Report:
So I'm a bit late in doing this. But, in my defence I have a few things on my plate right now - Some will know what i mean - others... well you can guess. Also there is orienteering to do. First the thanks
Thanks to the following:
Carolyn Rigby - for vetting (you didn't think Hayley really did it did you?) - However, all mistakes were mine as i stupidly played with controls AFTER vetting and submission for printing... seriusly don't do that. Carolyn also helped check sites and built the maze and collected controls
Geoff Todkill - for the map printing and putting up with my delays
Cheryle Todkill - for the same and rego desk
Joy Guy - for the rego desk
Jeff Guy - for the SI, manning the finish desk (as i never seemed to be around), dealing with those who got penalties and helping pack up.
Thomas and Bridget Whitehead - For being volunteered to collect controls and then helping pack the van.
Rudi Landseidel - For control collection
Caroline and Hayley - For helping with the maze and just being awesome.
And everyone else that turned up! I hope you enjoyed the different - 'something different' - event that was put together for you. I was testing out a few things and some worked and some didn't.
What didn't work - Results! Yeah there wont be any offical results from this event. The penalty system kind of worked but some of the dummy controls made things a little confusing as did the maze (kudos to Jenny Endery who navigated the maze using the map rather than the insert) since this is the first 'popup' maze we have done (to my memory at least). So in the interest of fairness there will be no official results just the ones that were hung on the day. Further congratulations to those that ran more than one course. Especially those that have never run a 'park event' before.
What did work - the maze. As a test concept I think it went well. There were a few errors on how people read the control descriptions and a few instances of reaching over walls - lucky for you Caroline decided to save people embarrasment (though she will remember who you were for later). But on the whole it worked.
Dummy controls - Did what they were supposed to - catch out the unwary. But due to confusion with how to read control descriptions there were a few mistakes. So im putting the IOF control descriptions in the documents section of the website as well as the Australian adaptation from OA.
Right now off the continue working on the next event....
The first NOY of the year can be a bit of a challenge - time to dust off the bush suit & shoes and get the head back into the "I really do need to navigate" frame of mind after the softer navigational requirements of the street and park series. 108 entrants turned up to take that challenge, which was an enthusiastic start to the bush season, in spite of school holidays, the location and the prior warnings about how steep it is out here. You could have been forgiven for thinking it was still summer with the temperature nudging up to the low thirties, but hopefully the mental challenge went a bit above and beyond those summer events.
Unfortunately, the distance and the climb of the set courses was maybe a little more mid-winter, although Alex Massey (having been told he was expected to be back in 50 mins) turned in a Long Hard within 60 seconds of that mark, in spite of what was rumoured to have been a bit of a heavy night beforehand. Nic Blatchford was the fastest of the 4 ladies who were brave enough to tackle the same course, while Andrew Power and Karen Blatchford took out the honours for the Medium Hard. Times for the Medium and Short Hards were a bit longer than desirable, with the steep climb, loose rock, leaf litter, fallen trees and spiky vegetation all taking their toll. At least all the SI units managed to stay 'on' for the duration of the event.
In spite of the terrain, competitors largely returned in a positive frame of mind, some proudly bearing the scars of their disputes with lantana and thorn bush. At one point, it looked like we might need to set up a "blood bin" for the walking wounded! By and large, most people seemed OK with the navigation and there were few reports of major navigational errors. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the fine rock detail and the unusual linear clearing and bare rock areas, which really do demand that contact with the map be carefully maintained. The 1:5,000 scale also threw a few people off with features looming up sooner than expected, although it would be a very hard map to read at 1:10,000.
As is always the case with NOC events, it was a team effort, with thanks due to Peter Newton providing the gear and helping set up, assisted by Rudi Landseidel, Carolyn Chalmers and Viola O'Connor. On the desks were Cheryl Todkill, Joy Guy, Jeff Guy, Amylee Robertson and Malcolm Roberts, with Joy and Jeff backing up for control collection. Thanks also to Geoff Todkill for map printing, especially doing double-sided for one course and an odd size at that. If I've missed anyone or muddled you up, I apologise and you can beat me about the ears with a box of tethers next time.
Needless to say, Denis Lyons was there at the beginning and still there at the end, having put in many hours beforehand revising the map and advising as a vetter should, so an extra big thank you there. For the record, he DID say that the Medium & Short Hards were still a bit on the long side - and in the aftermath, I have to admit that he was spot on the money there. Hopefully competitors look back and gain some satisfaction from having risen to the challenges and look forward to the next event in 3 weeks. That is, once the cut and bruises have healed. (And Geoff P, I hope your ankle isn't being too nasty about whatever happened to it. To be honest, I'm surprised there weren't more like that.) Many thanks to all those who took the time to show their appreciation for the setter's efforts - it's part of what makes the whole exercise worthwhile.
On balance, I hope everyone had a good day and enjoyed the somewhat unusual atmosphere of Morundah. Hopefully I'll have the station finished by the next time round. All that remains is to ask, " Who WERE those 3 people in the vintage Morris Minor?" (They liked the carriage, even if orienteering wasn't to their taste.) Write your answers on the back of an envelope and send it to:
Newcastle Orienteering Club NOY1 Quiz
P.O. Box ......
Cheers, David.
Directions: From Cessnock, travel 7 km towards Wollombi on Wollombi Road. Turn south onto Ellalong Road at Pelton and travel about 500m to parking. Alternatively from Mount Vincent take Sandy Creek Road to Ellalong (17 km from B82). At Ellalong, turn north onto Rugby St / Ellalong Road and travel about 4 km to parking. NOTE: park tail in on the east side of Ellalong Road.
Map: "Pelton Fire Trail" 1:10,000 for all courses.
2016 Newcastle Pairs – Freeman's Waterhole
Entries: Please pre-enter your Pairs team so we can ensure map availability. If you wait until the morning of the event we cannot guarantee you will get a start. Other courses are Enter on Day. Pre-entries should be directed to Geoff Peel via 0422471353 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Directions: (Parking will be tight so please consider car pooling)
From Freeman's Waterhole roundabout travel South approx 2.9 km on Freeman's Drive. Turn right into Becks Rd and proceed 800 m to assembly. Park along Northern fringe of this road
From South (Freeway) Take the Kurri Kurri/Cessnock exit (Freeman's Drive). Travel north approx 500 m then turn left into Becks Rd and proceed 800 m to assembly. Park along Northern fringe of this road
Safety: Becks Road now has a sealed surface. This may mean the very few cars travelling along it may do so at an increased speed (we will have “Runners on road signs” in place). The Pairs and the Moderate Long will have a need to run across or along this road at some point in their course. Please keep to the edge of the road and take care when crossing. There may also be a couple of leeches present in the damper areas and they may attach themselves if you are stationary for a period of time. Insect repellant (Deet type) on your shoes might prevent this rare occurrence from happening.
Map: “Jig-a-Jog” 1:7500 is a cutdown version of “Jigadee Jog” and takes in areas of the Awaba State Forest.
Planner: Geoff Peel
Vetter: TBA
Courses:
| Course | Length(km) | |
| Long Pairs | 6.7km | |
| Short Pairs | 4.6km | |
| Moderate Long | 4.3km | |
| Moderate Short | 2.2km | |
| Easy/Very Easy | 1.6km |
Note: Easy and Very Easy have been combined due to a lack of a decent track network. They essentially will follow tapes through the bush which will be less challenging navigationally but offer them some element of adventure. No string course will be offered.
Pairs Mass Start: 10:00 am (briefing 9:45 am)
Other Starts: 10:10 – 11:30 am
Course closure: 1pm. Please ensure you start your course with enough time to complete it prior to course closure
Presentation & BBQ: Presentations be held as soon as the Pairs teams have finished their courses. To celebrate the social nature of the day we will be having a sausage sizzle. Gold coin (or maybe free if I can twist the Presidents arm a little).
NOY 7 Setter’s report (essay)
Thanks to the 80 odd people that ventured all the way out to Congewai. As I travelled through Ellalong the fog was pretty bad and I worried that I had suggested people should enjoy the drive and then a sit in the sun, both difficult to do if fogged in. On the last couple of kilometres of gravel road the sun shone through and I thought yes this is the valley I have enjoyed on previous trips. Thanks to all those that followed the lead and parked nose in to the fence and incurred a longer walk to the assembly area … sometimes we need to do as the landowner suggests! Sorry if I didn’t get involved much on the day, I figured my work was done, all the controls were in place. For those that don’t realise what is involved in setting an event in this type of area: it took 3 trips and 17 hours in the bush to hang the pink tapes that mark control sites. Given that it was more than an hour’s drive each way, that is equivalent to 3 work days. Given the lack of track access to the area, I started placing control stands on Saturday the week before the event, 4.5hrs to place 20 controls. By the way, 20 is the absolute maximum number of controls one can carry! Another 6.5hrs the day before the event to place the last 40 odd controls and they were all in the bush by 4:15pm, so with an hour to spare. Had tethers been required I would not have been able to get all controls out in time, I would have had to do some of the paddock ones on the morning of the event. So that is a week’s labour before anyone steps onto a course. My event work was not completely done, a couple of times I needed to fend of the cows that wanted in to the final control paddock. I figured a heard of cows and people running to the finish was not a good mix, so the cows had to wait. Apologies to those finishing towards 1pm that found the last couple of gates at the Finish closed, blame the cows!
As Geoff Peel pointed out, had this been a State League (SL) event, then ‘Start2’ for most Moderate and Hard courses would have been after the big climb. One of the features of this area is the climb, so I let many people ‘savour’ that on the way to their first couple of controls. The area to the west of the main North-South fence that separates private land from National Park is well grazed and reasonably flat, kind of the lull before taking people over to the other side! As everyone will now realise, the watercourses are a lot deeper than the contours and blue line suggest. On the original courses there were some crossings that were just too steep and ‘dangerous’ and that was in the dry, hate to think what they would be like in the wet. So if you still found the crossings difficult, my apologies, they were a lot easier than they could have been! You probably noticed the comment that gullies less than ½ a contour deep may not be mapped. As an ancient landslip area the contours are quite complex and we will need to wait until we have lidar data for this area before such subtle features as numerous gullies can be properly mapped; in the meantime, just worry about getting across the next ‘watercourse’ (read RAVINE).
I have been to some SL events where competitors could be viewed running down to the finish. This area offered the same opportunity, so that’s how courses were designed, to run people down across the last grassy hill, and then sprint across the cow paddock. I have never had so much orienteering fun as sitting at the finish desk watching people search for a control, especially control 155 where people could be observed standing right above it, seemingly unable to see it just below. At least 7 controls could be seen from the assembly area, I think that is a record. Another record seemed to be the number of family groups in attendance that enjoyed their first course, so went out on another one, sometimes a couple of times. So is 10 Sydney people competing a record for an NOY? Definitely a record was the number of control collectors that day: 9 !! (it was commented by someone that they had have never seen a queue for control collection). Big thanks to those that ‘volunteered’ to go up the hill again. Trust me, from a setter’s perspective, the last thing I wanted to do was climb that hill again to collect controls; I was more than happy to just repack the gear van. Apologies to Jock and RobB who each searched for a control that was culled from the course, there is a lot to remember when organising an event! A special thanks to Denis and David that manned the entry desk. Every time I turned around they seemed to be discussing new areas and access arrangements, so here’s looking forward to something new for upcoming events? Photos of people enjoying themselves can be viewed via the Events - Results – NOY6 photos link.
Younger club members have run around the fences in both directions now, so I think we need to try and get permission to map the big cow paddock to the East, so as to have somewhere new to run next time we take the long pleasant drive.