What a difference a week can make! After experiencing the delights of Sanquhar in bright crisp conditions the previous week, the 21 Moravian Orienteering Club members who made the trip over to Ardersier on Sunday discovered a much more unpleasant side to the sport.

This time it was the turn of the Inverness club to stage the North District fixture, and Carse Wood was the venue. After an overnight covering of snow, the temperature had risen during the morning to leave the forest blanketed in a generous covering of icy cold slush. A cold drizzle falling from the sky made matters worse, and the courses turned out to be a stamina-sapping test of willpower, endurance and survival. The brave souls who ventured out can proudly consider themselves to be members of orienteering’s hard core.

Orienteering in any conditions requires intense concentration, and this is made much more difficult when you have sodden feet and can’t feel your finger ends. This made some Moravian performances all the more remarkable, none more so than that of Anne Smith. Anne had organised the club’s event at Sanquhar only 7 days before, and relieved of the burden of responsibility she tore round the 5.1 Km Green course to win in 48 minutes. To achieve 10-minute kilometres is a target that many orienteers aim for. It’s a bit like running 7-minute miles in 10K road race, and for a female runner to achieve this requires real talent and some serious stamina. Anne has only been orienteering regularly with the club for about a year and it is great to see one of the newer members progressing so well. Another new member, Ian Howells from Forres is also showing up well, and he managed second place in just over 53 minutes in his 3rd competitive event.

On the elite Brown course, normally the sole domain of runners of questionable sanity, Moravian achieved a rare domination of the leading places. Forres runner Mike Rodgers clinched 1st pace on the 7.5 Km course in a time of 61:50, just beating fellow club member Ade Chapman into 2nd place by a mere one minute. Breathing down their necks was Lhanbryde’s M55 British champion, Eddie Harwood who shared an identical time to Rodgers as they passed the penultimate control. Unfortunately for Harwood an error at the final control meant he lost 3 places to end up in 4th. The final accolade went to another Forres-based runner, 11-year-old Johnstone McPherson Stewart. Like many athletes, Johnstone doesn’t tolerate the cold too well, but he dug in well to easily win the 3.1 Km Orange course in 45 minutes. Some less-fortunate club members fell victim to the conditions and as far as they were concerned, Carse Wood will live long in the memory as the wood with the silent ‘C’!

This week is set to be a memorable one away from the forest for the club, with 2 members selected as finalists in the sportMoray awards evening on 27th November at the Eight Acres Hotel in Elgin. Eddie Harwood has been nominated in the Sports Person of the Year category for his tremendous achievements at becoming M55 Scottish and British Champion and 5th in the world, while Mike Rodgers has been nominated by Active Schools in the Services to local Sport category for his work during the year with introducing the sport into local schools and increasing the general profile of the sport in Moray. 

The next chance to go orienteering locally will be on Saturday 6th December when the club holds the next in their series of small local events. This event will be at the Cricket Pavilion in Grant Park, Forres with a 2 Km course for children and a 3 Km ‘sprint orienteering’ race for adult members and the growing band of juniors who are getting better and better all the time in this challenging sport for all ages. Registration is at 10.15 am and it costs £2 to enter. Full details as usual are on www.moravianorienteering.org