Nopesport

The first birthday of the UK's finest orienteering website seemed an ideal opportunity to introduce a new format of orienteering racing to the UK.

The location was an ancient quarry beneath the Salisbury Crags, one of the classic images of Edinburgh. A special 1:2000 map had been prepared, and 13 hardy EUOC, Interloper and Clyde members lined up for some man-to-man head-to-head orienteering. The format was a simple knock-out: four heats with winner and runner up progressing to a semi-final, the winners of which met each other in a one-on-one final.

Courses were loop based with some common sections, which prompted some fierce battling. With half the course visible from the start/finish arena the race was uber-spectator friendly.

Andy Kitchen proved himself as the champion on the day, cruising through the heats, seeing Scott Fraser off in the semi-finals. James Tullie also cruised through and won his semi-final, against the likes of competition from Ally Brunton and Colin Eades.

The final turned out to be a one sided affair, Kitch cruising to an easy victory after James hesitated too long at a misplaced control!

This was an exciting new format of racing, perhaps not for serious competition, but very useful as a means to hone ones racing techniques.

Perhaps a national series could take off... perhaps.