• Bendigo Orienteers would like to acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung people, whose country we are on and extend our respect to their Elders, both past and present.

Park and Street Challenge

The Park & Street Challenge is now up and running in Bendigo. This is an initiative which several club members have been working on over the last 18 months. It has been funded by VicHealth through their Physical Innovation Challenge funding.

The challenge is running until 4 December. Maps were distributed in the Bendigo Weekly last Friday. If you didn’t receive a copy I will make sure there are some available at the Saturday orienteering events. To find out more check out the Park & Street Challenge Facebook page or check out http://parkandstreet.com.au/ web site to register.

Mars Bar Cup 2016

By Jenny Ball

Even though many club members were involved in championships in Queensland and it was AFL Grand Final Day, many people braved the cold to participate in the annual Mars Bar Cup (or Mahers Barr Cup) challenge held in the picturesque Sedgwick forest on October 1st.
It was great to see Lillian Maher representing her Maher family. Jimmy Cameron was in great form following his run in Queensland – he was the only one to visit all controls in the given hour (about 8.3 km).
Conditions were very wet underfoot. Gullies became water courses. Water courses flowed like creeks and many tracks had turned into water courses.
Most people managed to visit their selected controls in the hour. There were a few late penalties applied.
Brettt Houlden raced to the finish with 2 seconds to spare and Ian Johnson was delighted to complete a course successfully.
In the easy course Harrison Carter excelled with a time of 15.25 minutes and his sister Isabelle also completed the course in good time considering the conditions of the tracks.
At the end of the event all participants received a Mars Bar, which put a smile on many faces (thanks Jenny for donating the Mars Bars).
Thanks to John W, Lorraine L, Nola J and Andrew W, for picking up controls and also to Brett Houlden for bringing the trailer.

MARS BAR CUP 2016 RESULTS

In order of points scored.

Jimmy Cameron 400 (max)
Andrew Wallace 360
Nic Cherry 360
Tsegii Choijinsuren 360
Rod Gray 360
Derek Morris 355
Henry Cameron 340
Brett Houlden 340
Michael Loughnan 320
Katherine McMillan 320
Tim Dent 320
Kerryn Searle 300
Peter Forbes 295
Heather Jones 280
Colin Walker 280
David Jones 280
Lillian Maher 280
Terry Davidson 260
Ben English 240
Reuben Cameron 240
Bob Cameron 240
Elke Prielipp 240
Ken Dowling 240
Viv McMillan 220
Nola and Lorraine 220
Neave English 200
Ian Johnson 180
Di Searle 180
Anitra Dowling 180

Easy course…
Harrison Carter 15.25 min
Isabelle Carter 32.36 min
Jennie Friebel 72.38

CardiO Wrap Up

The new “CardiO” format was a great success with many positive comments. There were a few confused competitors at first and several didn’t read the clue sheet, one competitor even visited the same control twice (from different angles) and didn’t realise it. But the standout performance for the day goes to Jim Russell, who despite not posting the fastest time, won every “out” leg, i.e., the legs which repeatedly climbed up and over the ridge. He’s tough (as if we didn’t already know that) and went on to decisively win a Victorian Champs event the next day under even tougher conditions.

Is the CardiO format here to stay – watch this space.

Jim Russell – Head Coach, Orienteering Australia

The Board of Orienteering Australia is very pleased to announce Jim Russell has been appointed Head Coach of Orienteering Australia for the remainder of 2016 and 2017. Jim brings an enormous amount of enthusiasm, passion and expertise to the role of Head Coach, through his vast experience as an elite competitor and coach of many national teams. Jim has been the National Development Squad Coach for the past three years and his appointment is a natural progression, providing stability to the OA High Performance program.

Bendigo Orienteers Inc. offers its congratulations to Jim: he is a long time and highly respected member of our club and has been an integral part of every major development that has helped us to become one of the top rated orienteering clubs in Australia. He is always ready to lend a positive ear to any suggestions that would help improve the efficiency of the club’s operation and the quality of our events.

Congratulations and well done Jim.

jim

Ian Johnson – Our Living Legend

RESULTS 13/8/2016 IAN’S 88th
COURSE 1: 4.4Km
Nic Cherry                        24:40
Warwick Williams             39:41
Derek Morris                      40:21
Neil Barr                           40:55
Morgan Fry                         43:57
Darren Eenjes                   45:17
Peter Forbes                      47:35
Rob Clark                          64:22
John Chellew                     76:45
Ryan Davies                        MP
Ian Davies                         DNF
 

COURSE 2: 3.5Km
Michael Loughnan           28:21
Henry Cameron                32:45
Karina Cherry                     32:46
Julie Flynn                           36:23
Colin Walker                       40:15
Katherine McMillan         40:25
Viv McMillan                      41:21
Louise Hall                           46:03
Dave Lotty                           54:29
Sheila Colls                          64:25
 

COURSE 3: 3.2Km
Steve Bird                            21:41
Lachlan Cherry                  22:57
John Wilkinson                  23:28
Jimmy Cameron                             23:34
Leisha Maggs                     26:25
Marcus Binks                     29:37
John Maher                        29:39
Sue Key                                32:41
Lawrie Edward                  32:25
Archie Neylon                   35:25
Jason Carter                       45:53
Jenny Ball                            46:09
Lorraine Lerversha          51:51
Nola Juniper                       51:51
James O’Sullivan               52:55
Anna & Bri                           55:31
Verna Greenhalgh           61:59
Old Girls                               63:17
Reuben                DNF
 

COURSE 4: 2.5Km
Oliver Martin & Levy       19:52
Lillian Maher                      23:39
Sebastian Vinks                 34:19
Harrison Carter                 44:08
 

COURSE 5: 1.2Km
Wilbur Martin                    16:38
Sue Healy                            19:52

Ian Johnson – our living legend

Ian Johnson is the oldest member of the Bendigo Orienteering Club. His 88th birthday comes up in August 2016 and the club will celebrate the occasion at his micro-sprint event at Black Jack Gully near Castlemaine on August 13th. Ian still competes in events although he is now slowing down a bit, but he still enjoys the bush and finding hidden controls. I wonder how many people reading this will still be able to navigate their way around the Bendigo bush when they are 88 years old.

Ian retired from primary teaching in 1986, and came to live near Castlemaine, so it could be said that in 1986 the Ballarat orienteering world lost an asset and Bendigo gained one. At 88 he is still heavily involved in the sport; orienteering is a sport for all ages but the balance is still very much weighted in favour of the younger and fitter, and to see an 88 year old navigating his way around the rough forest areas week after week is still a bit off putting for many people. He has competed in almost every event organised by the Bendigo club since his arrival here but now, though still active competitively he is easing out of the organisational activities.

Ian first ventured into orienteering on a novice course at an event in 1971 at St George’s Lake in the Creswick Forest. Ian said he walked or scrambled it, as he went across country where he could, but did not use a compass. He can remember that the controls were buckets hanging by a rope with pens of different colours to mark the spaces on the map. He mapped the forest behind his newly built home in Ballarat and when some local runners were thinking about starting an orienteering club, he became an original member, taking on the position of Treasurer with a strict spending oversight. Tom Norwood and Ian both agreed low spending was essential to start with, and they gathered the profits carefully. The first event Ian organised was on June 1st 1975 on a map he helped to field work and draw. The longest course was 3.75 km with 13 controls. The cost of entry was only 20 cents, and compass hire the same.

With the experience of these initial ventures into orienteering behind him, Ian decided to make a better coloured map with more accurate fieldwork, using his usual three point triangulation, which is labour intensive but very accurate. Another map of Canadian Forest followed, it was bigger and more complicated, but still accurate. His map making procedure is, even now, still firmly rooted in basic, original methods with little time for new technology. Ian managed to make some more maps from some free photogrammetry he got from an International Three Day event. Today he still makes his own maps using free hand, pacing and drawings – then passes them on to others to digitally prepare the final map. During his time at Bendigo he has never missed course setting at least one — until recently two events every year and still continues to compete every week.

He is an avid environmentalist and his knowledge of indigenous plants is second to none; he has written numerous volumes on his observations of micro climate and vegetation changes and is also the author of many, many articles on navigational techniques as used in orienteering; his property at Harcourt is not connected to electricity and he lives a Spartan and totally carbon neutral lifestyle.

Ian Johnson is an amazing person, he is iconic to our sport– a “living legend” of the Bendigo Orienteering Club and an individual the like of whom we will probably never see again.

Peter Creely, based on observations by John Wilkinson and Colin Walker.

We will celebrate Ian’s birthday at the event that he will course set at Black Dog Gully in Harcourt on 13 August this year. The occasion will be much more social this year with a BBQ and food supplied by the club. As in past years Jenny Ball will make Ian’s birthday cake and all are invited to stay and celebrate Ian’s birthday in the company of other club members.

ian johnson

Night Orienteering in Bendigo!

This coming Saturday we have a special event in the evening, for you to come and enjoy orienteering in twilight or night conditions. People who attended last year’s inaugural night champs event loved it and raved about how well organised it was and how much fun they had.

This is a brilliant opportunity to come and navigate in the twilight or in the dark, knowing there are other people nearby doing the same thing. It will help improve your navigation skills and is great for development. Course 1 and 2 are a mass start event at 5:35 and pre entry is required. Course 3-5 are run as normal with starts between 4:45 to 5:30 so you get to pick how dark you want it to be. Pre entry for these courses is still preferable.

The sunset is due to happen at 5:31pm and there will be a fire to keep everyone nice and warm as well. More details and pre-entry on Eventor. The deadline for pre-enty has been moved to midday on Friday. If you have a spare headlamp with strong light that you don’t mind lending to someone else, please bring it along. Christpher Naunton (our organser) has had some requests.

There is $50 for the winning male and female on course 1 for the night event Saturday night.

night champs

Browns Reef event report

On a cold but fine Saturday, Bendigo Bush 16 got off to a slightly delayed, but fox free start. The Brown’s Reef map is mostly open bush and offers some fast gully and spur orienteering terrain. Course 1 and 2 were relatively long (7.9 km and 6.0 km) and provided some interesting route choices for runners. Course 1 was won by Ben Goonan from Peter Hobbs and David Brownridge with all three averaging better than 6 minutes/km. Course 2 was the most popular course and Chris Naunton led Jimmy Cameron home with both runners averaging better than 6 minutes/km. Lian Perry from Eureka Orienteers won course 3 from local Bendigo runner, Rueben Cameron. Archie Neylon and Eleanor Williams both performed well to win courses 4 and 5. Thanks to Andrew Wallace for setting up the computer system on the day, Neil Barr for assistance with course setting and all helpers who assisted by picking up the controls.

Rob Clark

RESULTS
LIVELOX

Hills Upsan Downs

Bendigo’s MTBO event on the 3rd July started at our house in Castlemaine. Competitors had to ride 1km to get to the start but it offered a flat ride for those who did the scatter event with lots of great single track riding. Other courses traveled north over the Castlemaine Muckleford Rd that was used the week before for the Interwinter series between 4 local mountain bike clubs. The terrain north was very hilly with lots of single tracks offering a lot of route choice .

The new SI system worked well and the results were displayed on a screen back at our house as well as coffee and tea to warm everyone after the event. We had a competitor from Sydney that had come to do the double header for the weekend as they love the mountain biking that Victoria offers .

We had great help on the Sunday from Peter and Di Searle, John Chellew, Jason and Harrison Carter as well as Jim Russell who set up the results system and picking up controls .

Course Setter and Organiser: Peter & Judy Hill

Bendigo Bush 12: Longlea Forest

Friday’s cold and wet conditions gave way to a magnificent, sunny Saturday to greet the 62 eager competitors who ran in the flat and largely open terrain of Longlea Forest for Bendigo Orienteers’ 12th bush event of the year.

Participants came from far afield: Melbourne, Ballarat, Kyneton and Rochester, as well as many Bendigo locals. The flatness and openness could lead astray anyone who didn’t keep very good contact with their map. In spite of this, some very fast times were recorded.

On the courses with difficult navigation Ben Goonan won the 7.6 km Course 1, followed by Simon Rouse and Belinda Lawford. Ben clocked up an impressive km rate of 4. minutes. Course 2 was won by Chris Naunton, followed by Andrew Cameron and Nic Cherry while Peter Hill, Jacqui Knee and young Serryn Eenjes took the placings on Course 3.

The Moderate course was won by Richard Bills, followed by Jarrod Martin and Oliver Martin. Angus Martin took out Course 5.

Thanks to Neil Barr for help with the computers on the day and beforehand.

Course Setter and organiser: Charles Brownridge