Moravian Orienteers

A new Permanent Orienteering Course is now up and running at the Alice Littler Park in Aberlour.  The start can be found at the entrance to the Glebe Garden. Follow this link for more details of the two short courses on offer. You can download maps to view on your phone or print at home from this linked page. This initiative is supported by Moray Council, Aberlour Parish Church and the Glebe Garden. 

Well done to everyone who has taken part in this year's Northern Orienteering Urban League - all 107 of you!  The standings after the first three rounds are linked here.  Andrew Campbell, Jon Hollingdale and Colin Salisbury lead the long course and Freya Carter, Dougie Condy and Evan Macdonald the short course.  To ensure that planners and organisers are not dissuaded from volunteering for the Series, they each receive an average of their scores from other rounds.  The series now takes a break until 5 August, when it will return in Newtonmore with thanks to BASOC.

Here are the standings of the NOUL after the first two rounds.  See you all on Wednesday evening for round #3 in Fochabers.

Congratulations to our new Lead coach, Morag McLuckie, who recently completed her Scottish Orienteering Association Lead Coach qualification, under the guidance of Lynne Walker (BASOC). The Lead Coach course involves some independent learning and written tasks before and after the one and a half days tuition element, a series of logged and self evaluated experiences supported by a mentor, and the final assessment when all other tasks have been completed. Assessment includes demonstration of understanding about progressing skills from one session to the next, using different areas and refinements to make each session useful to a range of participants. Thanks to Lynne for supporting Morag in achieving this award.

Morag regularly runs coaching sessions before local Moravian events.  Contact Morag if you are interested in joining these coaching sessions.

Well, that was an exciting weekend in the Trossachs!   Sunday was the annual CompassSport Cup and Trophy Scottish heat. The Trossachs offers really challenging orienteering terrain with few paths, lots of crags, marshes and tussocks!  We compete in the Trophy competition for smaller clubs.  Despite several of our younger club runners being away on a Talent Squad training weekend, we put out a strong team of 15 runners, all of who completed their courses, with no mispunches! Several of the team can be seen here, all smiling before their 'runs'. Full results can be seen here. Well done everyone, and in particular Julia and Harriet, who performed really well in tricky terrain. A huge thanks to Forth Valley Orienteers for putting on two excellent National level events based at Loch Katrine. Overall, we came 2nd out of 13 clubs in the Trophy competition - a great result for Team Moravians!  

The final event of the Northern Night Cup 25-26 was held in Nethy Bridge recently.  The event was hosted by BASOC, who not only planned and organised two great courses, but arranged for the presentations to be held in the comfort of the Nethy Bridge cafe.  Refreshments and cakes were enjoyed by all - thanks to Rob & Anne Parkinson and Finlay McLuckie.   A total of 87 runners participated in the six events of the series, organised by MOR, INVOC and BASOC.  Full results for the Long and Short courses can be found here.  Thanks to Ken and Douglas McDonald for processing these results.
Prize winners on the long and courses can be seen opposite - congratulations to all.  Thanks to David Ritchie for designing and printing the certificates.  Time now to put away the head torches for a few months.  Why not join us for an event in the 26-27 series?

The club's annual social event and awards evening at Roseisle Hall on Saturday 17th Jan was a real success.  More than 40 club members enjoyed some lovely shared food, great company and a fun, challenging quiz set by Peter.  During the evening we celebrated the achievements of club members over the year with presentations of trophies and medals for league performances.  Liz Campbell (pictured), who as been our Child Welfare and Protection officer for many years, shared the Moravian Bull trophy this year with Karen Fraser, who stood down as treasurer in the summer after also serving the club for many years in that role.  We are hugely grateful to Liz and Karen for all the work they have done for the club - thank you both!

This year's trophy winners are:
Climie Shield: Harriet Ross
Rogan Trophy: Anna Howard
Gordon & MacPhail Trophy: Ewan Maxwell
Moravian Bull Trophy: Liz Campbell & Karen Fraser
Climie trophy for Navigation (Club championships): Rob Parkinson
Reid Trophy: Rosie Pye

Local and Main League 2025 1st, 2nd & 3rd places can be seen here. Thanks once again to Finlay and Eddie for processing the results for these two club leagues.

All club members are welcome to join us on Saturday evening, 17th January for our Annual Social and Awards Evening.  Please put this date in your diary!  We will be holding the event at Roseisle Hall this year.  The hall is situated at College of Roseisle (IV30 5YF, w3w: frequently.wonders.sketches). 

The Social evening will start formally at 6.00 pm, with doors open from 5.30 pm. We are planning a full evening with our awards presentations, a family-friendly quiz and some other activities to be announced nearer the time.  During the evening we will have a bring-and-share meal - details to follow.  The evening will end at around 9.00 pm.  This is a great chance to meet other members of the club in a relaxed setting and celebrate the achievements of the club over the year. We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday evening, 17th January!

Photo credit: Roseisle Hall

Our Northern Night league 2025/26 kicks off on Wed 19th November with a BASOC event at Tolquhonie near Carrbridge - entries are now open!  This is full programme for this year's Night league:
19th Nov Tolquhonie, Carrbridge BASOC
3rd Dec Burgie Arboretum, Forres MOR
17th Dec Ord Hill, Inverness INVOC
21st Jan Nethy Bridge BASOC
4th Feb Littlemill, Farr INVOC
11th Feb Forres Golf Club MOR including end of series presentations
As usual there are two courses on offer at each event. Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult.  Come and join the fun of some night time orienteering!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the 2025 NUL series of urban orienteering.  Special thanks to David Ritchie, YourOMaps, who kindly sponsored the series for a third consecutive year.  Overall, 143 people took part in at least one of the events, which was a great turnout.  Well done to everyone and special congratulations to all of the Series' winners.  The final results table is at the following link: Overall Tables 2025.xlsx.