With the 2017 -2018 Summer Street Series getting closer to its conclusion thoughts begin to turn to the upcoming Bush Orienteering season. However we shouldn't forget that in February and March we have our "transition" series. This year the series has changed name ... it will now be known as the Newcastle "Urban Orienteering" series. It is hoped that the new name will better reflect the type of events that comprise the series. Originally we tried to have courses that were completely within a park environment but were still about 5km long (for the long course at least) so that competitors that only come to our street events might still be tempted to have a go. Finding enough parks in which we could hold such events has always been a challenge. Thus in recent times we have started using maps that not only have a park component but also some surrounding streets. Combining this with the fact that the name "Park Orienteeering" is quite often associated with "Sprint Orienteering" (shorter events around 2-3km held in areas with complex building details such as schools and universities) we felt that a name change was necessary.
The calendar for the 2018 series is (still subject to possible change)
- Qualifying Events
Wednesday 21st Februrary - Tenambit Park, Tenambit. (Setter: Ian Dempsey)
Wednesday 28th February - Maitland Park, Maitland. (Setter: Lisa Lampe)
Wednesday 7th March - Tumpoaba Reserve, Maryland. (Setters: Malcolm Roberts & Carolyn Matthews) - Final
Wednesday 14th March - King Edward Park, Newcastle. (Setter: Adrian Plaskitt)
Note: As series coordinator I am aware that having two events in the Maitland area is not ideal from a competitor perspective but my philosophy is that what suits the setters must take preference. Clearly, without setters there are no events at all and that is even worse for competitors!!
Thanks
Malcolm Roberts