Latest ONSW News
Spooks in the Park was a huge hit again at Centennial Park on Saturday, with a record turnout enjoying a lovely spring afternoon.
Last year's outrageous debut of this fun-filled Halloween-themed introduction to orienteering for younger children drew 400 attendees plus their parents.
This year we had more than 620 kids, all dressed up in ghoulish clobber and eager to try pumpkin bowling, skeleton golf, the spider web, the test of terror, vampire maze, skull hoopla, splat the bat... and of course the greatly anticipated zombie run (Darren Slattery, right, was one of the living dead).
The kids were given a map segment of the park and had to navigate their way from checkpoint to checkpoint, where there was an activity to do.
This gig was all treat, no trick!
A huge thanks to our organising team of Maggie Jones, Barbara Dawson (pictured, left, wearing freaky witch contact lenses) and Helen Murphy - plus their army of 60 volunteers. Spooks took hundreds of hours of work to bring to fruition and has already become an important fundraiser for ONSW.
One of the attending mums gave us this glowing testimonial on Facebook: "Wonderful job! Thank you! My son Oliver and 32 friends enjoyed celebrating his birthday at Spooks. Best party ever, many said!!! Thanks to all the volunteers."
Our third season of the expansion Sydney Summer Series gets underway today at Glenwood in the Hills district.
The West SSS has settled in to Monday afternoons and will run until Dec 2. The series runs for 7 weeks and features two new maps (Castle Hill and North Rocks).
The South SSS starts next Sunday, having moved to weekends to allow more members to volunteer their time in organising event. The series will run for 9 weeks, ending on Dec 21 at Randwick. There will be two new maps (Sandringham and Randwick) appearing.
These series have been made possible with funding from the Australian Sports Commission.
Around the state, the first event in Newcastle's popular Summer Street Series gets underway on Wednesday at New Lambton after two warm-up events.
And our first ever event in Grafton is Friday evening in Memorial Park, as our newest club Northern Rivers club eagerly breaks new ground.
And Western Plains get that summery feeling on November 1 with the first of their Friday evening runs.
Fine map detail should be seared into the brains of more than 200 competitors after a superb weekend of sprint O in inner city Sydney.
Just 6 days after the annual bush season wrapped up with the Australian champs in the ACT, it was time to turn our attention to the subtleties of urban maps that would test even the legendary forensic guns at CSI.
Big Foot hosted their largest ever Sprints at Sydney Uni on Saturday afternoon, and our State League wrapped up for 2013 on Sunday with Garingal putting on the NSW Sprint Championships on a new map at Pyrmont.
Two days and three courses of tricky navigating around hedges, garden beds, staircases, high walls, buildings, underpasses, overpasses left lungs burning and legs jellied - and led to much animated discussion about route choice as well as mispunches from very experienced orienteers.
A few seconds here, a few seconds there and you could jump - or drop - several places, such is the frenetic nature of orienteering's shortest format. Think Twenty20 cricket.
SL13 pics are on Facebook and the results are now on Eventor. Congratulations to Rachel Effeney from the Ugly Gully club in Queensland for her twin triumphs over the weekend.
Read more: Sprints show off the WOW (What an Orienteering Weekend) factor
Our new summer Saturday morning Sydney schools series starts this weekend at Bicentennial Park, West Pymble.
The series is open to students from Years 5-12. Primary schoolers will do a 45-minute 'space race' at 9am, and high schoolers will face line courses from 10am.
Now that the winter bush season is over, this new series is a great chance for beginners and experienced juniors to orienteer in predominantly off-road environments in safe, urban settings.
Our tireless Promotions Director Barbara Hill is co-ordinating the series. Please contact her (
