Hi all
After a hectic last week of orienteering in Ballarat with five events from Saturday to Tuesday afternoon, life has settled down again to cutting grass, turning over the garden, weeding and tidying up around the property!
1 Last Week’s Orienteering in Ballarat With 2 Vic Series mtbo events on Saturday and Sunday at either end of Canadian Forest, 2 aMAZEing (part of the Victorian Teachers Games) in central Ballarat and a Scatter event at Mt Clear Secondary College (also Vic Teachers Games) on Tuesday the club was kept on its toes. Mark engineered it all – a remarkable feat considering all that he had on his plate. You just had to ask and then watch him switch from mtbo to foot-o to aMAZEing to basketball! Special thanks goes to Monica (course planner for Sunday’s mtbo/foot-o) and her family (working at the start/finish), the Norwoods, the Keebles, Ken Dowling and the Gordons. But by Tuesday pm all the controls were out of the bush – and after some sorting back in the Eureka ELC storeroom.
The weather cooperated beautifully and we introduced some members to mtbo – Brad and Michael Odgers, Connor Ovenden and his dad, Finn and his dad Jonathan Gordon and Tim Dickson. Brad Odgers, a Ballarat Secondary College student made his first outing a winner by zooming round Course 4 on Saturday into 1 st place, while dad Michael came out on Sunday and took an impressive 3rd place behind Declan Dickson and Keith Wade. Connor with his dad shadowing rode well on Course 4 despite some problems (didn’t everyone have them!!) in the single track. Monica had a few anxious moments waiting over 2 hours for husband Tim – but he came back all smiles. Thanks to MFV (Dion and Heath) for organising Saturday’s mtbo and to Ken and Roch for drawing up the new areas of the long Canadian Forest map. The kids – led by Huon Gordon and Maeve Dickson – had a great time doing circuits around Mt Clear SC – next time we’ll need to set them a course!
2 Australian Championships in Canberra Eureka has two new 2013 Australian Champions – Jenny (W55A) and Geoff (M55A) Lawford – in both the Sprint and Long Distance. With ten members making the big trip up to Canberra it was good to see that the good form Jenny and Geoff had in Europe lingers – we hope success continues in the Middle and the Relay next weekend. They’ll be trying for the quadrella in ACT next weekend – aided by Chris Norwood and Roch Prendergast in Geoff’s relay and 2 other Vics in Jenny’s relay. Ian Lawford, recently returned from Europe, had a dnf in the sprint ??? but was right back on the pace with a close third – only 25 seconds behind – in the 10.38 km Long Distance. Aislinn Prendergast was consistent – 8 th in both Sprint and Long – but hopes for better in the Middle and Relay on 5/6 October.
3 ACT MTBO Champs in Canberra in mid October Eureka will send a strong mtbo team of Monica (W40), Declan (M-16), Dale (W70) and Blake (M70) for the 3-event ACT MTBO Champs. Declan has the chance to win the triple – Middle, Long (both 1 st in Gympie Qld) and the Sprint (ACT) for the first time in his junior career. Dale and Blake will be riding to hold on to their leads in their respective classes in the National MTBO Series, while Monica will face stiff W40 competition to hold 2nd in her class. Can we coax the Keebles, Dowlings, Mahers, or newcomer Odgers to join in the fun on 19/20 October. Entries are open until the 11th October.
4 November / December events Eureka will stage 3 Short Park/Street events on November 30 and December 1 at Damascus College, Mt Clear Secondary College and Ballarat Grammar on new 1:4,000 scale maps produced by Roch at the international sprint standard. This would be a great time to round out the year with a busy weekend in Ballarat. More details to come but we are hoping for a good junior turnout from local schools at these foot-o events. Then it’s the aMAZEing Ballarat on Saturday 7 th December which is always high on the Keeble, Lawford and Magpie girls agenda – what will Mark cook up this time?
Cheers
Blake