Latest ONSW News

Following election at the recent AGM, ONSW welcomes Maurice Anker (Northern Tablelands) to the Board.  Maurice will be taking over the management and development of the website. His enthusiasm and energy are very much appreciated.

Robert Spry has kindly offered to add to his Board responsibilities event safety and risk management and will be undertaking a review of safety measures and equipment.

The Board have also appointed the 2012/2013 Sydney Summer Series South and West Co-ordinators. Dave Lotty (Uringa) will take responsibility for the South series and Janet Morris (Western and Hills) for the Western series.

'The best thing I have ever done' was the verdict of a Glenmore Park boy after his day orienteering in the Sydney West Regional Schools Championship last Wednesday 23 May.

Seven schools, 4 primary and 3 secondary, turned up at Fred Caterson, Reserve Castle Hill to test their skills on Ted Mulherin's clever courses. It was a beautiful day and the venue provided bush tracks, rockfaces, playing ovals, and even a termite mound or two.

The morning started with a map walk led by 7 ONSW volunteer coaches.  This is an excellent way to introduce the electronic timing as well as the map.  Some of these runners are very confident now as they have taken part in the event for the last 3 years. Then came the age races - children going in all directions after a 1min sneak preview of the map.  The pressure was on in all 10 divisions.

Our 2 ONSW 'walking wounded', Chris Crane and Gordon Wilson, churned the finishers through while Jai Di Tommaso kept the results flowing onto the results board.

Kurrajong PS achieved 10 podium places mainly in the younger divisions, with Kellyville Ridge PS and Kingswood Primary PS gaining places in the older primary divisions.

Kingswood HS took most of the secondary places with Glenmore Park HS claiming all positions in the Boys 16 and over.  Pendle Hill High School claimed an easy win in the Boys 12-13 division.

After the individual races came the Relays and lots of excitement.  Most runners were visible most of the time and the 'encouragement' given by waiting runners was deafening. The girls team from Samuel Terry PS showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the runners and were such excited winners that they were leaping around the arena.  The combined teams of Pendle Hill HS and Glenmore Park pushed each other to their limits with the teams positions changing with each runner.

Champion Primary school Kurrajong PS
Champion High School Kingswood HS

Thanks to Lyn Malmgron for this report, and Neville Fathers for the photographs

For the Newcastle Club event this weekend at The Underpass, planner Peter Newton had a number of problems to solve.  The area between Killingworth and the F3 Freeway is heavily used by motorbikes and 4 wheel drives which made Very Easy and Easy course setting a worry. Faded flags were used to draw less attention from passersby and the flags were stood up late in the afternoon to minimise the time they were in situ.  Control stands were secreted behind bushes or off the track, again to reduce the chance of interference from non-competitors which added a bit more spice to courses for the orienteers. Very Easy were set challenges to cross an open area to the base of an electricity tower which they could see.  Easy runners were given route choice options enticing them to be brave and leave the comfort of the track, so cut across rather than run the long way around tracks. Since this event was a minor/training event these options were highlighted on a notice board map for course entrants to study. 

With all that planning and care the only small problem for the day was courtesy of OCAD ‘all controls’ feature. Course descriptions were all correct but using a master map of all controls to place the stands meant that with the 2 last controls in close proximity, OCAD positioned the control numbers on the map in a fashion which saw the setter reverse the controls. More experienced OCAD users are aware of this trap so shrink the circles and numbers to ensure they are positioned close to the feature and double check number location. A useful tip for all!

And what of the race? One of Newcastle's fittest competitors (recent NOL setter Steve Todkill) ran the Long Hard in just over 41 minutes so Newcastle's newest JWOC representative (Alex Massey)  was set the challenge of beating that time. He did - by 26 seconds. Alex’s time would have been shorter had he not baulked at getting his feet wet at the creek crossing (he was reminded that all he should do is RUN!)

Many thanks to Peter Newton for this report

Five of the 68 entries in Wednesday's Moonlight Madness are clearly very happy in the dark as they sprinted around the course set by NSW Junior Toby Wilson in record times, scoring the full 600 points on offer. The largest field of the season so far, runners were treated to a street map around Chatswood, which took in darkened residential streets as well as the bright lights of the main shopping areas. Summer Series veteran Glen Horrocks managed to hold off Garingal's Matt Hill and Big Foot's Patrik Gunnarson, to take 1st place but there was less than a minute in it. It was a high scoring event with many runners improving their previous scores by significant margins such as new Uringa member Eric Charpentier who improved his score by 110 points, and NOSH organiser Darren Slattery adding 60 points to his previous score.

Average scores for the three events so far have been MM#1 373, MM#2 419 and MM#3 447. Theories will abound as to why there has been such improvement, around prosaic reasons like numbers of hills and placement of controls. Surely however the fact that carrots are in season must be having an impact on night vision.