photo credit - Deeside Camera Club

Over the weekend of 19th / 20th May many SYO members undertook the epic journey to Deeside to compete in the British Orienteering Championships. The British Long Championships were staged at Balmoral on the Saturday. Competitors were treated to a glorious sunny day in the stunning surroundings of Balmoral castle. The forest was beautiful - not a bramble in sight - and the courses superbly challenging.

The Scots proved tough to beat in many classes so this made Dave (M50), Amanda (W45) and Freya 's (W12) victories especially noteworthy! There were also well-deserved silvers for Robbie (M10), Euan (M14), Martin (M50), Laura (W35) and Jenny (W50) and bronzes for Ella (W10) and Peter G (M70). A special mention must go to Conrad, Imogen, Sam C and Judy who all finished 4th, just missing out on a podium place and also Will who was 2nd on M10B. Sadly the prize giving wasn't held until after the relays which meant some people missed out on their presentations.

Sunday saw the turn of the relays on Torphantrick in grey rather overcast conditions but at least it wasn't raining (much!). The terrain and courses were interesting though it was a rather hard to work out how well teams were doing due to the very uneven gaffles.  There were plenty of SYO successes to celebrate including 4 relay class wins. Well done to Robbie, Oscar and Conrad (1st mini relay), Andy P, Pete T & Nick (1st M40), Martin, Tim & Dave (1st M50) and Ryan, Alex E and Jamie (1st junior ad-hoc). There were silvers for the W40 team (Amanda, Pauline & Jenny P) and the M14s (Sam C, Max and Euan). Finishing 4th and just missing out on medals were the women's open team (Mary, Laura & Kim) and the W14s (Freya, Alex C & Imogen). Well done to everyone who took part. Next year, BOC will be held in Yorkshire over the weekend of 4-6th May so hopefully there will be a very large SYO contingent competing.

Sunday 13th May saw 58 SYO juniors and their families travel to the Yorkshire and Humberside heat of the Yvette Baker Trophy. The heat was hosted by EPOC who chose a fabulous venue in Oakwood Country Park. Aside from their courses, all the juniors enjoyed the free maze O, glorious sunshine, the chance to socialise and of course the very popular ice-cream van.

SYO had juniors competing across all the courses and on yellow we had an amazing 30 runners! Well done to all the juniors that took part - you all play an important part in pushing down the scores of other runners. Congratulations to the scorers: 

Yellow Boys - John Joe (100) & Caspar (99)
Yellow Girls - Anna (100) & Charlotte (99)
Orange Girls - Freya (100) 
Orange Boys - Conrad (100) & James (99)
Light Green Girls - Imogen (100)
Light Green Boys - Max (100), Sam C (99)
Green Girls - Alex E (99)
Green Boys - Dom (100), Euan (99)

Thank you to EPOC for organising a fabulous heat, the parents for getting all the juniors there and Jacky for doing a super job as team captain. The final is on 1st July in Redditch. Jacky will be sending out the preliminary information shortly.....

SYO had another super successful competition at Wass on Sunday with 10 members crowned Northern Champions in their respective age classes. Congratulations to Anna (W10), Freya (W12), Conrad (M12), Euan (M14), Aislinn (W21E), Amanda (W45), Jenny P (W50), Charlie A (M50), Peter G (M70) and Brian (M75) who all took home trophies.