So the State league for this year has kicked off with 2 events in Ben Bullen State forest near Lithgow. Around 30 Newcastle club members made the journey down (I'm not sure of the final numbers as Eventor does have everyone listed for clubs properly yet). Day 1 was on the Gardiners Gap East Map and was physically and mentally challenging (at least for me but given the finish times I suspect for most) navigating amongst large boulders and rock spires. Have a look at the map and some of the routes taken over on routegadget. Day 2 saw us on the Long Swamp map just over the road from Day 1. This time the terrain was spur gully, similar to quite a few of our maps here in Newcastle. There were some rock formations depending on the course you were running but on the whole a much easier day (at least in my opinion) than the previous one. Check out the map on routegadget. routegad You can check out Eventor for more information and the full set of results but I have done the hard work and picked out our top 5 finishers in the classes that we ran. At least I hope so - apologies if i missed you.
State League 1
M10A
2nd Alec Power
M20A
3rd Angus Roberts
M21A
3rd Andrew Morris
M35AS
2nd Shane Jenkins
3rd David Kitchener
M40A
1st Scott Simson
4th Shane Trotter
M45AS
3rd Peter Orr
M50A
1st Andrew Power
2nd Glenn Burgess
WOpenB
1st Kate Alborough
W12A
3rd Isabella Trotter
4th Claire Burgess
W18A
1st Amylee Robertson
W20A
3rd Nicola Blatchford
W21AS
2nd Margaret Peel
W45A
1st Karen Blatchford
W65A
1st Toy Martin
State League 2
M10A
1st Alec Power
M12A
3rd Oscar Power
M20A
2nd Angus Roberts
M21A
3rd Andrew Morris
M35AS
1st David Kitchener
2nd Shane Jenkins
M40A
2nd Scott Simpson
3rd Shane Trotter
M45AS
3rd Peter Orr
M50A
1st Glenn Burgess
2nd Andrew Power
4th Russell Blatchford
M55A
2nd Geoff Todkill
MW-10N
2nd Sophie Trotter
WOpenB
2nd Kate Alborough
W12A
3rd Isabella Trotter
5th Claire Burgess
W18A
1st Amylee Robertson
W20A
1st Nicola Blatchford
W21AS
4th Margaret Peel
W45A
1st Karen Blatchford
W45AS
3rd Sharon Burgess
W50A
2nd Gayle Quantock
W65A
1st Toy Martin
W70A
3rd Carolyn Chalmers
So why run at a State League event you might ask? Well for me at least the answer is simple - the new maps. There are a lot of terrain types that we just don't have in the Newcastle area and travelling to a State League event is one of the best ways to run on some quality maps. The organisation and planning for a State league event done by the host club far outstrips that of an ordinary club event and is offset by the increased cost of entry.
