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Event: NOY3
Location: Brush Creek, Glendale
Weather: Perfect
Participants: 93
We wondered what to expect today in terms of participation numbers. For some reason I had scheduled an NOY event against the ACT champs. This wasn’t ideal as at least 20 of our regulars decided they would travel down to the away event as it was also an NOL offering. Offsetting those losses was the fact we had a Hunter Community College (HCC) “Introduction to Orienteering” course the day before with the 7 participants invited to come out to this event. We also had a small but prominent article in the Newcastle Herald advising that it was our open day and it was only $3 per person (noobs only).
The day arrived and although slightly damp and chilly at first it was evident it was going to be a fantastic day weatherwise. On arrival we found that 2 controls had been vandalised and thrown elsewhere overnight creating a task for course setter Arthur Kingsland to replace them and check as many of the other vulnerable controls he could in the time available.
By the advertised starting time of 9:30 the place was fairly buzzing with a mix of regulars and a few newcomers. Half of my HCC class had turned up and about 4 family groups had come after seeing the article in the paper. A modest newcomer showing, but nevertheless more people experiencing orienteering than might have if we didn’t continue our promotional efforts.
Personally I was very busy going through the “meet and greet” process with the newcomers and was unaware of the slow times being recorded in the forest. Not many competitors had returned and many had been out a considerable time. Finally our first “Long Red” finisher arrived and promptly fell to the ground exhausted next to the finish desk. It was a very tired looking Andrew Haigh, complaining that the 6.8 km course felt more like 10 km. We ridiculed him and told him it was his lack of fitness.
Eventually I went out on my course and with the addition of about 8 minutes worth of mistakes recorded a very unimpressive time of 87:20 for the 4.8 km “Middle Red”. My last starter status and longish time ensured I was also the last finisher. Arthur then informed me that I wasn’t as slow as I thought. In fact nobody was as slow as they thought they had been.
During his course planning Arthur had used the OCAD9 course setting feature, a method he had never tried in the past. Due to his unfamiliarity with this software he failed to notice that the map had been imported in the wrong scale thus the measurements were only 66% of actual. Turns out Andrews guestimate of 10 km was pretty well spot on as the course length for the “Long Red” was actually 9.6 km. Wow – that’s the longest NOY course for a while.
Arthur was a little embarrassed by his mistake but at least the courses were correct and perhaps its not such a bad thing extending ourselves a little more than we might normally, but lets not make a habit of it. Seems those course planning seminars we have been looking into might not be a bad thing especially when old dogs like AK (and many other of us) are learning new tricks nearly every time we sit down at a computer.
Many thanks to Arthur and his helpers for another enjoyable if maybe a little tiring bush adventure. The newbies all had a great time as well.
Course Planning: Arthur Kingsland
Organisation: Margaret Peel
Meet & Greet: Geoff Peel & Carolyn Rigby
Registration: Margaret Peel & Cheryle Todkill
Finish: Denis Lyons, Bob Gilbert, Arthur Kingsland, Julia Preston
Control Collection: Arthur Kingsland, Denis Lyons, David Messenger, Mick Kavur