State League 4 with some Forest Highlands Series tossed in

 The Southern Highlands played host to an unusual weekend with a State league on Sunday and a SHOO Highlands Forest Series (HFS) on Saturday. The planned State League for Saturday failed to eventuate so SHOO stepped up with their first HFS event of the season.

Anyone who travels the Hume Highway south would know the Sutton Forest Service Centre well just a smidge further south is Penrose State Forest. rest area which was the assembly for the HFS. Penrose SF is an extremely large area and is always the sight of logging and then planting. It is also home to some great rock features as you head down into the creeks.

It was only a small mob from Uringa present on a very comfortable sunny afternoon.  The courses were well set by Angus Shedden and patches of  bracken fern hid the lay of the land and the odd fallen branch from view.

Dave Lotty was the only Uringan to feature on the podium 3rd in Men Easy. However the fast improving Laurence Bruggerman was 4th in Women Moderate. Also 4th was Maggie McKay in Women Long Hard class. Linda Sesta  was a minute of two behind Maggie in 5th. Ant Nolan was 8th on Men Long Hard and so to was Gayle Shepherd in Women Short Hard. On the same course Melanie Christie was 11th. Similarly placed was Jonathan Nolan on Men Long Hard. Jim Mackay was 13th on the Long Hard course.

After an excellent afternoon's orienteering a few gathered at the Goulburn Workers Club for a beverage or two and an excellent dinner.

The morning saw similar weather greet the orienteers as they headed to Snows Hill which is south east from Tarago. The heavy rain that drenched NSW a few weeks back made its presence felt with a car bogged to the axles when it strayed a few centimetres from the straight and narrow. Orienteers are a resourceful lot with a two rope and some "serious grunt" courtesy of a 4WD extricating the car and the orienteers from their predicament.

Snows Hill has very very few tracks and the area we were in  had none. This makes setting courses for our Easy very easy hard. However Hamish Mackie, course setter from Big Foot, had provided streamers and signs - "You are going the right way YAY" or "No don't go this way" and pivotal moments on their courses- well done. I wish I had had a few of those.

Linda Sesta, W55A and Ron Pallas M65AS were 1st home and very gruntled in their classes. In 3rd in Women Open B was Laurence Bruggerman. This was a fantastic effort. Laurence commented that she had Jane Boland's advice echoing in her head the whole way around. Jane was heard to say she wished she also had listened to her own advice  coming in 6th in Women Open B. Jonathan Nolan was 3rd in M18A. Michael Warlters was 4th home in M55A. Jim Mackay had a great run to finish and excellent  5th in M60A. Ant Nolan had a quotable Barry Crocker (shocker) as he made a dogs breakfast. Dave Lotty was a mp on M65AS.

Check out Grace Crane's run in W21A. It is worth viewing as she navigated around and through the green which was tough going both from a physical and visibility point of view.

https://www.livelox.com/Viewer/2024-NSW-State-League-4-Snow-Hills-ACT-Classic-Series-ACT-L/W21A?classId=737690&tab=player.

The two events on the weekend were part of the selection trials for the NSW Schools Team for the Australian Schools Championship to be held in Armidale this year. Jono and Maggie certainly didn't do their chances for selection any harm.

Spare a thought for Ant and Jane plus Ori who are coaches for the Junior training Camp at Belanglo for the week.  Organised by Helen O'Callaghan it looks like everyone has a very full week of training ahead. Check out the timetable:

https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Documents/Event/18325/1/Camp-Timetable-including-Roster

The next month or so is very quiet with Uringa running a Metro League event at Sydney Park, Alexandria on May 5th. This unfortunately clashes with events at Broulee on the South Coast. Later in may there is a weekend or orienteering at Wee Jasper - east of Gundagai and west of Canberra  on the 18th and 19th. This is a great area and is well worth the longish drive in although you can camp in a beautiful camp ground.

Dinner at Goulburn Workers

Gayle arriving at the control (behind the tree with Stephanie

Jim

Jono

Maggie

Map - Wee Jasper Karst Limestone super fast

Keep in mind the 2024 Australian Championships being held in the Armidale / Uralla area late September, early October- a total of 7 events  over a 9 day period.

2024 Australian 3 Days Murray Bridge SA

 

2024 Australian 3 Days – South Australia.

Unbeknown to competitors when entering the 2024 3 days, it proved to be hot! Yes, the competition was hot but so to the weather. Fortunately, the Murray River was close by and many an orienteer cooled down in the waters of Australia’s longest river.

The prologue sprint was run in the grounds of a nearby high school. 

You can check out the run by winner Nea Shingler https://www.livelox.com/Viewer/Australian-3-Days-2024-NOL-Prologue-Public-Sprint/W20E?classId=717028&tab=player

It looks extremely complicated but remember it has a map flip part the way through the course which allows setters to send runners back into the complex building area.

Uringa had 2 runners competing in the NOL (National Orienteering Series) for elites. Serena Doyle in W21E and Maggie Mackay stepping up into W20E for the first time.  Serena unfortunately had a missed punch in her race whilst Maggie finished 23^rd in W20E.

Also running in the public races was Jim Mackay on Course 2- 32^nd and Michael Warlters 51^st on Course 1.

The carnival then moved east to be based around Murray Bridge- the riverland area. Whilst there is irrigation cropping going on all over the place the competition aras had one thing in common dry and dusty.

Day 1 Pymton

When you look at the map it is dominated by orange and yes the courses spent a lot of time in the green and white areas. The green was mainly some super spiky plant that’s only purpose in life was to scratch the exposed surfaces of orienteers resulting in bloodied arms, legs and maps!  And yes it was hot, way over 30 for those who started after midday.

That said it was an enjoyable course

Result wise

Jan Sargood W70A 4^th

Sarah Garnet W65A 6^th

Michael Warlters M55A 11^th

Jim Mackay M60A 12^th

Shane Doyle M55A 13^th

Rick Steele M70A mp

Ron Pallas M65AS mp  ( punch first at drinks control then punch)

Serena Doyle W21E 21^st

Maggie Mackay W20E 14^th

Former Uringans

Thea Richardson W21S 5^th

Charlie Richardson M35A 3^rd

Margaret Wilmott W65A 10^th

Nick Wilmott M70A  9^th

Day 2 Ngaralta Country.

Another map dominated by orange open. The courses today was not much more than moderate- it was difficult to make them hard due to the nature of the map. On my course as I left 2 I looked towards 3 and could see the rock I was running to and could see competitors ducking in behind it to punch. But it is what it is.  Today was extremely hot heading into the high 30s and the temperature was compounded by the setting style for the day which was LONG..

 

Jan Sargood W70A 10^th

Sarah Garnet W65A dnf

Michael Warlters M55A 9^th

Jim Mackay M60A 18^th

Shane Doyle M55A 7^th

Rick Steele M70A 16^th

Ron Pallas M65AS dq

Serena Doyle W21E 19th

Maggie Mackay W20E 15^th

Former Uringans

Thea Richardson W21S 3rd

Charlie Richardson M35A mp

Margaret Wilmott W65A 11th

Nick Wilmott M70A 14^th

 

A word on my dq- I went through the panel that had this strange green colour not used on bush maps which apparently was supposed to be Olive Green which is used on sprint maps for out of bounds. I realised half way across that it was meant to be OOB. On a bush map the nearest green 410.00 is “difficult to run” on a sprint map 411.000 is uncrossable. Oh well my mistake and I dq myself – a number of people who did the same but didn’t dq..

Day 3  Narrinyeri Hills

Fortunately, the sun was dialed down by almost 10 degrees but the dustbowl remained. Today’s map had lots more green on it along with spotty yellow. However the area around 5,6,7, on my course was ultra green with vegetation touching making visibility and progress difficult.

This was the bush that populated the area around 5,6,7 - note there is little space between bushes

Jan Sargood W70A 9th

Sarah Garnet W65A mp

Michael Warlters M55A 6^th best run of the carnival

Jim Mackay M60A 8^th best run of the carnival

Shane Doyle M55A dns

Rick Steele M70A 21st

Ron Pallas M65AS mp 

Serena Doyle W21E dnf – blistered feet after her marathon effort on Day 2

Maggie Mackay W20E 13^th best run of the carnival

Former Uringans

Thea Richardson W21S 4^th

Charlie Richardson M35A 3^rd

Margaret Wilmott W65A 12^th

Nick Wilmott M70A  25^th

Maggie in a race to the finish

Nick

Serena

Shane 

 The Wash Up

At the presentation awards were presented for overall position after 3 days. A number of Uringans unfortunately didn’t feature due to mp etc. However,

Jan Sargood W70A was 4^th

Michael Warlters M55A 7^th

Jim Mackay M60A 9^th

Maggie Mackay W20E 13^th

Margaret Wilmott W65A 11^th

Nick Wilmott M70A 14^th

Thea Richardson W21 Sport 3^rd

 I must congratulate Maggie on her efforts in W20E- this is a huge step up in distance and competition than her courses from the previous year.  She did very well in this her first competition in W20E.

Questions were asked of the organisers as to why the first start times were 10am and it was so $^%^&&*&% hot.

There is a simple explanation. The sun was rising at around 7.30  so all the set including turning on units and setting up computers etc. had to be done in a very narrow time band. This is what happens when Easter is early and daylight saving is still in play.

I know what it is like to organise and run a carnival- little sleep and long hours in the bush. OSA did a fantastic job.

Easter 2025 is in Victoria  and the Aussie Champs in Queensland