio and a bar which is divided up into 100-metre sections. Here are the more common map scales which are generally in use.

30 www.scottish-orienteering.org Tip: Performing complicated mental arithmetic while competing is far from easy. It is much simpler to know how many units of 100 m you need to cover and use your fingers to keep track.

At this point it is worth introducing another technique which you can use alongside pacing: attack points. Attack points should be large &/or distinctive features which will be easy to identify - in this example it is a track junction. From this point pacing can be used to prevent over-shooting the control.

Activities topic it is a good idea to have a b) Access to Condes and some 100-metre section marked out knowledge of how it works… To kick things off here is a to enable some initial practice or make friends with your link to a short You Tube video – in Solway we try to revisit club’s mapping guru. on the subject of pacing by this topic at least once a year, Plan your course so that the SOA’s very own Hilary Quick: not just for those learning this controls are located on mapped https://www.youtube.com/ skill but also as a refresher for features and then remove all watch?v=jY7ZcZ22g5A. experienced orienteers. It is a colours and details so that only 1) Now it is time to work out how popular topic. Here are some the course is printed. many double paces you take to ideas to get the ball rolling: cover 100 metres, following the a) Ask the group to pace 100 method outlined above. Make meters along a chosen route sure to practice while walking, and stop when they think they running, going uphill, downhill, have gone far enough. You contouring, going across rough might be surprised at who is ground, path running and as the most accurate! many other distinctive terrains b) White Map – This is an ideal as are available to you. exercise for using an area 2) Visit an orienteering area which which is technically easy where has public access and for which the controls can be easily you have an orienteering map. seen from a distance, e.g. Choose a short path route park, school grounds. Set up which has lots of junctions or a course which uses a “white” distinctive features. Pace each map (see example on right). section of the route and make a Ask the group to pace out the note of what distance you think distances between controls each one is. When you have and then tell you the distance finished check your answers in meters. Above is the same course – one using the scale on the map. To set the White Map exercise up showing the map and the other 3) Ask your club coach to set up an you will need the following: with the details removed, exercise based around pacing. a) A map of a park, school leaving only a ‘white’ map. Before any exercise on this grounds or similar

The next topic will be IOF pictorial descriptions www.scottish-orienteering.org 31 Junior Orienteering News Junior International Competitions and Training Camps

By RONA LINDSAY (ESOC) SOA Regional Development Officer South/Central

AS ALWAYS, there have been a host of junior international competitions and camps throughout the summer, and Scotland has been well represented.

First up was the European Youth Orienteering special, I haven’t suddenly become incredible. I just Championships (EYOC) for M/W16s and 18s. did the right things at the right times, I prepared as Held in Bulgaria at the end of June, five Scots well as I could, and I had a decent race on the day. competed for team GB: Eilidh Campbell To learn that that’s all it takes to achieve amazing (MAROC), Megan Keith (INVOC), Lizzie results is huge for me, and I hope that young Brits Stansfield (FVO), Matthew Gooch (MAROC) and realize that too.” Peter Molloy (FVO). Other JWOC highlights include a top 20 For all except Eilidh, this was their first time (17th) for Grace, also in the sprint, a 4th place competing internationally at this level and it was on Leg 1 of the relay for Eddie, 4th overall for a great opportunity to gain some experience Grace in the girls GBR1 relay team (the best and see what competing at this level is all about. British result at JWOC), and 7th for Alex and They competed in a Sprint, Long and Relay. The Matt in the boys GBR1 relay team (the third best highlight of the weekend has to be the fantastic British result at JWOC). Gold medal won by Megan in the sprint, GB’s first ever female medal at EYOC! There were also top Later in July (21st-28th) there was the British 20 finishes for Peter (Long 15th) and Matthew Orienteering Talent Camp at Blencathra in (Sprint 19th, Long 16th). Megan said afterwards: the Lake District. Eight Scottish juniors were “It was lots of fun and a great experience! The sprint invited to attend; this camp is intended to give day was definitely the highlight for me as I got my M/W16s a chance to experience what being in best result but all the days were enjoyable! Goals the Talent Squad is like and gives coaches an for the future: to keep improving my navigation and opportunity to get to know them. Alice Wilson gain more experience.” (CLYDE) reports: “I really enjoyed the week of training as on each day we tackled different basic Next up was the Junior World Orienteering orienteering skills as well as different orienteering Championships (JWOC) for M/W18s and 20s. disciplines. We started on the first day by doing There were six Scottish juniors or club members exercises that broke down our orienteering and in the GB team competing at this event in focused on the basic skills, so that throughout the Hungary 9th-14th July: Grace Molloy (FVO), week we could build upon what we had worked on Laura King (EUOC), Emma Wilson (CLYDE/EUOC), the first day and so that by the end of the camp Matthew Fellbaum (EUOC), Alex Carcas (INT/ we were practicing our racing techniques.” EUOC) and Eddie Narbett (EUOC). Races on offer were Long, Sprint, Middle Qualifier and Final, Into August and the JROS camps began. First and Relay. All the athletes performed well over up were Lagganlia (M/W14s) and Deeside (M/ the week but the stand out performance goes to W15s and 16s) running in parallel 4th-11th July. Matt Fellbaum for his fantastic Silver medal in the Based in Scotland, these camps are a great way tricky sprint race! Speaking to Matt later in the to get to know other juniors from across the UK summer, he said: “Getting a medal at JWOC was and are usually lots of fun, with this year’s being incredible! To pull off a great race when it counts is no exception. The juniors reported: such an amazing feeling, and to share the day with some of my best friends made it all even better.” He “I had the best time at Lagganlia! I loved all added “It felt absurd. I have idolised people who get the different types of training that we did and it medals at JWOC for so long, and now I am one of helped my orienteering in so many different ways, those people. It was very enlightening: I did nothing all the coaches worked so hard to give us the best

32 www.scottish-orienteering.org experience possible and it definitely paid off. We Stockholm and Gothenburg JROS camps all made lots of new friends and had an amazing rounded off the summer, also for the older week that was so fun and rewarding!” – juniors (M/W17s and M/W18s respectively), Anna Cox (BASOC) these are slightly longer tours, approximately ten days, and give the athletes a chance to go “Deeside was a great opportunity for me to to a camp abroad in tricky Scandinavian terrain. improve my orienteering whilst having fun with There were again lots of Scottish juniors at my friends! During the week we had two or three these camps. The juniors said: training sessions every day. We also had a sprint “Stockholm was an extremely enjoyable race, a night-O and finally a classic race to practice experience with a lot of lovely scandi skog ;) The the techniques we had learnt during the week training was very useful with many a fun swim in but this time under pressure. The highlight of tour between.”- Lizzie Stansfield (FVO) personally was running through the ‘pengaluscious skog’ of Glen Dye on the classic race at the end of “The tour was a great experience spending 12 the week. For me, the low point of the week was days training and competing in the amazing but getting pooed on by a bird, whilst eating my ice hard Swedish forests, everyone got on really well cream in the rain. #passion4fashion #yellowjersey and had a lot of fun :)” – Mairi Eades (INT) #zestypoints” – Pippa Carcas (INT) “I liked the forests, which were good for training. They were rapid and we got some good “The week was a great experience with some racing in. Rhys (coach) let me try out his compass amazing training and superb areas, set in idyllic which worked much better than mine!” – Strathspey and based at Lagganlia. During Peter Molloy (FVO) the course of the camp we worked on both “The Stockholm trip was a great experience. teambuilding and orienteering which together With the new terrain and coaches to support me I made it a superb week.” have come away with new skills to develop. It also For the older juniors there was an gave me an idea of the performing level others opportunity to go to a British Orienteering outside UK run at.” – Matthew Gooch (MAROC) Pre-JWOC camp in Silkeborg, Denmark, which is held each year where the Junior World Champs As always, none of these tours could have will be the following summer. Those who attend happened without the support of the volunteer are juniors who will be in the mix for the team. coaches involved. Having coached on a number There were ten from Scotland or Scottish clubs of these tours myself over the last few years at the camp. The camp had a mix of forest and I can say how much fun they are as well as sprint sessions and there was the opportunity being really rewarding, I would definitely for first leg relay practice with runners from recommend getting involved if you are at all Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Tom Lines interested in coaching. Even if you don’t have (ECKO/EUOC) commented: “The Pre-JWOC tour much experience, there are a range of roles was very useful to me in preparation for next required on each tour and there’s something year’s competition in Denmark. The areas around for everyone. Get in touch if you’d like more Silkeborg/Aarhus are quite unique and I enjoyed information! the fast and technical slopes of the terrain. The combination of classroom/physical sessions gave Full results, video and photos of EYOC 2018 me a good overall idea of how the courses might can be found here: http://eyoc2018.eu/, and look next year.” the 2018 JWOC here: http://jwoc2018.hu/ www.scottish-orienteering.org 33 Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad Junior Summer Tour

By ELIZABETH FURNESS (MOR) ScotJOS Team Manager

IF IT’S AN even year, it’s himself as a general supporter/ of the areas were generously ScotJOS summer tour, and driver giving us just enough covered with juniper and a this year we were off to people to drive the juniors type of broom, so using what Gotland, the Swedish island around but not enough to features you could was also in the middle of the Baltic. shop, cook and cater as well. required. The destination for our tour A plea in SCORE resulted in a We were able to train in came about when I received phone call from Moira Laws areas that had similar terrain an email out of the blue from (TAY) who is a well-qualified to the 3 Day competition so we an M18 with a Scottish name and experienced coach, but felt well prepared when the (Duncan Robertson) but with a offered to fill the catering time came. The event format Swedish email address; he was role. Finally, Calum McLeod is Middle-Middle-Long (with enquiring about opportunities (GRAMP) was signed up as Chasing Start), making for an for competing in Scotland coach/driver which gave us exciting finale to our camp. The and in the following email flexibility to send control top nine in each age class wear ‘conversation’ which included hangers out ahead of the main bibs showing their current his dad, Iain, I mentioned that group. The team was complete position and I’m pleased to I was looking at options for at last. say there were several from our 2018 camp and explained Anyone I spoke to about ScotJOS who had to pick up a what that entailed, including Gotland said how different bib at the start though there wanting a competition towards the terrain was from mainland were mixed results by the the end of the tour. Within finish with gains and losses in a month, Iain had organised placings. Nevertheless, there the Gotlands BRO club house, were a number of trophies reserved minibuses and cars which had to be packed for the and arranged our ferry tickets homeward journey, notably plus a coach to transfer us Matthew Gooch (MAROC) 1st from Arlanda airport to the in M16, Peter Molloy (FVO) 3rd ferry terminal. There was also in M16, Izzy Cox (BASOC) 3rd the Gotland 3 Days at the end in W16, and Ewan Musgrave of our proposed dates – all Sweden and the map files (MAROC) 3rd in M14. meant to be! certainly looked ‘interesting’ So, I had 24 very eager with all the contour intervals juniors ready to sign up and 2.5m, some fairly white areas ‘just’ needed coaches/drivers/ of the map and some quite cooks... which aren’t as easy to detailed and craggy rock source as you might expect (all features. The reality turned out expenses are paid by ScotJOS). to be quite a challenge to our Rona Lindsay (ESOC) and Phil usual ‘Scottish’ orienteering Vokes (LUOC) signed up early mindset of using contours to as coaches and able to drive, aid navigation. It soon became Of course, the non-forest and then Alison Matheson apparent that accurate use of time was just as enjoyable; (INVOC) pitched in to help compass was key, although the experiencing several different with catering followed by white forest was not always places to swim, a walk Max Carcas (INT) who offered easy to get through as a lot around the World Heritage

34 www.scottish-orienteering.org city of Visby, discovering the many and varied fossils on the beach right below our accommodation, marvelling at the enormous sea stacks on the tiny island of Faro and entertaining our host club (Gotlands BRO OK) with home- SCOTJOS CONQUERS GOTLAND made shortbread and dancing Photo by: R. Lindsay to the excellent piping of Louis McMillan, the video of which cheese plus fruit, salad, cake, as an orienteering holiday featured on their club website. ice cream and many melons destination. During the eleven days we (we loved watermelon!). Alison Our last weekend with the planned seventeen different and Moira did an outstanding current ScotJOS squad is Last exercises on five different job of shopping, preparing and Blast on Sept 1st & 2nd when areas, went to a local evening cooking* so we were all well we will be saying goodbye to training event, used the 2 Days fed. the second year 18s, Grace as training and competed at *with support from Max on Molloy (FVO), Jura Macmillan the Gotlands 3 Days with over the bbq! (ECKO) and Joe Wright a thousand orienteers from Many thanks to the team (MAROC). It is also my farewell across Scandinavia. The food of coaches/cooks and to the after a whirlwind 3 years which consumed included many juniors for being such great I have really enjoyed. I am kilos of pasta and potatoes, ambassadors of Scottish going to complete my Level 3 200 burgers, 200 hotdogs, orienteering. It was my second coaching qualification and aim 500 meatballs, 125 pieces of ScotJOS tour and sixth time in to continue as a personal coach fish, 6kg of Jagtskinka, 100 Sweden with juniors, and I can as well as volunteering at the loaves of bread, several kilos of definitely recommend Gotland odd squad weekend.

The following comments and feedback were received once everyone was home – this really makes it feel worthwhile. Thank YOU. “The girls have not stopped talking about it since they came home - a great experience in orienteering terms and memories that will last a lifetime ... thank you so much.” “[W16] had a GREAT time” “Thank you very much for organising and leading the tour. It was lots of fun in different areas and terrain. I felt that I really benefited from it and would defiantly [sic] go back again, especially with the ScotJos family. Thanks again for all your hard work.” “Immense thanks to everybody involved in the “ScotJOS Sweden Tour”. [W18] had a fabulous time with a fantastic group of people. She loved everything about her experience there.” [From Iain in Gotland] “I bumped into Karin and Kjell from GotlandsBro in town yesterday and they left glowing reports of ScotJOS, especially your ceilidh evening which seems to have a made an impression!” www.scottish-orienteering.org 35 World Masters By STEVE WILSON (CLYDE)

World Masters Orienteering Championships 2018

LIKE THE “REAL” World races for each discipline on similar training equipment, and even Orienteering Championship terrain. There were too many good a piano, and many of the legs (WOC), the World Masters Scottish performances to list here, involved solving brain-bending Orienteering Championships with many people making some or three-dimensional puzzles where (WMOC) are held in a different all of the three possible A Finals, the fastest route was almost country each year; however, but (despite some near misses) never the shortest and sometimes unlike WOC, WMOC is open to all in the end no Scots came home involved going up or down one or orienteers over 35 years of age with a medal this year. Personally, more levels. I did the “Hardcore who have the time, money and I’m currently exactly on the for Men” course (yes, that’s really enthusiasm to take part. “A/B borderline,” with the result what it was called), and spent over This year’s WMOC was held in that I qualified for the A finals 40 minutes thinking harder than eastern Denmark, i.e. just about in the Sprint and in the Middle I can ever remember doing at a as close to the UK as it could be by one second and one place, regular orienteering event. Indoor without actually being in the UK. respectively, but just failed to get orienteering must be very tricky It was therefore no surprise that out of the “relegation zone” and to organise and requires extensive there was a large entry from so ran the B final in the Long. marshalling of one-way corridors, the UK (279 entries – the 5th The terrain was rather better closed doors and taped-off areas, largest after the Scandinavian than expected and the weather not to mention the possibility countries), including a healthy was excellent. While the Sprint of injury due to collisions if the Scottish contingent, with an qualification was held in a fairly competitors try to run too hard, especially large turnout from FVO. forgettable science park, the but it is certainly an exciting Competitors compete for Sprint, Sprint final offered a sterner addition to our multi-faceted Middle and Long Distance titles in technical challenge right in the sport. the usual age classes from M/W35 historic heart of Copenhagen Overall, it was an excellent up to M/W100. Unfortunately, beside the Danish Parliament in week of varied competition with the only M100 who had entered Christiansborg Castle. The Middle plenty of opportunity to sightsee wasn’t able to run, and so the and Long races were in rolling, and (Shakespeare’s Elsinore, Louisiana single M95 was actually the oldest generally pretty runnable, forests Museum of Modern Art, and competitor this year. Interestingly, on the north coast and in the the Karen Blixen Museum were the largest class this year was M70 centre of Zealand, respectively. particular highlights), check out with 385 entries. However, for me the highlight of the extensive beaches, and even The format of WMOC has the week wasn’t actually part of (just!) fit in a Danish parkrun changed somewhat over the years, the official competition but was on the morning of the Sprint but currently consists of Sprint and a fantastic indoor orienteering qualification. Next year’s WMOC is Middle Distance qualification races event held in a complex, multi- also quite accessible (and possibly sorting runners into A, B, C, D, level school in Naerum just as not as expensive) in Latvia, so and, in some classes even E, Sprint WMOC began. The double-sided why not sign up and test yourself and Middle finals (with the A final map had five interconnected against some of the top runners in determining the medallists), and levels, with taped-off areas, one- your age group from around the a Long Distance final determined way-only corridors, staircases, world? by the results of the Middle final and chicanes made from furniture (with “promotion” and “relegation” all marked. There were controls Further information and full between finals for the top and on toilets (marked as a wet pit), results can be found at: bottom 25% of each), plus model sinks (marked as a pond), strength http://www.wmoc2018.dk/

36 www.scottish-orienteering.org btoSOUL 2018 Series By PAT SQUIRE (INT) Urban League Coordinator

AFTER A GAP of nearly three months, there have been two events recently in July – SOUL 5 in the Menzieshill area of Dundee organised by TAY, and SOUL 6 in Denny organised by Sprint Scotland as part of their 5-day extravaganza of racing and coaching.

Despite being a challenging area for urban The remaining events are: courses, numbers at the TAY event were low, SOUL 8 15th Sep Aberdeen GRAMP probably as a result of being timed in the first SOUL 9 27th Oct Forres MOR week of many school holidays. By contrast far SOUL 10 3rd Nov Livingston (tbc) INT more took part in the sprint event in Denny, especially with the Elite courses being allocated I am delighted to announce that bto World Ranking Event status. Solicitors, who have sponsored the series since 2014, are willing to continue their support into Both events offered participants challenging the 2019 series. courses requiring fine navigation at times We are most grateful to them for their together with rapid decisions as to route ongoing support and look forward to continued choice around areas not renowned for their association with them. architectural merit. The 2019 series is already starting to shape With the first event of this year’s series being up, with four events pencilled in to date. I voided, and few people having attended all of will write to all clubs later this year regarding the other five events to date, the categories the 2019 programme; any club who may be are still wide open. Three events are still to take considering offering an Urban event which place in the series, and we may well have to wait could be included in the series is invited to make until the final races in November before the contact with me at soul@scottish-orienteering. leagues are fully settled. org.

Thirty-first Tinto Twin Event By LORNA YOUNG (TINTO)

On Saturday and Sunday, 20th & 21st The night event will take place at Carmichael October 2018, Tinto Orienteering Club will Estate and the day event at Firpark, hold its thirty-first Tinto Twin event. Newbigging (subject to final permissions).

As Mark Twain would have said: The report Completing both the night and day events in of “our” death was an exaggeration. So Tinto the course assigned to your age class will mean proudly presents the 31st Edition of Britain’s that you are eligible to win a Tinto Twin Trophy only annual night and day orienteering (age classes 14+). competition - The Tinto Twin, born in 1988 and Full details available on the Tinto website still going strong - a bit younger than Johnnie (http://www.tintoorienteers.org/home/events/ Walkers! thirty-first-tinto-twin-night-event-2018/). www.scottish-orienteering.org 37 Fixtures & Clubs

Level A/B – National/Regional

15 Sept GRAMP – btoSOUL 8 Balgownie 19 Sept MA – Autumn Sprint Series Hallglen 23 Sept BASOC – CompassPoint SOL 3 Dunachtonmore 26 Sept MA – Autumn Sprint Series Denny 3 Oct MA – Autumn Sprint Series Grangemouth 6 Oct STAG – CompassPoint SOL 4 Errochty 27 Oct MOR – btoSOUL 9 Forres 28 Oct MOR – CompassPoint SOL 5 Roseisle 3 Nov INT – btoSOUL 10 Eliburn/Livingston 25 Nov RR – Scottish Score Champs Elibank Forest

Please confirm dates and locations prior to events at BOF Events page, SOA Events page, or at the club events page(s). https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/soa/category/fixtures-events https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/event Level C/D Local Events can be found at club events page(s).

Club information and links are provided below: AROS - Auld Reekie Orienteering Society INT - Interløpers OC • Edinburgh • Edinburgh • http://www.aroslegends.com/ • http://www.interlopers.org.uk/ AUOC - Aberdeen University OC INVOC - Inverness OC • Aberdeen • Inverness & Highlands • https://www.facebook.com/aberdeenorienteering/ • http://www.invoc.org.uk/ AYROC - Ayr OC • Ayrshire • https://www.ayroc.co.uk/ KFO - Kingdom of Fife Orienteers BASOC - Badenoch & Strathspey OC • Fife • http://www.kfo.org.uk/ • Speyside extending to Fort William MAROC - Mar OC • https://www.basoc.org.uk/ • Aberdeenshire • https://www.marocscotland.org.uk/ CLYDE - Clydeside Orienteers MA - MasterPlan Adventure • Glasgow, Renfrewshire & Dunbartonshire • http://www.masterplanadventure.uk/ • http://www.clydesideorienteers.org.uk/home/ MOR - Moravian Orienteers • Moray, Nairn & Banffshire ECKO - Loch Eck Orienteers • Argyll • http://www.moravianorienteering.org/ • http://www.ecko.org.uk/ RR - Roxburgh Reivers ELO - East Lothian Orienteers • Scottish Borders • http://roxburghreivers.org.uk/ • Edinburgh & the Lothians • http://www.elo.org.uk/ SOLWAY - Solway Orienteers ESOC - Edinburgh Southern OC • Dumfries & Galloway • Edinburgh & the Lothians • https://www.esoc.org.uk/ • http://www.solwayorienteers.co.uk/index.htm EUOC - Edinburgh University OC STAG - St Andrew’s (Glasgow) • Edinburgh University • Glasgow • http://www.stag-orienteering.co.uk/ • https://euoc.wordpress.com/ SUOC - Stirling University OC FVO - Forth Valley Orienteers • Stirling University • Stirling & surrounding areas • https://fvo.org.uk/ • https://www.facebook.com/StirUniOrienteering/ GUOC - Glasgow University OC TAY - Tayside Orienteers • Edinburgh & the Lothians • Dundee, Perthshire & Angus • https://www.facebook.com/groups/GUOC.Orienteering • https://www.taysideorienteers.org.uk/ GRAMP - Grampian Orienteers TINTO - Tinto OC • Lanarkshire • Aberdeenshire • https://grampoc.com/ • http://www.tintoorienteers.org/home/

38 www.scottish-orienteering.org Classic Forest Orienteering in Scotland

All races Sundays. Starts from 10:30 am. Compass Point Full range of colour-coded courses, Scottish Orienteering League from string courses for under-5s to 2018 10km+ Black courses for Elite orienteers. www.scottish-orienteering.org/sol 4 SOL 1 25th Mar AROS/GB Squad Auchengarrich www.compasspoint-online.co.uk 4 SOL 2 8th Apr ESOC Linn of Tummel

4 SOL 3 23rd Sep BASOC TBC

4 SOL 4 7th Oct STAG Errochty

4 SOL 5 28th Oct MOR Roseisle

Quality Urban Orienteering in Scotland Courses from under-12 to Ultravet bto Check website for full details Scottish Orienteering Urban League 4 (VOIDED) 2018 SOUL 1 20th Jan EUOC Edinburgh 4 SOUL 2 4th Feb ESOC Broxburn www.scottish-orienteering.org/soul 4 SOUL 3 25th Feb RR Tweedbank

4 SOUL 4 10th Mar FVO Stirling University

4 SOUL 5 7th July TAY Dundee (Menzieshill)

4 SOUL 6 21st July Sprint Scotland Denny Summerston

4 SOUL 7 26th Aug tbc STAG Glasgow

4 SOUL 8 15th Sept GRAMP Aberdeen

4 SOUL 9 27th Oct MOR Forres

4 SOUL 10 3rd Nov INT Livingston email Sarah Hobbs, Membership & Communications Officer ([email protected]) with your

Var. 05

Britain’s NationalNational OrientOrienteering Magazine CompassSport

Vol 38 Issue 1 February 2017 £5.00

The UK’s Orienteering Magazine

Packed with maps, event reports, coaching tips and advice, MTBO, Ticks Fixtures RC#5 Club O Tops Olympics Competitions Miika Maps Mountain Marathons/Rogaining, Competitions Sylvester 5 Day Copehill Down Informal Format Outdoor Indoor Var. 05 Product Reviews Training Format Multiday O Events Coaching Column and much much more. City Race European Tour Know Your Controller Mountain Marathon Calendar eering Magazine Britain’s NationalNational OrientOrient www.CompassSport.co.uk

CompassSport Vol 38 Issue 3 June 2017 £5.00 CompassSportVol 38 Issue 4 August 2017 £5.00 Subscribe online using all major credit cards at www.CompassSport.co.uk

52 pages, full colour, 6 times a year £35 for BOF Members and RC#5 JK2017 RC#5 Fixtures Jukola £36 for Non BOF Members. BOC 2017 BOK Blast Fixtures WMOC 2017 Coaching Iceland OMM WOC2017 Competitions Unicycle O CHIG Street O Competitions World Schools Saunders MM Product Reviews Informal Format Photo-O Solution Product Reviews Coaching Column Harvester Relays Know Your Controller Scottish Six Days UK Top Orienteers 2017 Bristol Photo Trail November Classic Controllers Conundum ‘A luxury you can afford.’ www.CompassSport.co.uk www.CompassSport.co.uk

December 2016 print version.indd 44 30/11/2016 00:05