News

November 2019 News

Published Wed 06 Nov 2019

Greetings everyone

I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering is it really November and we’re talking about Christmas! How can that be? Somehow it’s true and the end of another year is fast approaching.

I’m hoping lots of you will come along to our end of year prize-giving and social gathering on Sunday 1 December – read on for details. This is always a relaxed, happy occasion and we welcome ALL members. To our new members especially, please join us as this is a chance for you to get to know others and really connect with the Club.

Now is also the time when we are planning for next year. As per my last newsletter comments, there are changes ahead within the Club Committee. Long-serving member Owen Means is retiring as is our wonderful newsletter editor Kaye Griffiths. And I also want to relinquish some responsibility. As our Secretary, Annemarie, comments in ‘Getting the Job Done’, there are lots of ways to get involved with the Club and contribute to the events we host and some require very little knowledge of orienteering. Please consider how you can help.

And a special plea to those who are interested in course setting; this is a fabulous way to improve your orienteering skills. We’ll support you with this - a course setting training event is planned for early 2020 and we’ll partner you with an experienced course setter/controller so you get the most out of this experience. If you are interested, please advise us on northwestorienteering@gmail.com and we’ll liaise with you re the time of year, type of event etc. that’s best for you.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday 1 December.

Regards
Jenny Cade
President

In this issue:

Upcoming Events
AGM, End of Year Dinner and Prizegiving
Australian experiences
Club Member Profile
Auckland Inter-Club Relays
Getting the Job Done - the Value of Volunteering!
Two Sprint Weekends to Kick Start the New Year!

1. Upcoming Events

1 December NWOC AGM, Dinner and Prizegiving (details below)

24-27 January Lonely Mountain Sprints, Taranaki

31 Jan-2 Feb Sprint the Bay, Hawkes Bay

Plus put the date in your diary - Katoa Po Night Relays, Taupo, 14/15 March, 2020

2. AGM, End of Year Dinner and Prizegiving, Sunday 1 December

Don’t miss the social event of the NWOC year!

Come along and socialise with your fellow NW members over a pot luck dinner.

Try your hand at the challenging maze course.
Test your understanding of contours with the Sand Box.
Celebrate the year in pictures and the successes of our members at the prizegiving.

Either come at 5:00 for the AGM or at 5:30 for the social function.

All details here including what to bring, rsvp link and AGM information.

In case the RSVP link does not work in the pdf, please RSVP here by Wednesday 27 November.

3. Australian Experiences

Many of our members recently headed across the ditch to compete in the Australian Champs, the Southern Cross Schools Challenge and Oceania.

Congratulations on some fantastic results!

We asked a couple of them to choose a race or leg of a race to write about for this newsletter.

Liam Stolberger

...was a member of the NZ Harua team who placed second in the Southern Cross Challenge (behind the other NZ team!). He writes:

I would like to talk about the Secondary Schools Champs Relay. Throughout the week I hadn’t been doing as well as I had been hoping to do, with the day before in the schools long ending up in around 19^th place after a series of mistakes and from the heat, which was around 30 degrees. So, going into the relay I was looking forward to the event as relays are one of my favorite events, and was hoping to be able to pull out a good run, especially being in the official team for the NZ Harua team. I was on the second leg, with Patrick being on first and Will being third. Our first leg went out and had a few small mistakes meaning that I went out in 8^th position. Starting out this map was much more my style, with no rocks and easily readable contours. The course overall went well with me being able to carry a good speed, despite the hilly conditions and the heat which on this day was getting up to 32 degrees. Overall, I managed to only make one significant error in the last loop of the course. Over the course I managed to catch up around 2 minutes on the leaders, and after going out in 8^th place being able to come back in, in 3^rd place, which our team managed to maintain for the rest of the third leg earning our team a bronze medal. I thought that this course was really fun, and interesting and I was really happy with the result I ended up with.

Gene Beveridge

...who placed 2nd in the Oceania Long writes:

It’s taken a little while to put pen to paper, but I think I have a valuable story that I didn’t want my readers to miss out on. In October I travelled to Australia for Oceania Orienteering Championships as a member of the NZ Pinestars team and as the coach of the NZ Secondary Schools team. This was a great opportunity to race in challenging terrain and I was fairly nervous going into the competition because I have typically struggled on terrain with large slopes as my height judgement is certainly the weak link in my navigation skill set.

I want to focus just on the Oceania Long, not because it was my best result of the trip, but because I can make all 3 points I want to make just from this one race. It’s important to understand the build up to this race, and how I understood the situation from my own perspective. This year, I treated September and October as the off season and my fitness had been steadily fading since WOC, unable to be propped up on 3-4 hours of running per week. I was also sick with an airway infection for the 5 days prior to this race and spent a lot of time in bed. So I was in no fit state to be labelled a favourite for this race, even as defending champion, and I expected to place around 6th or 7th as per the races of the previous weekend...

Write up Continued here

4. Club Member Profile - Rob Murphy

Rob is an active club member who can always be relied upon to put his hand up to help out and always wearing that infectious smile! We value his years of experience and expertise. We appreciate him taking some time to answer a few questions:

Number of years orienteering?
On and off since approx. 1978 ,so around 41+ years

How were you introduced to orienteering?
Kind of born into it really. My Dad, Bob Murphy started orienteering in 1973, so my older brothers and I often came along with Dad and Mum. I still remember doing a wayfarer’s course(what’s now called white) in Woodhill when I was around 4 or 5, running ahead as Mum who was too slow talking to another mum…getting lost, then asking one of senior orienteers for help to get back to the finish.

Key orienteering achievements to date?

Making NZ Team in 1993 for ANZ Test Match in 1993 in Perth, Australia, and wearing Dad’s tracksuit, gave me goosebumps, I was so proud to wear Dad’s NZ o suit top.

Winning NZ Champs Relays in Under 14 grade with Tania Robinson and Aiden Boswell rates up there really highly.

Getting 3^rd in M40A for Australian Orienteering Champs Middle on gold mining terrain near Ballarat

Having a clean run on Day 3 Oringen 2018, Ornskoldsvik, was pretty special, as Mum had just died the month before, so was thinking of Mum and Dad

What do you love about orienteering?
Would have to be the friendships made over many years, the scenic locations we get to orienteer on- that most people would never see in their lifetime, and of course the huge range of map types and vegetations that we run on! It’s also a sport that you can do as you get older. I played tennis for many years, but my joints can no longer take the pounding on tennis courts - but they’re still okay for Woodhill.

Favourite map and why?
Would have to be Backsjo, described by the 2018 Oringen organisers as an area of true wilderness, it certainly lived up to it’s reputation, with amazing contours, great scenic views from the hilltops, tricky orienteering, and about 5 types of tree cover as well as knee high blueberries in many locations. Besides the points mentioned, it was really intricate orienteering, and I felt after orienteering on this map that my orienteering skill level was probably akin to a 5 year old in Sweden, as I made so many errors, and had to really carefully navigate using all the tools… mapreading /compass/distance estimation. It taught me to view my orienteering differently, and this inspires me to navigate with more of a feel for map in the future.

Map you have yet to experience but aspire to orienteer on?
I’m a big fan of Paul and Kevin Ireland’s Pinelands maps from the past – but guess those locations are a bit of a distant memory. However, there’s this event called the OOCup and those maps look up to the gold standard of the Ireland’s maps, so want to run on them at some pointJ

Orienteering hero?
Alastair Landels, what an athlete! He had such an amazing race back in 1994 in Woodhill to win the World Cup here…I still remember the nail biting finish waiting for a Finnish guy called Mika Kuisma, as the final radio splits were neck and neck… then for Al to get the win, was something special, was cool to have been there to experience it, on a gruelling classic distance (now called long) race.

Day job?
Food Technologist selling food ingredients.

5. Auckland Inter-Club Relays

Held last weekend after rain postponed the event earlier in the year. Excellent challenging relay courses on great map but unfortunately AOC took away the trophy - we will have to win it back next year!!

6. Getting the job done!

“Don’t ever question the value of volunteers. Noah’s Ark was built by volunteers, the Titanic by professionals.” A club like North West only exists because of the many members volunteering, in many different roles, and for many different reasons. It might be to improve their own skills, to share their knowledge, to feel recognised, to experience friendship, or anything else which motivates to spend their time and energy.

Some of our members have volunteered for years on end, helping shape the future of Auckland orienteering, while others are happiest hands-on, creating a one-off cosy event centre in the middle of nowhere with an amazing finish-chute. As a result, we have specialist toilet-tent put-uppers, experts in start procedures, professional radio-control-planners, fluent-with-words-and-walking-spellchecker social media editors, and gurus in planning relays, setting up rogaines, or getting the yearly trophies engraved. Things these people have in common? A love for the sport of orienteering and a willingness to learn and to grow themselves, and as a result becoming the expert in their chosen field(s).

Expert orienteering knowledge or performing at top orienteering level is not a requirement for any of the volunteer roles within our club.

Do you enjoy orienteering and would you like to learn more about becoming a setter at an event? Get back to us, and we’ll match you with an experienced setter to learn more. Are you more interested in the technical aspects of the timing? Let us know and we’ll get you up-to-speed. Are you happy to volunteer on an event-by-event basis but do not want to commit long-term? Keep us in the loop by leaving your name and number. Do you have specific skills you think the club could use? Let us know!

The management of North West Orienteering Club is in the hands of a committee, and consists of the president, treasurer, secretary and club captain and up to six other elected members, meeting six times a year. If you like to be involved in promoting the sport in all its aspects, you might like to volunteer as a committee member…

By now you’ll have realised the central message: if volunteering for North West Orienteering appeals to you, let us know! Contact our secretary Annemarie Hogenbirk by phone (0210585252) or via e-mail at northwestorienteering@gmail.com