MAROC Newsletter 2 October 2018

MAROC newsletter for 2nd October 2018

The winning all Maroc boys relay team, representing Scotland, at the Junior Inter Regional Championships (left). The victorious team Scotland with 11 Maroc juniors (right).

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wed 3rd Oct Sluie
WeTT (TD4/5 only)

Sat 6th Oct Errochty

SOL 4 (STAG)

Wed 10th Oct Bellwood
WeTT (TD4/5 only)

Sun 14th Oct Scolty
Level C (GRAMP)

Sun 27th Oct Forres
btoSOUL 9 (MOR) + junior inter-area relay

Sun 28th Oct Roseisle
SOL 5 (MOR) + junior inter-area competition

Sun 4th Nov Bogendriep
Level C (MAROC)

Note: Please check SOA, BOF or club websites to confirm dates, times & venues prior to the date.

GRAMP have asked us to pass along a message about the event on the 14th October:

Grampian Orienteers would like to invite you to the lovely Scolty Woods near Banchory in Aberdeenshire for a Level C/Regional/Colour Coded event on Sunday 14^th October with courses from white through to brown. Further details on Grampian Orienteers website https://grampoc.com/2018/09/23/scolty-14-october-2018/

If you are thinking of coming, our IT team would appreciate advance notice by sending an email to grampoc@gmail.com stating your name, likely course and club. We will reserve you a map till 12 noon.

There will be homebakes, soup & drinks available, fundraising being done to support the juniors traveling to the World Schools in Estonia next year -- bring your pocket change & a mug/flask!!!

Wednesday Technical Training

The final two Wed technical training sessions will be held on 3rd Oct and 10th Oct at Sluie and Bellwood. Training will be suitable for all at TD4 / 5 level. We will start at the earlier time of 6pm, as it is getting darker so much earlier. Please also make sure that you bring a headtorch to both sessions. Adults £2, Juniors £1

Wed 3rd - meet on the diagonal back road down to the A93 by Tillydrine at grid ref NO 602985. There's not a huge amount of space so please park tightly. Please sign up for a map here

Wed 10th - meet by the play area on Bellwood Drive, Aboyne at grid ref NO 537987. Please sign up for a map here

Junior Inter Regional Championships

Last weekend a team of 24 Scottish juniors travelled to Derbyshire to compete in the Junior Inter-Regional Championships against the 11 other British Orienteering "regions". The team included no less than 11 athletes from Maroc (is this a record?).
The individual race was at Chatsworth - a mix of fast open parkland and steep, rocky grotty forest - the juniors comments were not all so favourable :-) Here Scotland managed a decisive victory - in both girls and boys classes (winning 4 classes and 2nd in the other 2). Maroc were well up there - Joel 2nd, Ewan 4th and Charlotte 6th in 14s, Matthew 1st in M16 and Eilidh and Joe 2nd in the 18s classes.
The relays were on a very different area - completely open, lighting fast grazed grassland (the sheep got a good workout - being chased form one end of the area to the other by each wave of runners!). Here the Scottish M16s and M14s showed their class, setting out the last leg runners in first 3 places and the girls were almost as high placed. However the strong English 18s on last leg managed to gain a few places - but Maroc (I mean Scotland) still won the boys race (Matthew, Ewan and Joe) and Scotland also won the girls relay (with Eilidh running last leg). The M16s on first leg ran 4-17mins/km... better than most of us could manage on a park run!
So a tired but satisfied team headed home - the Maroc group having the same 9 hour drive as the way down...
Next weekend sees the Junior Home Internationals - a bit closer to home at Pitlochry. Maroc again has a good representation in the team (10) and hopes are high with home advantage...

Senior Home internationals

Well done to Joe & Eilidh, who both had excellent results at the SHIs in Lancashire in September.
'... In M20 Alex Carcas and Joe Wright finished 2nd and 3rd to tie the class with England, an especially impressive run for Joe making his senior debut despite still being an M18.

There were strong individual runs in the ladies classes, notably Hollie Orr 2nd on W21 and Eilidh Campbell 3rd on W20....'

You can read more here: https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/soa/page/highs-and-lows-for-scotland-shi-team-in-Lancashire.

Deeside Night Cup

The nights are drawing in.... which means that it's time to start planning for this winters DNC league*. It's looking to be a great winter, with the added training target of Maroc hosting the British Night Championships on Sat 23rd Feb. The series will kick off on the 24th Oct with a (relatively) easy intro at Glen o' Dee in Banchory and will then run every Wed night through until Feb 20th, with a last supper and prize-giving planned for Mamma Mia's in Banchory. Planners have now been assigned to most of the events but there are one or two slots still free; if you fancy having a go then please contact Denise (email denisewrgb @ googlemail.com -delete spaces in address). Watch this space and the fixtures list on the website for more details of each week's event.

*for those new to the club, the Deeside Night Cup involves orienteering in the dark on a Wed evening through the winter with a choice of 2 courses, short and long. Both courses are fully technical (green+ equivalent) so you need to be either technically competent or else confident enough that it won't phase you when you can't find half the markers... and can manage to find your way back to the planner's car before course closing time :-)

Event Safety Course
October 31st @ Banchory Guide Lodge
6:30 pm for a 7pm start -- don't be late!

Over 16s & all interested, if able, please contact John Mason at banchorybytes (at) gmail.com to let him know that you'll be attending -- or just show up on the evening, as the more the merrier! Cakes & refreshments will be provided.

Dess POC Closed

Please note that the permanent orienteering course at Dess is currently closed due to ongoing forestry work. We hope to re-plan and re-launch it once work is completed in the autumn.

Contributions to future newsletters

If you have anything you would like included in the next newsletter or ideas for special features then please email them to sarah at scottish-orienteering.org

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