The Hunter Valley Championships on the 22nd May were staged just west of Cessnock on the new map of John Elm Creek by Ian Dempsey. This beautiful area lends itself, despite steep terrain, to fast orienteering with open areas balanced by interesting rock and contour detail.
Alex Massey added another club title to his already impressive tally with a convincing win on the Long Red. Fast times bunched results in all the classes, meaning that often wins were achieved by the slimmest of margins. Sally-Anne Henderson, a recent "Rookie of the Year" took out her first
major title in winning the Open Women's section and becoming the new Hunter Valley Women's Champion. She was pushed all the way with Kim van Netten just 3 seconds adrift in 2nd place. Dave Lotty had a great run beating his next rival, Denis Lyons, into second place by only a minute and Judi Hay, winner of W60+, was only 6 seconds behind Denis.
Another of those trying out the new map was Rob Vincent, controller for JWOC 2007 and WMOC 2009 who won M40A+ in style, almost six minutes ahead of Scott Simson. Full results and event photos are available on the Newcastle Orienteering website.
Many thanks to Newcastle President Geoff Peel for his help in compiling this report.
