Results of Long Score event on the Ochil Hills, 2nd July 2006

Organiser/Planner's Comments

I hadn't planned and organised an event alone before so wondered if I'd bitten off more than I could chew with deciding to organise an event in the Ochils. The club had some old Capricorn maps and the area hadn't been used for a while so seemed a good venue for a long event. I originally thought of doing a long "o" but then decided this required more planning experience than I had so decided to go for the easier planning option of a score event. When Findlay and I walked round the hills looking for suitable control sites it became obvious that the Capricorn map was very out of date. The fences and woodland areas were much altered. The Capricorn map was different from the OS Explorers map which was different from the Harvey's superwalker map. I had originally thought of having people bring their own 1:25000 maps but it became obvious this would restrict my control choice to hill tops and major streams, with people having to write down a lot of map changes before setting off. I phoned Harveys who said they were currently remapping the area and decided to order some pre-printed new maps. I also had to track down the landowners so paid a visit to David Gordon of the Friends of the Ochils who had all the info in a handy folder, landowners ranged from anonymous businesses in Liechtenstein to local farmers.

It was hot and sunny the day before and the morning of the event when we put out the controls. The bracken and nettles had grown since my last visit, making some of the controls harder to reach than expected.

23 people turned up to the event. 5 minutes after everyone set off a thunderstorm started. The storm was directly above us for a while with several orienteers withdrawing due to seeing lightening forks sending out sparks a few feet ahead. It rained for most of the 3 hours of the event. By the time we took in the controls the rain had changed to thick fog and I needed my compass to locate a couple of controls. An area that is normally very easy to navigate had become very tricky. It was very squelchy underfoot and I had the novel experience of a small, live slug inside my studs at the end.

Next time I'll think of adding "thunder storms" to my weather hazards in my risk assessment and may think about paying extra for the rainproof maps. It's frustrating to hear the English whinging about the hot sunny weather in the media!

Now I've got to sort out the controls for my Ochils Norwegian event.

Results: Some of the results were very impressive. Janice Nisbet won the short course (1 hour) with 90 points. The father and son hill runners Danny and John Hope got lots of points and covered a large area, but then lost a lot of points in time penalties. Bill Melville was the first Tay finisher with 85 points.

On the long course 3 runners got all controls inside 3 hours, Caspian Richards coming in in a very impressive 2h 26 min, followed shortly by his club mate Jon Cross in 2h32 min and then Neil Martin in 2h 46 min. Roos Eisma did very well coming in 4th overall on the course and being first (and only) woman on the long course and the first Tay finisher. Dick Amour and Bill Gauld also put in impressive performances.

Angela Dixon

Short Course

Long Course

4.0km, 205m climb

HOME | ABOUT THE CLUB | LATEST NEWS | FIXTURE LIST | RESULTS | CONTACT

If you have any problems or queries regarding this page or its contents, contact David Sloan - email: dsloan @computing.dundee.ac.uk

Content of this web site ©2000-2009 Tayside Orienteers unless otherwise acknowledged. All rights reserved. Terms of use.