About Julie Flynn

Bendigo Orienteers vice president in 2019

Rays Outdoors networking night

Wednesday 7 June 6pm – 8pm

You are invited to attend an information and networking night at Rays Outdoors store at 93 High street, Bendigo.

Rays Outdoors is wanting to meet people who are into adventure sports around Bendigo. The manager of the store is keen to build positive links with local clubs help meet our ‘gear’ needs and help promote our activities. This evening is the first step towards that.

There will be short presentations from bush walkers, runners, orienteers and scouts as well as the store manager. Food and drink will be available.

It would be great to have a few members there to support Bendigo Orienteers’ presentation, and meet some others who may be interested in coming to an event we are running.

http://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/Stores/Rays-Bendigo/317

St Just Point

The club’s first training event was on a brand new map between Bendigo and Eaglehawk on Saturday, called St Just Point.

Neil Barr had mapped and set some challenging middle distance courses on this previously unused mining terrain near California Gully. Around 30 people attended and enjoyed the courses despite the hot conditions. The training plan was for people to run their course twice and compare their performance on each. Only one person ran their course twice, the rest of us were too hot and tired.

A big thank you to the 7 members who stayed behind to help collect the 31 controls in the heat. It made this job much simpler for the organiser, and shared the load. Thanks: John Wilkinson (organiser and course setter for next week), Jenny Ball, Lorraine Leversha, Darren and Raelee Eenjes, Andrew Wallace and Jim Russell.

Full results available at the Results tab above;
summary results at https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/ResultList?eventId=4662.

Julie Flynn


Neil Barr

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Neil Barr

Kooyoora Report

Congratulations and thank you to the following Bendigo Orienteers who worked so hard to make Sunday’s State League event a success:

Andrew Cameron, who accepted the challenge of course setting in such a complex area as Kooyoora, for such as big event as a State League event. Andrew put many hours into this project.

Rob Clark, who took on the big job of organising the event. Rob had not done this previously, so was learning on the job, and essentially project managing an event.

Peter Searle, who supported Rob in organising and Andrew in course setting, and accepted the role of controller.

Craig Feuerherdt, who assisted Andrew with the finer aspects of course setting at Kooyoora.

Thank you to all club members who supported the event by taking on rostered roles. Without our collective volunteer efforts these events would not occur at all.

Also, Thank you to Alison and Tony Radford who controlled the event on Saturday for Yarra Valley club.

Kooyoora lived up to its reputation as one of the most complex and tough terrains in Australia. Congratulations to all participants who completed their courses – many of us either mispunched or did not finish, for various reasons.

Coursesetter Musings

Reflections on Saturday’s event at Mt Tarrengower in Maldon

One of the things I like to achieve when planning orienteering courses is to give people a sense of adventure. The challenge is to set courses that provide the right level of adventure for people, and to try to make sure no one doing easy or moderate courses gets lost. About 100 people participated (official entries numbered 86) and maps were in short supply by 1pm. Most people appeared to enjoy their experience, but a few found the steep terrain more than they could manage. One or two jokingly reminded me of my old reputation of having ‘sadistic tendencies’ when planning courses.

I began checking out possible assembly areas and planning the easy and moderate courses several weeks ago before the rain when the mountain was very dry and there was no grass growing. It took a while to plan these courses; after all they are the most important courses to get right. One of the goals is to manage events so that young participants have little chance of getting lost. In the end 4 young people (one group of 3 girls and one single boy) had some difficulty with course 4 and that is a little disappointing for me as the person responsible. I was pleased with course 5, as all participants finished well. In retrospect, I think that course 4 was probably a little too challenging.

Among the highlights of the day was the wide age range of people participating. From the youngest participant, Akira Hill having an adventure with his Nonna on course 5, to Adolf Kempf, a 90 year old Swiss orienteer who impressively completed course 2. I suppose someone who is used to orienteering in Swiss mountain terrain would have no difficulty with Mt Tarrengower (probably just a hill to a Swiss orienteer).

I would like to thank Judy Hill for organising the afternoon tea/coffee/bikkies. Judy, Jacqui Knee and Alison Radford (members who live in Castlemaine) have decided they will support this opportunity for socialising. It encourages people to hang around and talk with others. At a recent planning meeting one of the positive changes some people want is more opportunities to socialise at orienteering events.

Thank you to the volunteers who helped to collect controls after the event: Derek Morris (next week’s organiser), Warwick and Elleanor Williams and Andrew Wallace.

Thanks Neil Barr for setting up the maps, organising the printing of maps, setting up the computer for the event AND putting all the controls out before the event. I spent the week prior to this event in Canberra assisting my ageing unwell parents. It’s great to have a support team to help make our events successful.

Finally, don’t miss Derek’s event next week on Mosquito Creek where the hills are not nearly as high and the gullies are not nearly as obvious.

Julie Flynn

RESULTS

First Space Racing for 2016

The Space Racing season started with a Come and Try It on Tuesday afternoon at Kangaroo Flat Botanic Gardens. A small but enthusiastic group of Space racers enjoyed the course set by Jack Wigney. Being an ex-Space Racer, Jack understands what makes a good Space Race. The season proper starts next Tuesday afternoon (26/4/16) at 4.00 pm next to the Kindergarten in Spring Gully Reserve. Full report, results and details of coming events: www.spaceracing.com.au

Directions: http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/3952