State League 11 & NSW Schools Champs

Uringa fielded 5 competitors in the NSW Schools Championships held at Belanglo State Forest. The chilly wind made life a little uncomfortable whilst waiting to start but the runners soon warmed as they headed into the forest . The pine forest sections within the map contained some very beautiful and well defined rock features. The eucalypt sections tended to be a lot scrappier where lots of dead fall timber slowed progress and made control hunting a lot harder than usual.
Our Schoolies also competed in State league 11, thus the two placings in the table below.(Schools/State league
M10N Nicholas Radonjic   1st /1st
M11A (12A)  Jared McKenna  1st / 1st
M16A  Laurence Jones  2nd /4th
W10A  Sophie Jones  1st / 1st
W14A  Georgia Jones 2nd / 2nd

Now whilst the kids were out having fun the oldies were also out enjoying the forest.
W21AS  Jane McKenna  2nd
W35AS  Gayle Shepherd 3rd
W45A  Maggie Jones  4th
W50A  Lisa Lampe  2nd
W65A  Jitka Kopriva  3rd
            Angela Murray  4th
           Mary Jane Mahony 6th
W70A  Maureen Ogilvie  2nd
M35AS  Dave McKenna  1st
M40A  Anthony Nolan  4th
M45A  Ian Jones  3rd
M45AS  Ron Pallas  5th
M50A  Ian Mckenzie  7th
M55AS  Dick Ogilvie  4th
M65A  Dave Lotty  3rd
M75A  Brian Cleland  2nd

Not bad results all round from Club Uringa. So now it is just two weeks to the NSW Middle and Long Distance Champs being held west of Bathurst. The ever popular and challenging Kali's Rocks is the venue for the Middle Distance and then off to Molong for Mumbil for the long distance champs.
For many this will be a fine tuning for the Australian Championship carnival being held around St Helens in Tasmania and what a carnival that is shaping up to be.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with orienteering. On Saturday night a number of Uringans gathered at the Mittagong RSL. Once mains were consumed there was a temptation to head to the Dessert Bar. Karen (The Athlete) Blatchford when quizzed on what would be a good dessert handed over the photographed dish claiming that it was a fruit salad ( tomatoes are after all a fruit). So after that suggestion - no dessert was consumed out of shame in thinking that finely tuned athletes such as Uringans would dare to consume a cheesecake or mud cake style dessert.
It was rather ironical that part the way around her course "The Athlete" was bewailing the lack of energy- which she would have found had she had had she consumed a cheesecake delicacy at dinner the night before!

OMG - She did What?

Yes folks in the middle of winter our intrepid Doc Lisa camped at Belanglo House. I know there will be some who might scoff but here is the photographic evidence.

Wanting to ensure that nephew Nick, who by the way had two outstanding runs in M10A, had  a true southern highlands experience; Doc Lisa tossed in the tent and the extra warmth sleeping gear to brave the lows of the Southern Higlands.

As we all know the Doc has not been averse to tossing in her own blow heater in case the heating in winter accommodation is not up to the blast furnace like temperature desired. However I can assure all readers that there was no electrical lead running into the tent. There was no sign of any fire inside the Black Wolf Tent.. Nor any other form of heating.

Happily both the Doc and Nick survived the night and were seen impersonating a lizard at the Sunday race..

OMG she did it in the middle of winter!

STATE LEAGUE 10

A previous post has all the pictures so here are a few words.
10.30am set up came and with it arrived a mass of Uringans. So much so that we could have begun setting up an hour later.
Toilet holes were dug, tents erected, result boards up and before you know it coffee was on. We had a few early runners out into the bush before the 1pm official start. the Jones's were taking care of the Junior Catering and setting up a very technical string course.
The event ran smoothly although there were some technical words being heard in the finish area when a printer didn't want to work. Cool heads and the right technical word and that was soon fixed. Quick thinking at the start averted a serious problem on the easy course when the si units were not quite in the right order. Two clicks in the computer fixed meant no one was mp'd.

I wonder if there is something about running an event and having issues on the course because a fair number of Uringans mp or dnf on the day.
M12A  Jared McKenna   dnf
M16A  Lawrence Jones  2nd
M35AS  Dave McKenna   2nd
M40A  Anthony Nolan  dnf
M45A  Ian Jones   2nd
M75A  Brian Cleland  3rd
W10A  Sophie Jones   1st
W14A  Georgia Jones  1st
W35AS  Gayle Shepherd   dnf
W45A  Linda Sesta  1st
             Jane McKenna  5th
             Maggie Jones   6th
W50A   Lisa Lampe   dnf
              Sarah Garnet  mp
W55A   Margaret Wilmott   4th
W65A   Angela Murray   4th
             Jitka Kopriva 5th
             Mary Jane Mahony   6th
W70A   Maureen Ogilvie   2nd
W Open B   Penny Field   mp
EOD VE - Will Nolan   1st

It is interesting that 3 of the 4 who worked on the start did not complete their course.
By the way there were indeed some strange sights in the forest

Sarah caught a "NatalieusMillerusTigerus" by the tail!

AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Two Uringans have been selected in the NSW Schools team to compete in the Australian Schools Championships to be held in St Helens, Tasmania in late September.

Lawrence Jones has been selected in the Senior Boys Team  along with  Daniel Parton, Matthew Hill and Aidan Dawson. This is a very solid team and stands a good chance of registering not only individual honours but a very strong teams result.

Sisiter Georgia is joining her brother on the trip with her selection in the Junior Girls team. Georgia has had a fantastic year this year and has been very dominant in her W14 age class. Along with Georgia is Melissa Annetts, Rebecca George and Samantha Wallace.

The Schools champs is held mid week and consists of individual competition  on the first day followed by a 3 person relay on the following day. With 4 selected for both the Junior Girls and senior Boys teams, places in the 3 person relay will be up for the grabbing in the individual event.

Good luck to our two representatives

State League 10 - 'Beyond Rocklea' - Uringa's 2012 State League Event

Saturday was bright sunshine and a cold wind at Belanglo State Forest, just as well that Uringa was running an afternoon event. Club members arriving mid-morning to do the day's set up work felt the chill. It is always 'all-hands-on-deck' for club events; a result is that there is time for socialising as well.

What do you do? Well, the first step is always to look for Maureen and Dick's yellow van!

There are lots of setting up jobs,

 but the one that must be done, in a special place, and no one really want to do it is...

Maggie's commitment to training and junior development means there is always a string course to set up for the rising little orienteerers.

Ah, yes, and then there's the socialising before and after the event...

And then it's time to pack up, after an event enjoyed by all, inspite of the temperature.