Newcastle Orienteering Club

Minor Event - The Farm

A report on the day from Setter Sam Howe

Since this was a minor event, I was aiming for challenging courses for people who want to improve their skills and possibly go up a grade. The green and orange courses in particular were very challenging - especially to those who were less experienced. Some people took an extra challenge and ran without a compass (this worked well for experienced runners on red but didn't work so well for less experienced runners on orange). Denis ran without even taking a map and got one of the fastest times on long red.
We had nice weather for running on the day, but a lot of recent rain meant there was mud and wet feet in some places and a couple of leeches. There was also some lantana, lawyer vine and blackberry scrapes where people took a short-cut through greener areas (of which there was a lot). Luckily there was emergency salt, band-aids and easter eggs at the finish.
I learnt a lot about setting, most importantly that conditions change and courses need to be extensively checked on foot and during all conditions (especially flooding - which removed a couple of my intended control sites). I am happy that runners were able to consider route-choice options and it was nice to discuss strategies and navigation with runners before and after running. It was also nice to see more experienced runners taking time to help new people gain skills and confidence. I'm sorry if any new people didn't get as much help as they would have liked - please don't be afraid to ask for help at any event and try easier courses first and then build up skills to tackle harder courses.
Thanks very much for coming, I hope it was worthwhile and enjoyable and thanks also to the many people who helped on the day (sorry if I forgot anyone).

Setter: Sam Howe

My helpers were:
Gear Organiser - Peter Newton
Setting Advice - Peter Newton, Denis Lyons, Geoff Todkill, Russell & Carolyn Rigby
Vetting, Mapping and general help with everything - Denis Lyons
Set-up - Mick Kavur, Viola O'Connor, Kendall O'Connor, Peter Newton, Carolyn & Russell Rigby, Pam & Bob Montgomery
Start Desk - Carolyn Rigby
Finish - Kendall O'Connor, Peter Newton, Denis Lyons, Pam Montgomery
Control Collection - Bob & Pam Montgomery, Denis Lyons, Peter Newton, Kendall O'Connor
Pack-up - Carolyn & Russell Rigby, Bob & Pam Montgomery, Denis Lyons, Peter Newton, David Kitchener, Rob Preston

Results

NOY2 - Abernathy

Location: Abernethy

Map: Brokenback Ridge 1:10000
Courses: Full range of NOY courses; Blue, Green, Short Orange, Orange, Short Red, Medium Red, Long Red
Organisation: David Kitchener

From course setter David Kitchener

After a rainy spell that never looked like ending, Mothers Day dawned and brought us perfect orienteering conditions – clear, dry and sunny, but not too warm. As a result, there was a excellent turnout for the second NOY event of 2011. (The prefect Mothers Day present, perhaps?)

This area is the easternmost of the Cessnock maps and one of the steepest we use. The challenge for the setter is to provide courses of adequate length, without excessive climb. To this end, I did try to utilise the flatter parts of the map to their best advantage, while also trying to provide a new experience for some competitors, by taking the longer courses out to the north-eastern corner of the map, this being the least used area. Naturally, there were some complaints about the hills, especially from the green competitors, who had two valleys to cross (and no option to avoid them) and some of the red competitors, depending largely on their level of fitness!
The vegetation was the other source of trouble, being very thick and spiky in places. The rains have produced substantial growth, just in the time taken to set the event - and I swear that it was thicker while collecting the controls, than when setting them out the previous day! However, Alex Massey’s winning time on the Long Red course showed just what you can achieve, in spite of terrain and vegetation.
My thanks to all who helped make the day run so smoothly . (And my apologies if your name has been left off the list!)

Helpers: Mick Kavur, Carolyn Rigby, Cheryle Todkill, Nicole Haigh, Denis Lyons, Geoff Peel
Control Collection: Joy Guy, Margaret Peel, Denis Lyons, David Kitchener
Results

Winter Night Event - Results

This was a bit of an experiment in event scheduling for our club, a second night event for the year, this one falling in winter, maybe not in the middle of winter, but winter never the less. Would we get a cold wet evening that would put a dampener on enthusiasm levels and see numbers dwindle? The other part of the scheduling equation was that it was sandwiched between two Super Series MTBO events in the local area. Would this work to our advantage with MTBO participants backing up on foot or would they be too pooped after pedalling their way around the adjacent Brush Creek map during the afternoon?

About 45 competitors turned out on an evening kept mild due to overcast conditions. Only a couple were backing up from the MTBO event but one of these did happen to win both events that day. Steven Todkill had beaten all on Course1 at the MTBO event and then backed it up with a win in the Long Red night course, a mighty effort. Nicole Haigh was the only female to brave the 5.5 km long course but had an unhappy night navigationally. Kirrilee Russell pipped recent Hunter Valley Champ, Sally Anne Henderson by 13 second to take out the 3.5 km Short Red with veteran Robert Preston a considerable time adrift in third place. Nicholas Rixon was a clear cut winner over the 3.7 km Orange with Allison Appleby taking out the 2.0 km Green.

Many thanks for their efforts in organising this event to recent club signings, Scott Simson and Gayle Quantock who have sensibly decided to settle here from Queensland.

Here is a report from Scott…….

The courses seemed to go quite well especially the Orange. The Reds and Green courses proved much slower than I expected due, I think, to the very wet conditions underfoot. When the course lengths were planned the forest was drier and faster. The Orange competitors I talked to did very well on their route choice to the small building. No one on Orange seems to have fallen for the very long road route to the bottom of the hill and back. It was also pleasing to hear the green competitors taking the more adventurous track routes instead of the road. The Thicket East side caught out many red competitors, the thicket proving less than obvious. For those who went straight or east of the thicket and had trouble I am sorry. However for any competitor who hugged the watercourse to the west (wrong side) of the thicket, sympathy is in shorter supply.

Fortunately most competitors avoided the creeks by using tracks and roads and hence finished. Luckily Tristan who found the creek avoided drowning and was able to get himself back to the finish minus a compass but with his iPod still working. It is probably the last Cocked Hat Creek bush event as the forest is rapidly disappearing but hopefully we will see you for Summer Street O.

Thanks to Geoff and Margaret Peel and Mick Kavur who helped set up the assembly area with gear rushed from the preceding MTBO event. Also thanks to Carolyn Rigby and Cheryl Todkill for registration and finish and to Tim Hackney and Geoff Todkill for genrator transportation. Finally to my wife Gayle Quantock who placed and collected the track/road side controls on the night and also worked the finish, and most importantly for insisting on Tenyo Street (next to our soon to be built on block) as the assembly because starting right beside the Party on Northlakes Drive (which we didn’t know about) would have been a real problem.

results