News

April 2018 News

Published Mon 09 Apr 2018

Hello everyone

The 2018 orienteering season is underway - it always seems a bit odd that we’ve had Nationals so early in the season but there we have it. Well done to our friends at Auckland Club for hosting a wonderful weekend of events over Easter. Congratulations to all those North West members who were on the podium – sometimes more than once! And well done too to those at the other end of results, many of whom, like me, spent a lot of time on the map in that tricky terrain! Check out the full list of results later in the newsletter.

Next up for North West is the Rogaine Series with event one on this coming Sunday 15 April. Enter now if you haven’t already http://www.rogaineseries.co.nz In May there are a couple of AOS club events hosted by AOC and CMOC before North West’s JAFA Queen’s Birthday 3-Day event.

Organising 3 events at 2 different locations for JAFA is a big undertaking. To ensure as many Club members as possible can compete, we need everyone to help please over the 3 days. As I said in the last newsletter we can only do what we do when members volunteer to help.

As Event Manager I’m starting now to organise volunteers for the 3 days of JAFA. I’ve set up a Google Form listing the various work streams and ask everyone to roster themselves onto a task each day please! https://goo.gl/MJAgka

Please note the two steps:

(i) put your name beside a duty for each day;
(ii) complete the column with your contact details

There are jobs suitable for every one – we need our younger members to help as well as adults please. Get in quick and choose your preferred job now!

Entries close for the event on 18 May so please get your entry in asap. The sooner you enter will help us with estimating the likely total number of entries. All details are here http://qb2018.aoa.org.nz

Hope to see lots of members at next Sunday’s rogaine.

Jenny Cade
NWOC President

In this issue:

Upcoming Events
Nationals Successes
Coach of the Year
Rogaine Series
Shared Lunch
Katoa Po
Club Member Profile
JWOC Congratulations
Coaching Corner
Welcome to New Members
AKSS Forest Series and Coaching Initiative
AKSS Sprint Series Results
Ralph King Memorial Fund
University Orienteering Club
Request for photos
Notable Other Achievements by NWOC Members
Dates for your diary

Upcoming Events

15 April: Rogaine Series Event 1 - Riverhead (Details below)

6 May: AOS 3 - Temu Road + NWOC Shared Lunch (Details below)

13 May: Rogaine Series Event 2 - Slater Road

20 May: AOS 4 - Patumahoe

2-4 June: JAFA Queen’s Birthday

2018 Nationals

What a fantastic weekend with challenging courses, wonderful weather, a chance to catch up with orienteering friends from around the country and some great NWOC results. Thanks to AOC for putting on such a great event!

Some results statistics:

Long: 24 out of the 76 NWOC competitors finished in the Top 3 of their grade.
Middle: 26 out of the 70 NWOC competitors finished in the Top 3 of their grade.
Sprint: 16 out of the 63 NWOC competitors finished in the Top 3 of their grade.

Congratulations to our podium finishers:

M21E
Long: 1st Gene Beveridge, 3rd Cameron Tier
Middle: 1st Matt Ogden
Sprint: 1st Matt Ogden, 2nd Cameron Tier

W21E
Long: 1st Renee Beveridge
Middle: 2nd Renee Beveridge
Sprint: 3rd Renee Beveridge

M20A
Long: 2nd Cameron de L’Isle, 3rd Max Griffiths
Middle: 1st Daniel Monckton, 2nd Max Griffiths, 3rd Callum Hill
Sprint: 1st Cameron de L’Isle, 2nd Daniel Monckton

W21A
Long: 1st Kate Salmon
Middle: 2nd Kate Salmon
Sprint: 2nd Kate Salmon

W21AS
Long: 2nd Helena Ogden, 3rd Maddie Longson
Middle: 1st Maddie Longson

M18A
Middle: 2nd Liam Stolberger, 3rd Alex Monckton

W18A
Long: 2nd Georgina Dibble
Middle: 2nd Georgina Dibble

M16A
Sprint: 2nd Cameron Bonar

W16A
Long: 2nd Olivia Collins
Sprint: 1st Olivia Collins

W35A
Long: 1st Lise Turner
Middle: 1st Lise Turner

M40A

Long: 3rd Nick Harris
Middle: 2nd Dennis Wakefield, 3rd Nick Harris
Sprint: 1st Nick Harris

M40AS
Long: 1st Rob Murphy
Middle: 1st Rob Murphy

W40AS
Middle: 1st Alison Carswell

M45A
Long: 2nd Michael Schrott

W50A
Long: 1st Marquita Gelderman
Middle: 1st Marquita Gelderman
Sprint: 1st Marquita Gelderman

W60A
Long: 1st Phillippa Poole, 2nd Lisa Mead
Middle: 1st Phillippa Poole
Sprint: 1st Phillippa Poole, 3rd Lisa Mead

M65A
Long: 1st Rob Garden

M70A
Middle: 3rd Dave Middleton

W70A
Middle: 3rd Mary Moen

M75A
Long: 1st Chris Gelderman
Middle: 3rd Chris Gelderman

M21B
Long: 1st Allan Janes
Sprint: 2nd Jan Knoester

W21B
Sprint: 2nd Katie Monckton, 3rd Fiona de L’Isle

M40B
Long: 1st Jan Jager, 2nd Jan Knoester
Middle: 1st Jan Knoester, 3rd Jan Jager

W40B
Long: 2nd Fiona de L’Isle, 3rd Annemarie Hogenbirk
Middle 1st Fiona de L’Isle, 2nd Annemarie Hogenbirk

Coach of the Year

We were very proud to learn at the Nationals Prizegiving, that Renee Beveridge was named as Coach of the Year. This is a well-deserved award for someone who has given so much! Congratulations Renee!

We share here, the club’s nomination of her for this award:

Nomination for ONZ Coach of the Year

For outstanding contribution in coaching during year proceeding by an individual.

Club: NorthWest Orienteering

Nominating: Renee Beveridge (NWOC)

Summary: The executive committee of NorthWest Orienteering club would like to nominate Renee for her outstanding contribution to coaching, specifically:

• her initiative in setting up a coaching programme for adults who have come to the sport later in life
• for her work as Kristin School coach
• for her availability to help members of the public brand new to orienteering at the NorthWest rogaine series
• for her patience and her willingness to help anybody out who asks at any orienteering event she attends, regardless of affiliation with a particular club.

Renee is a remarkable young woman who has excelled in orienteering. As a club, we have benefited enormously from having her in our midst. But we would really like to make you aware of how generous she has been with both her time and her knowledge with regards to passing on her skills to others in our club.

Adult Coaching

Renee observed that a significant number of adults take up the sport of orienteering later in life, usually when their children get involved with the sport, many having never attempted orienteering before.

Unfortunately, there was a definite lack of coaching clinics available for these adults, with the majority of clinics being geared towards school-aged children. After a discussion with the executive, who were very excited with her initiative, she developed, planned, and ran detailed coaching sessions with a ratio of no more than two adults per coach. Each session was tailored to the ability of the adults involved and subsequent sessions built on previous ones to ensure progress and future event success.

Feedback from all involved in this programme (see personal references below from two participants) was extremely positive and all felt that their map reading ability and confidence out in the forest has grown immensely and valued the personalised approach. Her philosophy of using a combination of junior and senior coaches has worked very well and developed the idea of "giving back" to others, just like she does herself.

Kristin School Coach

Kristin School are extremely privileged to have a person of Renee’s experience and expertise to coach their Orienteering Team.

Renee is in her 6th consecutive year as Head Coach of the Kristin School Orienteering Team. Six years ago, there was no orienteering team at all at Kristin. Since then, she has built the team from the ground up, such that Kristin orienteers now regularly enjoy podium places at Auckland Sprint Finals, North Island Secondary Schools Champs and National Secondary Schools Champs, as well as National Club Champs.

Amongst this team are two NZSS representatives. One student made the NZSS Team to Australia in 2014 and another student in 2016. One student was also a Junior Pinestar Rep in 2016.

Another huge success for Renee was the Kristin Senior Girls Relay Team. They took the honours of all the Senior Girls Relay Titles in 2016. Together, they won the Auckland, North Island and National Schools Titles.

Renee has a great relationship with all her students, due to her friendly and very sociable nature. She made the trainings easy to follow and most of all fun. Due to her approachable nature, the students did not hesitate to ask questions when unsure. She is incredibly dedicated and takes her role as coach very seriously, making sure she was at the start or the finish for each students’ race, often seen sprinting to either so she could be there to offer encouragement and support.

NorthWest Rogaine Series

One of the biggest events on our NorthWest calendar is our rogaine series. This consists of three rogaines and is widely supported by families and many adults new to the sport of rogaining. Renee was always available at least an hour and a half before each event started to give some pointers to any members of the public who wanted some advice.

Rogaine Series

The Bivouac Rogaine Series kicks off this coming Sunday with Event 1 at Riverhead.
Enter by Wednesday night or, if you have not quite made that, enter on the day.

http://www.rogaineseries.co.nz/

Some of the JWOC juniors will be selling food on the day to fundraise for this year’s travels - please bring cash and support them!

This series is the key fundraiser for the Club each year and the money raised this year will be used to help subsidise a club trip to the 2019 Nationals in Christchurch.

NWOC Shared Lunch

If you are heading out to the AOS 3 event at Temu Road on 6 May, we thought it would be nice to gather together after everyone has run and have a shared picnic lunch. So, bring something to share and time your run aiming to finish in time for a 12:45ish lunch. There will be beginner coaching offered again that day, so coaches may not be free to run until about 11:00am.

Katoa Po - All Night Relays

Katoa Po 2018 was a huge success for North West this year. Three brave teams of North West members travelled down and battled the hilly terrain that Taupo had to offer as well as facing the freezing temperatures that come with running through the middle of the night. With great performances from everyone, North West was able to overtake our Hawkes Bay rivals and secure the 7-person trophy for another year and our 5-person team finished a strong second.

However, what set North West apart from the rest of the pack (besides winning obviously) was the fantastic club spirit that was portrayed by every member of the club. Whilst others had gone to bed at a more reasonable hour, North West truly showed how encouraging and enthusiastic we are by not only cheering our own runners in but also cheering in those last few finishers who were still coming in at ridiculously early times of the morning. The social aspect of Katoa Po is what really makes this such a special event and the fact that our members were cheering and screaming all throughout the night made Katoa Po that much more enjoyable for everyone.

Katoa Po was an excellent event to be a part of this year and I hope that all those that went down enjoyed themselves. I hope to see all of you again next year and hopefully some new faces too.

by Scott Carswell

Club Member Profile - Dave Middleton

Dave Middleton is one of our most popular and successful club members. He always has a smile and encouraging words to say. I know you are going to enjoy reading his profile!

Number of years orienteering?
I have been O’ing for about 32 yrs.

How were you introduced to orienteering?
First saw it when I was camping at Shakespear Regional Park and thought that looks like something that I could have some fun with, so a couple of years later on a drizzly Sunday morning I saw a notice in the paper about orienteering in Woodhill, went out and was hooked. I still have that first map - it was Otakanini Topu - big map with this little wee small course but hey, you have to start somewhere.

Key orienteering achievements to date?
Gosh, hard to know where to start, I have won numerous Auckland champs, Regional champs, National champs over the years. Have also been in the NZ team for many years. Lately I have been going to the Australian Champs every year (they are on at the time we should be having our nationals) and have had good wins over there. Last year was a great one as I am the long, middle and the relay champ.
In the club I have, over the years, been the President and on the committee. Also served on the NZOF for 3 or 4 years. I would hate to think how much time and more to the point how much MONEY I have spent on this sport, but hey you cant beat a great forest to justify it all.

Current orienteering project or goal?
My current O project is controlling day 3 of Queens Birthday with Matt Ogden, which is more like the blind leading the 20/20 vision as my computer skills are pretty much non-existent.
My long term goal is to get to O-Ringen which is a bit like a muslim going to Mecca (maybe lotto could help me there). Another goal is to continue to be free of any major illness or injury so I can keep going, as a lot in my age group are having bits and pieces packing up on them. That reminds me to get bigger pins for those dolls next week.

Favourite map and why?
Wow that’s a hard one, as I have run on many maps of different types of terrain. If you like gold digging and sluicing areas you cant beat Naseby, NZ or many parts of Australia. For a mad mixture of tracks and moss and small to medium rocks and trees trying to poke your eyes out, go to Norway, Sweden etc. Woodhill would have the best complicated sand dune contour maps anywhere.
But the best map I think I have ever run on is Mt Kooyoora in Australia, hardly any tracks with the most complicated rock areas that I have ever been on (lots of rocks well over 7m tall). If you lose map contact there you could be found months later stumbling blindly around in the wilderness.

Orienteering hero?
My O heroes are the ones that I run against and they consistently come ever so slightly ahead of me - I think they miss the odd control just to do that. And they are - the forever young Rob Garden and Mister (never seem to get old) Ross Brighouse. But in my defence they have been doing it for a lot longer than me (both elite runners) so I have a little more time to catch up.

Day job?
My day job is as a tiler, and I think that keeps me pretty fit (I have never trained just run on the Sundays) but I must get around to retiring one day .

Other interests?
The other interests that I have are looking after, or having home, my 8 grandchildren (aged from 12 to 8) - what a great life it is!

“ May all your forests be sunlit and all the controls are where you think they should be.”

One of Dave’s favourite events each year is the Australian Championships Carnival. In 2017 this was held near Bathurst. For the midweek events, Dave managed to enter himself in the Mens’ A races, designed more for the elites. His travelling companions Wayne Aspin, Geoff Mead, Rob Garden, Marquita Gelderman and Pip Poole suggested he might change his grade. When he did not, his heroics led to this poem being penned, with apologies to Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man from Snowy River’, and for artistic licence taken with the story.

The Snowy Man from Woodhill

Australian Orienteering Champs, Mens A mass start race, near Bathurst, Sept 29^th 2017
For Ukelele Dave from his orienteering friends.

There was movement at the homestay, for the word had passed around
that the Snowy Man from Woodhill was there that day,
to take on men’s elite in the longest race in town;
all starters came and gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted athletes from O clubs near and far
had mustered there in Bathurst overnight.
For elite O men love hard running where the wild bush courses are,
and others share the challenge with keenness and delight.

There’s Rob Garden, who made his pile playing 500 with the boys;
that Peter Pan with body ripped, his eyes always aglow;
but few could run beside him when his blood was fairly up —
he would go wherever human men could go.
Michael Wood from Hutt Valley came up to lend a hand;
no better navigator had e’er been seen;
rogaining, biking, running - wherever there was land,
if there’s a race, he joins the queue, and is for ever keen.

And one was there, an older man but specimen of beast,
a gifted runner undersized,
with a heart of Timor pony — three parts thoroughbred at least —
a build by orienteers so prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry — just the sort that won't say die —
there was courage in his quick impatient tread;
Intelligence and gameness emerged from his blue eye,
and the proud and lofty carriage of his head.

He hails from Matakana, up by Tamahunga’s side,
where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough,
working as a tiler, for houses large and wide,
carrying loads most would call way too tough.
The Snowy Man from Woodhill likes to roam,
to Aussie Champs, with the Tasman in between;
to test all comers and bring medals home.
No better M70 was ever seen.

So he starts — locates the first by a big mimosa clump —
then races towards the mountain's brow,
and those behind him call to others, “boys, go at him from the jump”,
no point in cunning running now.
He rarely makes an error- no wheeling to the right-
runs boldly now and never fears the spills,
for there’s never been a runner who can keep the map in sight,
despite the furrows and the slopes of hills.

Then fast the O men followed, where the gorges deep and black
resounded to the thunder of their tread.
Control beeps set off echoes, and they fiercely answered back
from cliffs and crags that towered overhead.
Then the Snowy Man from Woodhill turned his fearless head,
and he moved his compass round and gave a cheer,
then raced them down the mountain like a torrent down its bed,
while the others stood and watched in very fear.

He sent the flint stones flying, but danced upon his feet,
clearing fallen timber in his stride,
the Snowy Man from Woodhill never once fell on his seat -
North West spectators puffed their chests with pride.
Through the stringy barks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground,
down the hillside at a racing pace he went;
and he never drew a breath till he landed safe and sound,
at the bottom of that terrible descent.

He was nearly on his knees as he climbed the final hill,
the watchers on the mountain standing mute,
seeing him struggle with his bearing, but he was in it still,
as he raced across the clearing to the gaping finish chute.
Then they lost him for a moment, where the two re-entrants met,
to emerge afresh and streak across the rise,
ahead of every chaser, their brows all soaked in sweat;
wild cheers were heard as Snowy took the prize.

Down in Woodhill Forest, where the sand dunes raise
their knolls and spurs and saddles oh so high;
where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
at midnight in the cold and frosty sky.
Where around the raupo swamp the reedbeds sweep and sway,
and pine trees stretch towards the sun;
the Snowy Man from Woodhill is a household word to-day;
all who were there recount the story of his run.

JWOC

Congratulations to Daniel Monckton, Cameron de L’Isle and Max Griffiths who have been named in the JWOC team to compete in Hungary in July.

With two more places still available for both men and women, we wish those NWOC members trialling in the second trial early May, all the best!

NWOC Coaching Corner – Lessons Learnt

By Matt Ogden

Orienteering is a technical sport – a set of discrete, non-linear optimisation problems solved through skill, experience, and a robust technique, but ultimately undermined by fatigue, complacency, and inaccuracy.

In the pursuit of that non-existent perfect technical performance, we are inevitably going to deviate from the ideal route. This too tends to be the focus of our conversations after a race – “I lost 2 minutes on control 21”, rather than “I spiked the 20 other controls”. Or if you’re our Club Captain, often just missing a few controls while nailing everything else.

The Nationals Long Distance on a very technical map facilitated some truly great orienteering mistakes, three of which I thought would be appropriate to share in this coaching corner. I believe mistakes are necessary to improve our technique, as painful as they are sometimes, they do make us better orienteers if we learn from them.

Firstly, Gene on 4-5. Time loss 6’55. A result of a very challenging area and perhaps coming off the road at too high a speed without a really strong attack point. Read more about Genes Nationals campaign here with some interesting analyses and reflections.

The other two are from yours truly on 7-8 and 16-17. Time losses of 1’ and 5’18 respectively. My own personal Bermuda Triangle which I will leave to you to try and understand the comedy of errors that occurred.

Lesson learnt - a race is never over, if it’s demanding, then everyone will be having problems. If a mistake is made, it is important to re-start and continue, trying as best as possible to forget the mistake. A task much harder said than done, as I found out in the Nationals Long Distance.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to reflect on the legs which maybe didn’t go so well at Nationals. How could you have done the leg better to minimise the chances of making that mistake? I will be at the Rogaine on Sunday, so if you want to come and chat about how to do any of the legs from Nationals better, I will be more than happy to discuss.

Welcome to New Members

Welcome to new NWOC members:

Sindre Stoeten
Samuel Yang
Julian Hectors, Celia Leur
Tim & Alison Tenbensel
Catherine, Geoff, Ella and George Senior
Alex Tolan
Saul Everett
Holly Ma
Mark Pollard, Victoria Hartley-Pollard and Beatrice Hartley-Pollard
Lucy Pettit
Taiga Kato

And welcome back to:

Wally, Lesley, Jason, Chelsea, Brennan Sampson
Jula McMillan

We look forward to catching up with you in the forest and at events.

AKSS Forest Series and Coaching Initiative

This year has seen the addition of the Forest Series to the Auckland Schools orienteering calendar. The aim has been to provide three forest orienteering events in the lead-up to Auckland Champs - a progression supporting skill development and increased competition at Auckland Champs. We have also offered coaching to beginners in an effort to assist with the transition from Sprint to Forest Orienteering. This has been a cross club collaboration, with the final event coming up on 6 May. Many thanks to those who have given their time to coach these beginners. Forest Series events results will allow AKSS organisers and school sports coordinators to select the appropriate grade (Novice, Standard or Championship) in which to enter each student for AKSS Individual Championships, which will hopefully ensure a safer and more enjoyable experience for any newcomers.

We had approximately 360 people attend the AOS 2 at Lake Kereta, so it certainly drew the numbers!

AKSS Sprint Series

Congratulations to the following NWOC juniors who made podium in this event over the last weekend:

Senior Girls
3rd Jessica Sewell

Senior Boys
1st Alex de Beer
2nd Liam Stolberger

Junior Boys
3rd Dante Martin

Y7/8 Boys
2nd Taiga Kato
3rd Luke Hart

Ralph King Memorial Fund

We are delighted to acknowledge with thanks another very generous donation to NWOC from David Melrose and Bronwyn Allen. David set up the Ralph King Memorial Fund in memory of his late father, a life member of NWOC, whom longer term orienteers will remember as one of the key proponents of the earlier days of orienteering in New Zealand and champion of and supporter of younger orienteers. Ralph was a champion athlete himself (fastest NZ marathon time in 1955) and also a prolific mapper - Matt put together a display of some of Ralph's maps at our club dinner last November.

"Ralph King made his first maps at Maramarua and Woodhill in 1972 and, with Jack Ralston, he made a five-colour map of Maramarua East which was used for the 1973 championships. Ralph worked for the New Zealand Herald, afternoons and evenings, so he used his mornings for mapping. His maps, too, used 50-foot contours but for the 1974 challenge with Australia he produced NZ’s first map with detailed contours by hand drawing three contours between the existing ones giving him a 1:20,000 map with 12 foot, 6 inch contours. Ralph’s masterpiece was produced for the 1976 NZ championships, 35 km of Woodhill from the HQ to Rimmer Road stretching from the coast across to farmland. Within eight years, ten different maps had been produced from it." (1)

As a younger orienteer I remember often outrunning Ralph, only to find him at the next control point, calmly punching and navigating seamlessly and accurately to the next control - classic hare and tortoise..

The Ralph King Fund enables the club to help with travel expenses for young orienteers competing at JWOC, in Challenge teams to Australia or junior camps outside Auckland.

(1) Quotation from: https://www.orienteering.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/A_40th_anniversary_history_of_orienteering_in_New_Zealand.pdf

by Lisa Mead

University of Auckland Orienteering Club

This has recently re-formed, with Cameron de L’Isle as President, Thomas Stolberger as Secretary and Hayley Smith (AOC) as Treasurer. We look forward to working with them on events in the future.

Request for your photos

We would love to have more photos of club members from events - if you have some to share, Thomas Stolberger has set up a folder at:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lw7wEgSaprEnyuh2_IHgKfyJB2xUVlQr?usp=sharing

It’s set to be both viewable and editable to anyone with this link, so please add to the album. There is a document posted in this same folder detailing how anyone wishing to contribute should add photos, and how the album folders are arranged.

Notable Other Achievements by NWOC members

Ring of Fire - Matt Ogden, Gene Beveridge, Cameron Tier

Congratulations to Matt Ogden, Gene Beveridge and Cam Tier who ran the Ring of Fire relay last weekend. Running under team name “NWOC Pain Train” they convincingly took out the mens open grade in this 70km relay, finishing in 7hrs 21.18mins. The second placed team took 8hrs 20.22mins!

Here is a link to Gene's blog on the race http://genebeveridge.co.nz/ring-of-fire/

Tour Aotearoa - Chris Gelderman

Congratulations to Chris Gelderman who tackled the Tour Aotearoa this year. Chris shares some thoughts here:

On the 12th of February, together with around 90 others, fellow orienteer Max Kerrison and I started the Tour Aotearoa cycle challenge. A bike trip of just over 3000km from Cape Reinga to Bluff along a prescribed route which follows some of the well known cycle trails such as the Timber Trail, Bridge to Nowhere on the North Island, and the Wilderness Trail on the South Island.

The rules are simple: Do it all yourself. Carry all your own stuff, have no outside help, and visit the 30 photo control points. Complete the journey inside 30 days, but don’t do it in less then 10. (Yes! Some people have done it in less then 10!)

We arrived in Bluff on the 11th of March, 27 days and 3 hours after we left Cape Reinga.

16 days were spend to complete the North Island, which has many more hills then the south!

I got a lot of helpful advice from Marquita, who completed the Tour in 2016, who was nice enough to take me on some gruelling overnight training rides, and generously lend me some of her gear.