Latest ONSW News
Appin is Southern Highland Occasional Orienteers' most technical map with lots of fine navigation needed to get around Moderate and Hard courses. It is also the hardest map to plan courses on because there is no vehicular access to any part of the map. Planner and organiser John took this in his stride with three trips to set up the event - first to tag all controls, then put out all controls, and then finally to actually run the event.
The Hard courses were steep, long and needed very fine navigation and it got the better of some of the runners, experienced as they were. There was representation from a number of clubs with Western Hills, Illawarrah Kareelah, Uringa and of course SHOO all in attendence. Val Hodsdon conquered the Hard Long, Ted Mulherin the Hard Short and the two Jones girls from Uringa Georgia and Sophie won the Moderate and Easy respectively.
SHOO's next club event is on 2 June at Lake Alexandra, Mittagong.
Thanks to Lyn Malmgron for her help with this report
An IKON club event record! Over thirty runners turned up for IKN's recent club event at Kurnell and were rewarded for their trip with perfect running weather, beautiful scenery and a thoroughly enjoyable course. Organiser Ian Froude used the format similar to that used by Victorian clubs for street events where the map had 19 controls on it and the competitor chose to do any 10, 14 or 17 of these depending on the distance they wanted to run. Control sites were questions relating to permanent features with a choice of three answers on the clue sheet.
Each course was very competitive with seconds separating the runners. The Long course, which was approximately 6km long depending
on route choice, was won by Ian Jones a good margin ahead of the rest of the field. Competition was tight further down the rankings with less than two minutes separating 6th place from 9th. This was also the case in the Medium, won by Georgia Jones, where the race was even closer with Sue Froude getting her 6th place only 45 seconds quicker than Salme Fuller whose 46:30 placed her 9th. The Jones family took the final placing in the Short with Sophie Jones winning ahead of Greg Robinson and Eunice Wilson who were close behind.
Thanks to Ian Froude for his help with this report. The IKON results will be available here
With the moving of the ACT championships to 5/6 May the weekend of 28/29 April became available for a necessary work weekend at The Hut. As many of those interested are retired we were also able to add 26/27 April and get in the best part of 4 days of work.
The contingent of Chris Murphy (Hut Manager), Peter Howe, Dave Lotty, Ron Junghans, Ken Jacobson, Barry Pearce, Robert Spry and Kevin Curby totally refilled the woodshed with cut hardwood collected in the wilds of the forest. As well as this the lawns were mown, the gutters cleared, the entry road made trailer-friendly, the accommodation building tidied up and some roadbase obtained to fill in part of the access track.
You will note the average age of the workers being well over 65! Where were the younger Association members who also enjoy the benefits of The Hut? All the workers present, as FOTHs (Friends Of The Hut), receive free accommodation at The Hut for the next year.
Major works to be completed in the near future include
. renewing the curtains in the lounge building (Uringa's Margaret Wilmott is on the job)
. replacement of the stove and some other minor electrical repairs
We are also looking at upgrading the showers, installing some more water storage tanks, and painting the lounge building inside and out. Watch out for the next opportunity to become a FOTH!
Junior orienteers from across Sydney will descend on UWS Kingswood for the first of the 2012 Junior League season. With plenty of teams and individuals already signing up the League is set to have its best year yet.
For those still yet to sign up pre-entry is best but entry on the day is also available. Online pre-entry is open until Friday 4 May and can be accessed here. Anyone planning to enter on the day should email Barbara Hill
The Sydney Junior Orienteering League runs in school terms 2 and 3 on Sunday mornings and is aimed at Junior orienteers aged between 8 and 20. Beginners through to experienced orienteers are welcome with courses ranging from introductory level navigation through to harder courses that will challenge some of Sydney's best young orienteers. If you like a puzzle and problem solving plus getting out and active then the Junior League is for you.
