Chevalier College Sprint map stretches brain cells as well as legs
- Last Updated: Sunday, 16 September 2012 18:45
The sprint map at Chevalier College once again stretched the brain cells as well as the legs. Corridors, corners and courtyards all over the map had to be tackled with quick decision making.
A good representation from Illawarra Kareelah and a challenge from the Central Coast made the competition sharp on the Long Course, with less than a minute between Nick Dent and Ken Mills. Ian Froude came in third, with tarmac souvenirs on hands, knees and elbows after a bumpsadaisy encounter with a speed bump.
Sue Froude and Helen Mills from IKO took first and second place followed by Sandy Stewart from SH in The Short Course.
The Brooks family found some rather impressive pine cones which did look like echidnas and will look good with some googly eyes. Hannah Davey was accompanied by a platoon of strollers and toddlers and is becoming better and better at map reading. Well done kids!
A late lunch at Gilberts in Mittagong was the perfect way to finish off the day.
Thank you to the Stewarts and John Russell who brought in controls and to Lyn Malmgron for this report
NSW Relay teams announced for Australian Championships
- Last Updated: Thursday, 13 September 2012 07:34
Selectors Nick Dent, Hilary Wood, Andy Hill and Geoff Todkill are pleased to announce the NSW Relay teams who will contest the Australian Championships in Tasmania at the end of this month. Please find the detail in the attached list here.
Running order changes need to be communicated to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.by 1300hrs on 29th September in writing.
Turning the Hut into a palace!
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 11 September 2012 12:15
The Hut received more attention recently when Peter Howe, Dave Lotty and Kev Curby spent two days on upgrading work. It was a chilly work detail as Friday afternoon brought a short shower of hail which covered everything with a white layer and looked just like a snow fall. The air temperature was so low that the cover remained until well after the sun came up the next morning.
The weekend’s work included sealing off the fireplaces, removing the old sink and laying replacement carpet in one of the bedrooms, installing smoke alarm detectors in the hall and making a new manhole cover for the ceiling in the hall. In the kitchen, an additional cupboard for saucepans has been put beside the stove and a fire extinguisher next to the doorway. As well as improving safety this work will make the Hut a much more pleasant place to overnight.
Thanks to Kevin Curby for this report
NSW Championships sets worthy challenges
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 11 September 2012 12:01
Goldseekers and Bennelong Northside were the hosts for State Leagues 12&13 held over the weekend near Orange. Two top quality maps were lined up for the 2012 NSW Middle and Long Distance Championships providing a treat of runnable eucalypt and granite outcroppings. Saturday’s Middle Distance event at Kahli’s rocks was well planned, and highly enjoyable. Cold winds made for a chilly start to the race which began in an area of paddocks and open runnable forest before competitors plunged into a ridge of complex granite. Winning times were around 30-40 minutes showing that planner Jean Baldwin had judged the difficulty and terrain pretty much perfectly for the Middle Distance courses. Course printing caused some problems for competitors unused to the IOF standard Purple. Purple is used to prevent those suffering from colour blindness from being disadvantaged but where control circles are in granite terrain (bare rock (grey) and rock features (Black), control circles and numbers in (IOF standard) purple can be difficult to see, which resulted in some missed punching.
NSW Head Coach, Nick Dent, described Long Distance map Gumble Pinnacles as ‘one of the top maps in Australia for elite orienteering’ and it certainly posed a fair set of difficult navigational questions to the field. Of those who did conquer the terrain, over a 1/3 of the non-elites were out on the course for longer than planned. Josh Blatchford (Newcastle) won the M21A (Hard 1) with Australian international Grace Crane (Australopers) winning W21A and topping the Hard 3 course in 77:12. Jock Davis of Big Foot won M35A (Hard 2), Graham Turner (Red Roos) M45A (Hard 4), Michael Burton M50A (Big Foot) (Hard 5) with Eoin Rothery (Big Foot) having a fantastic run winning M55A and Hard 6 in a mere 50:47. Steve Flick of Bennelong showed many a runner younger than himself on Hard 7 how it should be done to win his class M65A and the course. Newcastle President Andrew Power took the honours in M45AS and Course Hard 8 while Barry Hanlon M75A (Western Hills) topped the last of the hard courses, Course 9, to win in 55: 26. Amongst the female winners was ACT Red Roos star Anita Scherrer W40A, Michele Dawson (Garingal) W18A and Gayle Quantock (Newcastle) W50A who were within a minute of each other on course Hard 7 and new Garingal member and Finnish national Paula Savolainen who won W45A in 70:02.
