The Queen’s Birthday Weekend saw Yarra Valley Orienteers and Bendigo Orienteers host events 3 and 4 of this year’s state series at the renowned Mt. Kooyoora State Park. Yarra Valley set a series of middle distance courses on the Saturday and Andrew Cameron and Craig Feuerherdt set a series of long distance courses for the event hosted by Bendigo on Sunday. Congratulations must go to Andrew and Craig for their terrific courses that demanded a high level of skill from all competitors. Many thanks to Peter Searle for the very thorough job he did overseeing the course setting and guiding a novice organiser through many and varied hoops. I would also like to thank the club members who were very willing to pitch in and make the event a success.

Course 1 was just over 12km long with local runner Leon Keely coming home first in 1:48:28 in an average km time of 9 minutes exactly. This was an excellent performance in very tough and demanding terrain. Brodie Nankervis was next home 4 minutes later followed by Bruce Arthur and Patrick Jaffe, both just over the 2 hour mark. The tough nature of the terrain is shown by the fact that only half the field of 14 completed the course.

Sixteen runners started the 7.4 km M2 course with Warren Key winning comfortably in 1:14:34 from Dion Keech. Bendigo juniors Lachlan Cherry and Glenn James performed really well to come in 3rd and 4th in just under 2 hours. Natasha Key was first home in the W2 class over the 7.4 course in 1:25:26 followed closely by Aislinn Prendergast, with Lanita Steer in 3rd place. All 3 ran very competitive times.

David Colls from the Yarra Valley club was well ahead of his competition running the 6.1 km M3 course in 1:05:03 followed by Ted van Geldermalsen and Vic Sedunary. Local runner Clare Brownridge had an excellent run to win the W3 class from Carolyn Jackson and promising Bendigo junior Leisha Maggs.

The largest field of the day started in the M4 class and veteran Alex Tarr showed the benefit of experience in the tough terrain coming in ahead of locals Warwick Williams and Andrew Wallace. Alexandra Sinickas was first home in the 4.5 km long W4 class from Margi Freemantle and Pru Dobbin.

First home in the M5 class was Peter Prime from Greg Cates and Blake Gordon. A large field contested the W5 class with Sue Key leading in Kathryn Tarr and Dale Ann Gordon.

Ian Dodd beat a small field over the 2.1km M6 course with 2 locals Ralee Enjes and Caitlyn Steer coming first and second in the W6 category.

Mason Arthur and Serryn Enjes won the M7 and W7 classes, while Torren Arthur and Luca Bogdanovits had victories in the M8 and W8 classes. Luke Feuerherdt and Emma Cates both showed excellent speed to win the M9 and W9 classes in good time.

Results For Saturday are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE.

Results For Sunday are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE.

Next Bendigo event is at Mandurang.

Rob Clark, Organiser

And Finally

For those who competed at the recent event at Apollo Hills, here is a small article written by Don Cherry, that has been published on a American website

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.

Derek Morris (today’s course setter) is becoming renowned for two things:

• Great courses in the subtle complexity of Mosquito Creek.
• Wet weather.

Both were present at today’s event. However, the rain was only light and intermittent after an overnight soaking, and did not deter more than 50 competitors who thoroughly enjoyed their courses.  Most people had difficulty negotiating “clean” runs as the subtle and often overgrown terrain was difficult to read.

Thanks to Derek for another great event.

Results are now available.

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

Do we have great potential in our Junior ranks in Bendigo?!
Here are some results from the Vic Secondary Schools Champs in Melbourne last Friday.
Girls 13B
Amber Holmberg (E’hawk Sec) 1st.
G14A
Serryn Eenjes 1st
Caitlyn Steer 2nd (11 seconds)
G14B
Megan Bramley (E’hawk Sec) 1st.
Taylor Mackieson (E’hawk Sec) 10
Georgie Hall (E’hawk Sec) 12th.
G15A
Karina Cherry 1st
Lily Begg 3rd.
Stephanie Trew (E’hawk Sec) 7th.
Sarah Maggs (E’hawk Sec) 8th.
Lian Jackson (E’hawk Sec) 10
Emily Brown (E’hawk Sec) 11th.
G15B
Gemma Holmberg (E’hawk Sec) 3rd.

Boys 13A
Solomon Cameron 2nd.
Boys 14A
Jack Wigney
Boys 16A
Glenn James 2nd.
Henry Cameron 3rd.
Michael Loughnan 5th.
Boys Open
Jimmy Cameron 1st.

Congratulations to everyone who competed!

Clear skies and a cool breeze welcomed orienteers to the Borhoney Ghurk forest near Elaine, SE of Ballarat on Sunday. A moderate crowd of over 170 representing all of Victoria’s O clubs turned out for the annual Middle distance championships. Nillumbik were the organisers, and while it was challenging to fit in the cars around the trees and numerous tracks and battles with the masses of European wasps, the event seemed to run quite well.

Results Tent

Jim provided the O-lynx digital setup and the results tent was an ever popular viewing site(see the photo). Thirty Bendigo club members ran on the day participating in 18 of the 34 classes on offer. Seven club members were first in their categories – Eleanor (W10), Serryn (W14), Karina (W16), Alison (W65), Michael (M16), Don (M50) and Tony (M65). A further 4 achieved 2nd – Caitlyn (W14), Glenn (M16), Darren (M45) and Peter (M75) with 4 also getting 3rd – Henry (M16), Lachlan (M17-20), Ben (M21) and Neil (M60). Well done to all!

The maps all showed quite a bit of green and combined with the old mine workings, numerous bike trails, erosion gullies and sharp steep climbs it was a challenging yet enjoyable event. A few thick patches of scrub and the piles of washed river gravel in the workings made navigation and footwork a physical workout.

Next Bendigo event is at Peter the Great Gully.

Don Cherry

A year to date record of 85 entries today saw really good conditions in the bush south of Crusoe Reservoir, Bendigo. This is mostly fast running bush but the course setter (John Wilkinson) used a lot of old gold mining terrain and eroded gullies to hide his controls. This also made the courses interesting and wet for those brave enough to cross the wide water channel in pursuit of a quicker time.

By early afternoon the rain had cleared. Unfortunately for John it was quite wet when he put out controls on Friday. Fastest in course 1 was Leon Keely with a time of 31.41 min for the 7 km, closely followed by Natasha Key (35.23) and Ben Goonan (35.59).

Course 2 was also close, won by Jimmy Cameron (34.09), Shayne Hill (35.06). The fastest lady on course 2 was Julie Flynn (who also braved the water channel). Course 3 was won by Toph Naunton (25.10). Peter Hill and Leisha Maggs came second and third respectively.

Best in course 4 was Oliver Martin followed by Rick and Alison McDonald.
Lachlan Feuerherdt was fastest on course 5 followed by brother Joshua.

Well done to everyone. We hope you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks to those people who stayed behind to collect controls. This area is really interesting but because it is entirely fenced all controls had to be carried in/out by foot or bike.

Results are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE. Next Bendigo event is at Chewton.

Leon’s preparation pre Ultra long, that includes other shoes, just in case, and with the spoils of victory

John Wilkinson/ Jenny Ball

In good weather last Saturday, a  mix of 46 people from Bendigo, Melbourne and Heathcote went of a ‘Back to Mt Ida’ event based at the familiar Dargile Picnic Grounds some 9 km from Heathcote township.

Dargile Picnic Area 2015/16

With the use of a remote start and remote finish, Courses 1 – 3 were able to spend the majority of the time orienteering in reasonably clear and intricate spur-gully terrain along the first ridge to the east of the actual steep Mt Ida ‘mountain’. Flatter areas have seen serious vegetation growth since the current (a non-OCAD) map was surveyed in 1992 and tracks are not now reliably mapped.

The map used for Courses 4 and 5 was a re-use of that prepared for the Heathcote Community Games in 2015 and utilized the flatter area surrounding the picnic ground. Because of the present inaccuracy of the 1992 map, this remap at 1:7500 allowed for the area to be now usable by beginners and newcomers. The difference in the map changes in 24 years is shown in the images shown here.

Dargile Picnic Area 1992

While the venue is some distance from Bendigo, those who orienteer in this terrain to the east of Mt Ida always seem to find it rewarding with a good level of physical challenge. It is worth considering how this area can be used into the future where the standard and convenience of mapping has changed so much over almost quarter of a century.

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