It was great to see so many members at our end of year gathering and prize-giving on Sunday 1 December. Coatesville Hall provides a beautiful setting for a relaxed get-together.

My President’s Report for 2019 is here/elsewhere in this newsletter and those who take time to read it will note that it’s been a busy year for the Club, not only in organising events but also in working on our equipment, maps and our people capability to ensure that we are event-ready.

I am enormously grateful to the members of the Exec who’ve supported me and helped with all our activities.  Thank you too to all the members who’ve volunteered their time and services this year.  We can’t do what we do without your help.

Following our AGM for 2018 and as we head into a new year, there are some changes to our Exec Committee.  I am very pleased to advise that we have appointed a new Treasurer for 2019.  My sincere thanks to Coirle Bradding for taking on this role and to Lisa Mead for her many years as Treasurer, diligently managing the Club’s finances.

We farewell Carmen Fookes and Matt Ogden from the Exec and thank both of them for their contributions also.  And we welcome new members Nick Monckton and Jula MacMillan.

The roles of Newsletter Editor and Student Member are still vacant – if you are interested in finding out more about what’s involved, please contact me.

Wishing you all safe and happy holidays with family and friends.

Jenny Cade
NWOC President

In this issue:

1. Congratulations to Marquita Gelderman - nominated for a Halberg Award
2. President’s Report 2018
3. List of Prizewinners 
4. Profiles of Winners of Special Awards
5. Course Setting Competition Results
6. Photos from End of Year Dinner
7. Route to Christmas
8. Other successes

Congratulations

Congratulations to Marquita Gelderman who has been nominated for the High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year at the Halberg Awards. Not only is this fantastic for Marquita, but it is also great recognition for our sport to have both Marquita and Tim Robertson nominated.

https://www.orienteering.org.nz/news/56th-isps-handa-halberg-awards-nominations-announced/

President’s Report 2018

Jenny Cade's President's Report is attached for anyone who was not at the End of Year Dinner. Jenny has achieved a lot in just one year as President - we are fortunate to have her in that role.

Presidents Report 2018

 2018 NWOC Club Champions and Special  Award Winners

Special Awards

Most Improved Junior Male: Cameron Bonar 

Cameron has had some great results this year in the big events of the year – Nationals, JAFA, NZSS champs and he was a member of the NZSS invitational team that travelled to the Australian Champs

Most Improved Junior Female: Sophie Ryan 

A young woman with consistent results during the year who was also a member of the NZSS invitational team and raced very well in Australia.

Top Junior Male Max Griffiths 

After consistent results at Nationals, Max was named in the NZ JWOC team. At JAFA he placed second behind Australian Ashton Key in the first two events and then got the win over Ashton on day 3.  Max’s results at JWOC were impressive with this best result, 41^st in the A final of the Middle.

Top Junior Female: Heidi Stolberger

Another young athlete with consistent results during the year. The highlight of Heidi’s year was representing NZ at the World Universities Champs in July .

North West Shield for Most Improved Senior: Vanessa Tappenden 

In her second year of membership of the Club, Vanessa has continually improved culminating this year in her winning the W40 grade

King Trophy for Most Improved Newcomer:  Taiga Kato

A new member in 2018, this young man has been impressive.  2^nd in AKSS Sprint Series, 1^st in AKSS Champs, 1^st in both Sprint & Long at NISS and 1^st in Sprint and 3^rd in Long at NZSS.  A newcomer with a bright future.

Stone Trophy for the Most Outstanding Performance of the Year:
Marquita Gelderman & Matt Ogden 

This is always a hard award to decide on as we are often faced with results from very different competitions so the comparison is difficult.  This was the case this year and the decision was made to make a joint award.

• Marquita won 4 gold medals at the Worlds Masters MBTO Champs in Hungary – that’s a win in every single race in the W50 class – mass start, sprint, middle and long distance).
• Matt’s result of 39^th in the WOC Long - in a truly world class field this is a wonderful achievement.

North West Shield for the Most Valuable Service to the Club: 
The Monckton family – Nick, Katie, Daniel, Alex and Rosie 

Every year we consider the many people who contribute to the Club and there are also multiple nominees.  This year we’ve gone for a group award or more correctly a family award and recognise the Monckton family – Nick, Katie, Daniel, Alex and Rosie for their service to North West in 2018.

Whenever there’s been an event this year, the Monckton Family have been at it and have played a part whether it’s been providing technical expertise, course setting, control collection, registration duties or all of the above.

Bert Chapman Junior Service Award: Scott Carswell

Scott has given a huge amount of time as part of the highly valued SI team. We were also grateful when he stepped up to organise the Katoa Po weekend early in 2018. He is always willing to help in many different capacities and always with a smile.

Profiles of the Special Award Winners

Below are the profiles of some of the winners of special awards. There will also be some in the first 2019 newsletter. Marquita, Matt, Max and Heidi have already been profiled and you can read their profiles on the NWOC website.     

Vanessa Tappenden

Number of years orienteering?  
Two

How were you introduced to orienteering?  
We first had a go in Christchurch about 12 years ago but with 2 preschoolers it was just too hard.  Then we saw an advert for the rogaine series and had started doing some trail running so it felt like the time to give it another whirl.

Key orienteering achievements to date?
Any course where I feel like I have known where I am all the time is an achievement to me!  

Current orienteering project or goal?  
I have a very simple goal and that is to learn what all the symbols and codes mean on the maps so I’m not left scratching my head!  

Favourite map and why?  
I don’t have many to choose from but I do like Riverhead.

Map you have yet to experience but aspire to orienteer on?  
I’m looking forward to doing Katoa Po.  The kids did it last year and it looked like a blast.

Day job?  
I’m a geriatric medical student in my final year, before that I was a geologist which explains the map fetish.

Other interests?  
Tramping, skiing, travelling, red wine...

Taiga Kato

Number of years orienteering?
2 yrs

How were you introduced to orienteering?
Through Northcross Intermediate School

Key orienteering achievements to date?
1st in sprint and long distance at North Island Championship 2018
1st in sprint and 3rd in long distance at NZ Championship 2018

Current orienteering project or goal?
To come 1st in both sprint and long distance at NZ Championship 2019

Day job?
Going to Westlake Boys High School next year

Other interests?
Rugby and football

Scott Carswell

Number of years orienteering?
Pretty much since I could walk. However, I started competing somewhat at a competitive level at intermediate school so around 6-7 years.

How were you introduced to orienteering?
My parents. They made me do the string courses ever since I could walk.

Key orienteering achievements to date?
Self-appointed head coach at Rangitoto College
Second at the Schools Rogaine back in 2012 - One of my best achievements to date
Auckland Secondary Schools Regional Team selections

Current orienteering project or goal?
Currently, I'm looking to improve my fitness to try and become more competitive with the goal of competing internationally around 2020

Favourite map and why?
Pretty much any Woodhill map. Fast runnability and open pine forest is definitely what I enjoy the most.

Map you have yet to experience but aspire to orienteer on?
Any overseas map, especially those over in Scandinavia. Would be awesome to see the differences to the terrain as well as the mapping and setting of international races.

Orienteering hero?
Two of my orienteering hero's would have to be Matt Ogden and Tim Roberston. Both of them have achieved some extraordinary results on the world stage and seeing this has definitely given me a boost to try and improve my orienteering. Also, all of the coaches I've had growing up over the years have definitely been there to look up to and to want to make myself perform better.

Day job?
Currently planning on attending the University of Auckland studying software engineering or computer science.  However, I do currently work at Kmart part-time.

Other interests?
Anything technology related really since I'm essentially the IT tech support of the household. I do also enjoy playing some sports or just hanging out with my friends

Course Setting Competition

A great turnout for the inaugural NWOC course setting competition. Some truly exceptional submissions with a couple of people even creating two day events to make the most of the brilliant Mamaku map. In the end, Renee Beveridge was deemed by the judges to have made the best courses. Combining all the elements of a quality course - variation in leg length and leg direction, spectator appeal etc... The aim for this course setting competition was to get more people involved in the course setting process without having to organise an actual event. But with this in mind, we are hoping to convert some of this practice into reality in the coming seasons with continuing high quality courses being set at our NWOC events. Well done again to everyone who entered!

Winning Map

Photos

Here are a few photos from the End of Year Dinner. Thank you to Annemarie Hogenbirk for wielding the camera on the night!

Route to Christmas Day

Take a look at this on World of O if you haven’t already done so - an Orienteering Advent Calendar! This link is to today's leg, but you can look at previous ones also.

You get to have a look at a leg in a race, decide on your route, mark it on and then see how others (including the winners) chose to run it.

http://news.worldofo.com/2018/12/16/route-to-christmas-day-16-2018/

Other Successes

Speights Westcoaster Half Marathon 8 December
Congratulations to Matt Ogden for winning this with a time of 1:42:09

FreshChoice Kepler Challenge  (60 km) 1 December
Congratulations to Gene Beveridge for coming 7th in the Open with a time of 5:46:15

Merry Christmas everyone! See you in 2019!