Better late, than never: Metroleague Wrap up!

The Metroleague final was held on 31 August at Cecil Hills, but unfortunately Uringa wasn't in the mix for medals this year! 

Once again the Metroleague events took us to various interesting parts of Sydney and it's a great way to spend a Sunday morning with some orienteering and socialising. Our Club Captain with Captain's hat and all (maybe he can get hold of a bomber jacket or something next year!!), Ian, did a great job with organising the teams as much as he could in advance, with of course the always occurring last minutes changes. 

I am sure, all will join me to thank Ian for a job well done!!

Uringa had 4 teams which were competing in Divisions 1, 3, 4 and 5 with many different club members making appearances.

Here are the final results after 6 events:

Division 1               4th

Division 3               3rd

Division 4               5th

Division 5               4th

I found another interesting section in the ML results overview: there is now an individual medal, which is awarded to the person with the highest points aggregate in each division. To me it looks like someone has heaps of time up their sleeve to keep this tally!! Having said that, I thought I'd do my own statistics and work out which Uringa member(s) took part in the most ML events and who got the most points for the club (across divisions)! I clearly have too much time up my sleeve too!

And the winners are:

Competing in all 6 events:

Finn Mackay

Jim Mackay

Shane Doyle

Won most points for club:

Finn Mackay (well done, congratulations!)

List of Uringans competing in 5+ events and the points they won for the club:

Finn Mackay            6 events                    41 points

Shane Doyle            6 events                    38 points

Jim Mackay              6 events                    30 points 

Ian Jones                 5 events                    38 points

Georgia Jones         5 events                    34 points

Maggie Jones          5 events                    28 points

Adrienne Kirby         5 events                    28 points

Sophie Jones           5 events                    26 points

 

Riverina and NSW Middle Distance Championships- Wagga Wagga

There was a very small, dedicated band of orienteers who headed south to Wagg for the final double header of the bush season.
Those who didn't make the trip missed out on two absolutely splendid days of orienteering.

Clear blue skies greeted the competitors at Pomingalarna a stones throw west of Wagg for State League 14. The area was spur gully with a vast array of erosion control banks which led to you doing a lot of counting- "That is three I have crossed only two more to go "

The courses all travelled through an area which contained more than its fair share of pits and depressions making navigation quite tricky. Toss in a complex labyrinth of mountain bike trails and mistakes were easy to make.

However I believe the best part of the map was the central hill which all courses crossed- the wildflower display was spectacular.
 Courses were well set by Briohny Seaman







From the results below you can see that the Uringa Tribe did good with 5 First placings, 4 seconds and 3 thirds.

1	Maureen Ogilvie	W80A	1:09:38
1	Sophie Jones	W14A	42:10
1	Linda Sesta	W45A	37:30
1	Georgia Jones	W16A	36:05
1	Ian Jones	M45A	36:12
2	Dave Lotty	M55AS	48:36
2	Gayle Shepherd	W45AS	47:11
2	Brian Cleland	M75A	1:22:00
2	Lawrence Jones	M17-20A	37:46
3	Ron Pallas	M55AS	57:08
3	Mary Jane Mahony	W65A	1:09:51
3	Margaret Jones	W45A	55:04
4	Dick Ogilvie	M70A	1:01:32
4	Jane McKenna	W45A	1:05:11

NSW Middle Distance Championships.

Sunday dawned bright and blue as we travelled 20 minutes south west from Wagga to a rural property called "Connorton".
As you can see it is a complex granite area with a light cover of vegetation.
We have run a few times on this map and each time it has thrown up a really decent challenge. Planner Pauline Moore did an outstanding job of providing courses that visited the best parts of the map and made everyone work hard for their supper. There were many post-mortems  that featured comments on how they were bushed getting to the first control.
Uringa performed brilliantly in these champs with 7 Champions. The Jones family, Sophie, Georgia, Lawrence and Ian accounted for 4 titles.  "Miss Consistency" Linda headed home W45A. "Mr Surprised" Ron won M55AS and "Miss Perseverance", Maureen took out the W80A class.

Club results:

1	Linda Sesta	W45A	53:47
1	Maureen Ogilvie	W80A	3:24:26
1	Sophie Jones	W14A	1:14:12
1	Ron Pallas	M55AS	51:33
1	Georgia Jones	W16A	40:17
1	Lawrence Jones	M17-20A	50:42
1	Ian Jones	M45A	45:46
3	Brian Cleland	M75A	1:15:06
3	Mary Jane Mahony	W65A	1:25:06
3	Dave Lotty	M55AS	1:02:53
3	Dick Ogilvie	M70A	55:26
3	Jane McKenna	W45A	1:27:34
	Gayle Shepherd	W45AS	mispunched
	Margaret Jones	W45A	mispunched

And so it is that we bid a fond farewell to the bush season in NSW.
A few Uringans are heading to WA for the Australian Champs. We especially wish Georgia Jones all the best as she competes in the Australian Schools Champs.
Others heading west are Shane Doyle, Jim and Finn Mackay, Maureen and Dick Ogilvie.

Thanks Arthur

Saying goodbye to a friend who has passed away is always a time of mixed feelings.
Quite a sizeable crowd of members of Arthurs extended orienteering family joined with Arthur's family as his ashes were interned at Rookwood. It was good to see a large turn out from Uringa.

A number of people spoke including Nick and Ingrid Wilmott. Each speaker commented on the wonderful sense of family and community Arthur had.
For me, I first met Arthur at McCarrs Creek- on a ridge as I was trying to complete my first ever red (Hard) course. He took the time to help me relocate, gave me some clues on where I was supposed to go and bid me on my way.
Little did I realise that I would work for over a decade with Arthur during my time as President of Orienteering New South Wales. Here Arthur was a club delegate and later served as Treasurer for the association.
He also volunteered his time to assist with training camps and basically everything that was going.
Arthur's sporting prowess was based on participation in rugby league, basketball, and orienteering. Whatever he tried he had a real fair go.

In later years as health  issues reduced and curtailed his ability to be out there in the bush he always had his hand up to lend a hand.


As we gathered at the Wentworth Hotel post the ceremony it was great to reflect on Arthur's contribution to all our lives . Thanks Mate