Metro 3 Oatley Park 27 May

Wow, what a great run of weather the Metro series is having! More sunshine for this event, and terrific park setting for the assembly, start, finish... and the Uringa picnic.

B Team - URCC Harriers: drew with GO Dragons
D Team - URCC Falcons: lost against Bennelong
D Team - URCC Kites: won against WHO
E Team - URCC Kestrels: won against GO Blue Tongues

Orienteering in Switzerland

We are nearly at the end of our tour in Europe and I wanted to post some maps of all the orienteering I did while we were in Switzerland.
The first event was a double header sprint in 2 different town, all within about a 3 hour time frame. As usual the sprints were a very fast affair. The competition in Switzerland is fierce, not only are they fast, but you can't afford a single mistake. I only managed to get within the top 15 (12th to be precise) !!!

In beween I have also done some trainings with my local club OLC Kapreolo. Can't believe to what level they have brought a training session!!! No manual drawing of controls on to the map, it's all on pre printed maps.......quite incredible.....but still no sportident in trainig...hahaha....that will be the next level!

First we did a memory training on the southern part of the map to get to the start triangle, then just a bit of a normal event, total distance was about 5.5km

Some of the map details were removed between controls and nearly all paths were removed.  This was really difficult, in particular as there was a lot of green, brumbles, stinging nettles etc. So sticking to a straight line probably would have got you stuck in a green.

At the end of April we took part in the Swiss Middle Distance Championships in Locarno, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Beautiful weather greeted us, and a 1hr walk to the start including about 200m climb could be seen as a warm up or being an exhausting exercise (ie the walk to the start was longer than my course!!). I had a pretty solid race, but came unstuck at one control, lost about about 5 mins and that meant 16th only. Aldo was doing ok, but had to abandon his course after 90 mins as that's the max the you are allowed to be out, and unfortunately somehow managed to miss the finish and ended up on the walk back to the assembly area!!
On a very positive note, our expat Sibylle came 2nd in W45 which was a very surprising result for her! She hadn't done much training as she was working a lot, got involved in politics for the town council and was busy with monitoring their new house being constructed. Just shows that if you are a great map reader (which Sibylle is of course) and have a clear race you can top the field!
The next day we had the Swiss Sprint Champs, but they were literally washed out. The rain was just coming down quite heavy at times and in complete contrast to Saturday was also a bit on the cold side. As usual the sprint was lots of fun, running around the old town and the sea front with a couple of route choices.

Culinary League Event 5 – Concord

Uringa Orienteers

invite you to enter

Culinary League Event 5 – Concord

Incorporating the

“Concord Curry Classic”

Date: Saturday, 23rd June, 2012

Map: “Murphy’s Law”, 1:100 1999

Helen & Terry Murphy

13 Alton Avenue, Concord

Terrain: Mild, hot, very hot and even hotter

Courses: Entree

Main

Dessert

Coffee/Tea Provided

Drink BYO

Enter on the Day: At the discretion of the organiser following a begging phone call before 6.00pm and accompanied by an exceptional curry dish

Time: There will be a mass start for all Culinary League courses at 6.30pm. No course closure time (unless an ambulance or fire brigade is called)

Entries close: 21st June, 2012

(late entries accepted at organiser’s discretion, late fee of chocolate may apply)

Entries to: Gayle Shepherd Ph: 9526 6229 gayleshep@hotmail.com

Facilities: Ice-water, flushing toilets and catering by Uringa’s legendary curry connoisseurs

Planner: Helen Murphy & Gayle Shepherd Controller: “The Mag”

Organiser: Gayle Shepherd


In entering this culinary event you should recognise that the consumption of such food has certain inherent risks due to its conduct in the kitchen environment. Included in these risks are injury due to the volatile nature of hot curries and the effects of alcohol. You should also be aware that there is no personal jelly-belly insurance on your participation in the meal and that you consume at your own risk.







Contact person: ...............................................................................................

Phone : …...........................................................................................

Email: ...............................................................................................

Number attending: ............................................................................

What are you bringing: .....................................................................

 

Coalfield Classic - Pelaw Main

COAL, MOSSIES & MORE GRASS SEEDS

The muti-day event in Newcastle was run in near perfect weather. Brilliant blue skies, a sun with a little warmth and no sign of rain!


Sprint area



It was a taxing time for competitors with a sprint at Newcastle Uni in the morning, off to Cessnock for a mid distance event and a long distance event on Sunday. Whilst it was taxing on competitors it was very much more so on the organisers. I can say that they did a great job.

Well lets start at the very beginning with the sprint. Newcastle Uni is a sprawling megalopolis spread over a large area. There were ups and down along with complex buildings and a fair bit of bush. Mind you about 1/2 the elite competitors who ran early should have been disqualified for crossing through an area of olive green at the spectator control of all places. Sanity prevailed.

Uringa had a large number of competitors up for the weekend. Sophie Jones climbed the victory Dias in W10A ( she was consistent winning each event over the weekend).  Jared McKenna, Lawrence Jones, Dave McKenna, Brian Cleland, Mary Jane Mahony, Maureen Ogilvie secured 2nd place along with Ian Jones, Dave Lotty, Georgia Jones who scored a 3rd.



Middle Distance



The drive to Pelaw Main was punctuated by a stop at Kurri Kurri's best bakery for a double helping of steak & kidney pie. Yummmmmmmmm! Others feated on a vast range of tasty sweet breads and pastries. The arena was a delight with a grassy hill overlooked the competition area. there was plenty to see with 4 controls in view and competitors crossing the field of vision at least once during their run. This area was fairly flat and features tended to be smaller well except for the Derrek which stood about 10 metres in the air.



Again Sophie lead the way with another first. She was joined on the podium by sister Georgia with a first in W14A. Dave McKenna also shone along with Gayle Shepherd- these two took victories in their classes. Brian Cleland competing on a hard course for the very first time slotted home second - outstanding Brian!.Jared racked up another second placing. Mary Jane had a good run registering 3rd and Maureen was also amongst the medals finishing 3rd. Penny Field, returning to the bush for the first time for some time was very pleased with her 3rd placing.

It was off to a variety of accommodation for a well earned rest.



Long Distance



Sunday saw the crowds gather at Kitchener for the long day. Felt sorry for the elites with the girls doing 11.5kms  and the boys 17kms. Winning times were greater than planned.

Once more Sophie clocked up a win and Dad Ian was smiling all the way to the podium with a fine 1st place in M45A. Brian once more came home 2nd along with Georgia and Angela was also placed 2nd in W65A. Maureen remained consistent with another 3rd place.

If I may comment on the courses I think Steven Todkill really set out to make the courses interesting. looking at the shortest of the Hard courses it was great to see a long leg . The area had many many tracks but Steven set the leg in such a way that you couldn't just pick up one track, there was a lot of thinking tossed in.



So all in all it was a fantastic weekend, great camaraderie and Margaret's brownies were to dream of! Our next big occasion is the Metro League event at Oatley Park. following the event all Uringans are asked to bring along a picnic basket for a good old aussie get together!



Metro 2 UWS Kingswood Campus - No long grass, much sunshine

Sunday, May 6

B Team - URCC Harriers: tied with GO Monitors
D Team - URCC Falcons: lost against URCC Kites
D Team - URCC Kites: won against URCC Falcons
E Team - URCC Kestrels: lost against BigFoot 3