2015 President's Cup and Christmas Party

The not-to-be missed event of the Uringan calendar year! (If you did miss it, put the last Saturday in November in your diary for 2017.)

• Venue by Matt and Helen - congenial spaces, a chance to look over the recent renovations, and cricket on the TV for those in need.  Unfortunately, located at the top of the hill.

• President's Cup event - Matt on behalf of club president Linda set a Hunters Hill challenge that required negotiation (teams of two deciding who would go where) and questions at control sites which required close reading (and occasionally some extra knowledge: who knew that Mary Reibey was once featured on the $20 note?, and to find out why Mary Reibey was important just ask Matt). There were two cartographic questions to trip up the runners.

• Food by everyone - yet again Uringans surpassed themselves, especially with tasty salads and desserts to die for.

• Santa Claus - of course.

• Giving out of undistributed badges (2014, 2015 . . .), Metro medals and NOSH mugs

Preparing maps with questions

Negotiating

Running

Making sense of the answers

Metroleague Division 5 Premiers

Jim still missed out on receiving the Rookie of the Year award, but at least we all got to see it

NOSH water carriers' rewards

New grandfather strutted his stuff and the Uringan aunties and uncles took a turn

 

And just in case anyone still had some energy...

ONSW Awards Presentation

ONSW trialled a new way to attract as many people as possible the the Awards Presentation thus it was combined with the Saturday Orienteering Series, which runs through the school term in the morning. There was a choice of 3 different courses and was ideal for a training run, as Bicentennial Park offers ultra fast terrain - ideal for sprint training!! The proceedings for the awards started swiftly after everyone had finished and lasted about an hour, finishing up at 1pm. It was short and sweet to say the least, mainly due to the fact that only about 40 people or so turned up. 
I guess the question remains what format would attract more people to turn up to the awards presentation. The covered pavilion @ Bicentennial Park offered a very relaxed atmosphere and those who attended had a very pleasant time; I guess afternoon would perhaps suit better than lunch time, but apparently that has been done too, without too much success. More importantly quite a few Uringa members won awards and it was great to see that most of them were there to receive their awards, unlike Big Foot !! They won over 20 Orienteer of the Year awards and the Shinglers were the only Big Footers there....

Congratulations to all Uringa members who won awards for the 2015 season:

Banksia award
Maggie Mackay

Waratah award
Finn Mackay

Metroleague Division 5 Premieres
Gayle, Dave L, Adrienne Kirby, Sophie & Maggie

Orienteer of the year
W14A        3rd Sophie Jones
W17-20A   1st Georgia Jones
W45A        1st Linda Sesta, 3rd Maggie Jones
W45AS      3rd Gayle Shepherd
W55A        3rd Lisa Lampe
W80A        1st Maureen Ogilvie
M14A         3rd Finn Mackay
M40A         3rd Anthony Nolan
M45A         2nd Ian Jones
M45AS      1st Jim Mackay
M70A         3rd Dick Ogilive
M75A         3rd Brian Cleland

Special Congratulations go out to Jim Mackay who won the "Rookie of the Year" trophy!! Jim started orienteering in 2013 and has only been bush orienteering for that long too. He has come leaps and bounds to win M45AS Orienteer of the Year for 2015. Well deserved Jim!!

Rainbow in photos

Tim Sleath set the course. Once the controls were out he was into recovery mode. (Apparently he'd also had a big day the day before to recover from.)

You never know who might turn up at an orienteering event. The Jones reconnected with neighbors from their time living in Maroubra. (A legacy of that time for Uringa are the Maroubra area maps.)

Club events are always social, as many members turn out to give whatever hand is needed, and then catch up with one another.

Clever siting of the assembly area meant that when the order came to 'bug out' before the thunder storm hit, a useful shelter was nearby.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - it always rains

Cast your mind back to the corresponding event in 2014. Yes it rained- as a matter of fact it poured for about an hour.
So there we are set up under the magnificent fig trees in Latham Park and all was well. A glance to the west and what do you know black clouds, thunder and lightning were once more going to grace us with their presence. Fortunately we were able to bug out to a small area of undercover before the rain came. We need to change the name of this map before it is re-used.
There were 53 souls who braved initially the humidity of the afternoon then the very wet air of the later afternoon.
Course setter Tim did a fantastic job and there was nary a whinge back at the download station.

It was a challenge to get all 600 points and it was a close call for Steve Ryan who went to all but was a few seconds late.

Tim's challenge!

Uringa members did very well: Georgia was 1st home in Junior Women with Maree not that many points behind. Catherine streeted the field in Open Women Serje dominated Masters Men. Ian was 2nd home in Veteran Men with Shane in 3rd.
Linda and Maggie had a battle for the top positions in Veteran Women with Linda ahead at the end. Terry Murphy had a fine 3rd in Legends Men and Helen went 2 better with a win in Legends Women. Mary Jane was 3rd behind Helen.

Brian was 1st home in Immortal class with Dave in 3rd.

Our next summer series event is on 11th November at Concord. This will be a big event with over 200 runners expected.

Junior League - Callan Park

Whilst the day featured a little drizzle, the magnificent surroundings of Callan Park ensured all who came left smiling. This well used area has a certain magic, the lush grounds and the variety of buildings from the beautiful sandstone compounds to the more complex old hospital complex- it makes for a challenge.


Judging from the comments from competitors, Alice did a fantastic job in setting courses that were a challenge. I heard the mapper comment that he went to places that he had only ever visited when mapping.

On the long course it was a case of youth triumphing with Aidan Dawson and Duncan Currie edging out Big Foot's Patrik Gunnarsson. Mind you Aidan was only 5 seconds quicker that Duncan. Ian Jones was flying to finish in 5th place with Shane Doyle a handful of seconds behind in 6th.

On the medium course it was age  that triumphed although up and coming Uringan  Finn was only 3 minutes slower than fleet of foot Tim Giles and Garingal stalwart Carol. Maree Doyle was super quick on this course. Maree has not been orienteering for very long and this was a real test for her.
Must mention Jakob- he dnfed. Mm why? Well today was the first time he had come across a pivot control and having never seen it before was unsure how to handle it.



Showing the benefit of an action packed holiday in Nth Queensland, Helen Murphy was the best performed Uringan on the short course. With recent injuries on the mend it seems that Angela is finding form with a 5th placing.

That is the final event in the winter series for Uringa. So away goes the gaiters and bush shoes and dust off the running shorts and speedy Dunlop sandshoes ready for the Summer Series.
A huge thank you to all the planners, controllers, organisers and volunteers that contributed to a very successful winter program of events

Overall results:

3	Finn Mackay	Medium hard	47:39
4	Helen Murphy	Short hard	41:35
5	Angela Murray	Short hard	47:39
5	Ian Jones	Long hard	37:23
6	Daniel Murray	Short hard	50:34
6	William Nolan	Easy	37:02
6	Maree Doyle	Medium hard	51:55
6	Shane Doyle	Long hard	37:51
7	Jonathan Nolan	Easy	37:26
7	Sophie Jones	Medium hard	53:19
8	Serena Doyle	Short hard	1:00:11
9	Zara Doyle	Short hard	1:00:39
10	Maureen Ogilvie	Short hard	1:04:52
11	Lawrence Jones	Long hard	41:36
12	Georgia Jones	Long hard	45:29
13	Dave Lotty	Mediu hard	1:00:16
13	Jim Mackay	Long hard	45:54
18	Michael Warlters	Long hard	49:36
21	Margaret Jones	Long hard	51:17
26	Dick Ogilvie	Long hard	1:00:13
	Jakob Doyle	Medium hard	dnf

SL#11 & NSW Schools Champs - Knapsack Gully

Saturday was sprints, Sunday was a bush course on a 1:10,000 map. Another beautiful sunny day and challenging courses. What a weekend.

W14A
1 Sophie Jones

W17+A
1 Georgia Jones

W21A
4 Alice Westwood

W35A
1 Danielle Kopriva

W45A
1 Linda Sesta
2 Margaret Jones

W65A
2 Mary Jane Mahony

W80A
1 Maureen Ogilvie

M14A
3 Finn MacKay

M15+B
4 Jakob Doyle

M16A
3 Thomas Garden

M17-20A
2 Lawrence Jones

M21A
8 Matt Westwood

M45A
2 Ian Jones
3 Shane Doyle

M45AS
4 Jim Mackay

M50A
4 Michael Warlters

M70A
2 Dick Ogilvie
7 Dave Lotty

M75A
1 Brian Cleland

EODVE
Brady Kopriva

SL#10 and Schools Sprint Saturday

It was a combined State League #10 and Schools Sprint Champs. A morning sprint on the UWS Richmond campus, an afternoon sprint at UWS Penrith. Completing two courses in different places on interesting new maps on a beautiful sunny day was the goal.

Uringa had some winners in the Schools Champs.

...and quite a few place getters.

W21A
2 Alice Westwood

W45A
1 Linda Sesta

W55A
2 Lisa Lampe

W80A
1 Maureen Ogilvie

M14A
3 Finn MacKay

M17-20A
1 Lawrence Jones

M21A
1 Ondrej Pavlu
3 Matt Westwood

W17+
1 Georgia Jones

M45A
3 Ian Jones
5 Shane Doyle

M45AS
1 Jim MacKay

M70A
6 Dave Lotty

Well, Brian Cleland and Mary Jane Mahony both had mps, Maggie Jones, Sophie Jones  and Dick Ogilvie has dsqs. Other members weren't able to run both courses (Angela Murray, Maree Doyle, Zara Doyle, Nicola Nyah). They were great courses, but challenging Itt was good day for all.