Perth and Kinross Schools Championships - the Final 2009, 14th May

Review

Last Thursday, 345 primary school pupils representing the cream of Perth and Kinross's young orienteers competed in the Primary Schools Final at Scone Palace. They were in teams of three and came from schools as far away as Fossoway and Portmoak in the South, Kirkmichael and Glenlyon in the North. Kinross Primary with 11 teams had the most qualifiers and other schools with strength in depth were Viewlands (8 teams) and Abernethy and Forgandenny, both with 6. At the other end of the scale were small schools such as Blairingone, Collace and Glenlyon, some including P5 pupils to make up their team.

One of the interesting aspects of orienteering, certainly at the junior level, is the unpredictability of results. It is not always the fastest runners who triumph. The selection of an optimum route, precise navigation, teamwork, stamina and clear thinking all contribute to a good result. This turned out to be the case at Scone Palace where the navigation is more difficult than that experienced at the area championships. Two of the area winning teams dropped into 41st and 43rd places, yet other teams perhaps applied lessons learnt in the area finals and improved significantly. Most impressive was Mystic Monkeys from St John's, up from just qualifying in 33rd place to 8th in the final; the Viewlands team MAG improved from 23rd to 11th and The 3 Spartans from Dunning went from 19th to 7th.

There has been a spread of successful schools, with ten different schools being represented in the top-3 places over the past five years. Kenmore was last year's winners, with Luncarty, St Dominic's (twice) and Forgandenny being previous winners. This year the conditions were absolutely perfect for planning and preparing before the event, competing in it and relaxing on the lawns with a packed lunch afterwards. It would be very difficult to improve on the surroundings.

There were excellent performances during the 45 minutes of competition, with eleven teams scoring 500 or more points out of the 540 possible, equalling last year's record. In the top twenty teams were (in alphabetic order) teams from Abernethy, Blackford, Breadalbane, Craigie, Dunning(3), Kenmore(2), Kirkmichael, Logierait, Oakbank, Pitlochry(2), Stanley, St Dominic's, St John's, Tulloch and Viewlands(2).

The top six teams all consolidated on fine performances in the area finals. Sixth was The Highlanders from Pitlochry on 520 points who visited all 27 controls, but incurred a time penalty for coming in 3.06 mins late. Also on 520 points but just within the time limit was EEJ Sports (Euan Johnston, Stewart Robson, Jonathon Dent), from Viewlands. Missing out on just one control, and having come third in their area final, Speeding Bullets (Shaun Scrimgeour, Eddie Skeet, Robert Young), from Tulloch came an excellent fourth. The third team was one of the teams showing a big improvement over their area result, in the process overtaking two rival teams from their school - Cheese Puffs (Matthew Manners, Dominic Mestecky, Thomas Wake), from St Dominic's with 540 points in 37 mins 22 secs. Second in a really fast time of 36.03, was Ice Bears (Jason Ebblewhite, Euan Taylor, Lewis Murdoch), from Abernethy, who had been winners in the Perth area final. But the winning team won by a clear margin with a time of 33.05, the second fastest time ever, just 28 secs behind the record set in 2005, and it was the winners of the Western schools area final, The News Team from Dunning (Martha Greeves, Jessica Zajda, Matthew Jenkins) who took the trophy.

Certificates and prizes were presented by Suzanne Urquhart, CEO of Scone Palace. Thanks again to the Palace for allowing the wonderful grounds and facilities to be used.

The final was organised by members of the Perth and Kinross Sports Development Team and members of Tayside Orienteers. Together, they are providing free transport for a number of the top teams to go to the Scottish Schools Championships at Beecraigs Park, Linlithgow on June 5th.

Results

Area champions are shown with an asterisk and in bold.

Place	Name	School	Points	Time	Penalty	Score
1	The News Team *	Dunning	540	33:05		540
2	Ice Bears *	Abernethy	540	36:03		540
3	Cheese Puffs 2	St Dominics	540	37:22		540
4	Speeding Bullets	Tulloch	530	39:01		530
5	EEJ Sports	Viewlands	520	44:39		520
6	The Highlanders	Pitlochry	540	48:06	-20	520
7	The 3 Spartans	Dunning	510	44:03		510
8	Mystic Monkeys	St John's	510	44:07		510
9	Quicksilver 070	Kenmore	530	48:12	-20	510
10	The Glory of P7	Oakbank	500	44:37		500
11	MAG	Viewlands	520	48:23	-20	500
12	Viva Laveda	Kenmore	500	45:09	-5	495
13	The Houndz	Dunning	500	45:49	-5	495
14	2 Amigos and It *	Breadalbane	490	43:11		490
15	Blackford Boys	Blackford	490	43:28		490
16	The Polkadots	Pitlochry	490	44:05		490
17	Singing Magic Munchkins	Stanley	480	43:07		480
18	The Kirky Kids	Kirkmichael	480	45:00		480
19	JCB Diggers	Craigie	520	53:37	-45	475
20	Fast and Furious	Logierait	470	44:19		470
21	Greenloaning most wanted	Greenloaning	470	45:51	-5	465
22	Bourbons	Hill	460	44:14		460
23	Red Tiger MP5	Portmoak	460	44:25		460
24	Cranny Grannies	Luncarty	460	44:57		460
25	The Bullets	Crieff	450	42:15		450
26	Score Squad	Madderty	450	42:40		450
27	Random Racers	Kinross	450	43:17		450
28	Boys in Blue	Forgandenny	460	46:38	-10	450
29	Sleeping Sea Eagles	Abernethy	450	45:03	-5	445
30	The Travelling Trio	Oakbank	450	45:48	-5	445
31	EEP	Forgandenny	440	42:49		440
32	Top Gear	St Dominics	440	43:09		440
33	Power Rangers	Breadalbane	440	43:31		440
34	Mega Munchkins	Viewlands	440	44:29		440
35	OAK	Madderty	460	48:43	-20	440
36	Speedos	Fossoway	440	45:45	-5	435
37	Speedy Spiders	St Dominic	480	53:54	-45	435
38	The Simpsons	St Dominic	430	37:28		430
39	Jammie Dodgers	Breadalbane	430	41:27		430
40	Running Rockets	Fossoway	430	43:52		430
41	Rattray Rhinos	Rattray	460	50:29	-30	430
42	2 Musketeers plus 1	Breadalbane	430	45:16	-5	425
43	Typhoon *	Kinross	420	41:20		420
44	Raging Rangers 2	Forgandenn	420	42:21		420
45	Robie's Smarties	Stanley	420	43:05		420
46	Blairingone Babes	Blairingon	440	48:26	-20	420
47	Crazy Lemurs	Luncarty	440	49:21	-25	415
48	Three Amigos	Forgandenny	410	42:59		410
49	Team Bob	Muthill PS	440	50:55	-30	410
50	Alyth 3	Alyth	410	45:29	-5	405
51	Keep Sinking	Forgandenny	400	42:07		400
52	Mouldy Socks	Portmoak	400	44:16		400
53	Made up United	Viewlands	420	48:14	-20	400
54	Glenlyon PS	Glenlyon	420	49:01	-25	395
55	Pink Panther co	St Dominic	390	40:04		390
56	The Hobnobs	Viewlands	390	40:29		390
57	Chinese Warriors	Kenmore	390	42:20		390
58	The 3 Davemacadongdongs	Meigle	390	44:01		390
59	Alyth 4	Alyth	390	44:35		390
60	Beep Beep	Kinross	440	54:58	-50	390
61	Splats	Fossoway	390	45:56	-5	385
62	The Glocklenspeillers	Craigie	400	47:20	-15	385
63	The Cheetahs	Kinross	380	41:08		380
64	Tall Small and Tiny.	Abernethy	390	46:48	-10	380
65	Eclipse	Kinross	400	49:20	-25	375
66	Big Boys	Pitlochry	370	43:47		370
67	The Hitman	Meigle	360	44:11		360
68	The Dodoteers	Blackford	370	46:08	-10	360
69	Whacky Waddlers	Luncarty	350	42:23		350
70	The Wild Westies	Viewlands	350	44:43		350
71	Ragin Rhinos	Tulloch	370	48:36	-20	350
72	Super cool alpha wolf sq	Kinross	380	50:07	-30	350
73	Candy Drops	Viewlands	350	45:12	-5	345
74	Funky Monkeys	Abernethy	340	41:51		340
75	Funky Bananas	Abernethy	340	42:52		340
76	Hot Fuzz	Pitlochry	350	46:12	-10	340
77	Runner Beans	Tulloch	350	46:45	-10	340
78	Pussy Cat Dolls	Breadalbane	340	45:20	-5	335
79	The Flying Squirrels	Kinross	330	40:20		330
80	Cheating Cheetahs	Guildtown	330	44:09		330
81	SW Dudesses	Hill	330	44:21		330
82	Rattray Rovers *	Rattray	350	49:57	-25	325
83	The Red Hot Chilli Firew	Crieff	370	53:02	-45	325
84	The Rippers	St John's	320	43:13		320
85	Purple People	Craigie	350	50:19	-30	320
86	Super Smarties	Kinross	320	45:18	-5	315
87	Crazy Monkeys	Grandtully	310	39:33		310
88	Awesome riffic marshmall	Fossoway	320	46:01	-10	310
89	The Terrifying Cheese	Forgandenn	300	44:33		300
90	The 3 Devils	Dunning	310	46:33	-10	300
91	The Legends	Kenmore	310	46:53	-10	300
92	Dazzling Diamonds	Dunning	320	50:22	-30	290
93	3 Little Meercats	Viewlands	290	45:17	-5	285
94	Three Muskateers	Luncarty	290	45:43	-5	285
95	KLK Smileys	Fossoway	280	45:08	-5	275
96	Dabadabadoos	Kinross	270	43:19		270
97	SCS	Oakbank	260	44:49		260
98	Alyth 1	Alyth	310	54:12	-50	260
99	Fantastic Trio	Logierait	260	45:41	-5	255
100	Pink Panthers	Hill	240	42:36		240
101	The Simpsons	Crieff	240	44:38		240
102	The Wacky Racers	Logierait	250	47:05	-15	235
103	JDJ	Meigle	230	42:31		230
104	JEL	Meigle	210	39:47		210
105	Luncarty Saints	St John's	210	43:55		210
106	Two dumb blondes and a b	Kinross	210	44:56		210
107	The 3 Amigos	Meigle	210	46:29	-10	200
108	The Eagles	Hill	240	52:50	-40	200
109	Cheese Puffs	Abernethy	180	36:11		180
110	The Lads	Pitlochry	170	42:17		170
111	JSC Club	Tulloch	170	43:35		170
112	The Three Wisemen	Craigie	190	50:27	-30	160
113	The Explorers	Collace	130	48:04	-20	110
114	The Saints	Craigie	100	50:25	-30	70
115	Team Airborn	Kinross	100	56:08	-60	40

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