Finally some warm weather has arrived in Melbourne, and to celebrate, Summer Series kicks off on October 7.  You can orienteer up to four nights a week, right through the daylight savings period!  Check out the calendar on the Orienteering Victoria website, and also on Eventor; or pick up a printed fixture at an event.

Season tickets will be on sale in the first few weeks to Orienteering Victoria members. Save up to $40 per series – that’s more than the price of a club membership!  Click here for Summer Series prices.

Haven’t joined yet?  It’s the perfect time – if you sign up as a new member after September 30, you get 15 months membership at the 2019 rate – AND you can buy a Park Street season ticket!  Find out more about clubs, and how to become a member. It’s quick, easy, and saves you money!

Two of our veteran members have tasted success in Europe!  Peter and Ilze Yeates completed a two month orienteering extravaganza, taking in events in Latvia, Scotland, and Iceland during their travels.  Pete placed third overall  in the Icelandic Fire and Ice 3 days, in Reykjavik, after three consistent, error free performances in the lava fields.

Meanwhile, Ian and Debbie Dodd took part in events in Switzerland and Germany.  Ian came second in the sprint race in Brugg, losing by a mere 2 seconds!  He backed up the following weekend with a third place in the double header Sprint in Darmstadt, part of the German Park Tour.

One of the great things about orienteering is that you can easily compete overseas, and even plan your holiday around it. It’s a great way to make new friends and see places you may otherwise never visit.  Go for it!

“Wish I’d done a longer course!”; “Can I have another go?”; “How soon can we come back and do this again?” – these comments were heard repeatedly after Sunday’s amazing Indoor-Outdoor Sprint at Monash Uni. As the first starters bent over their maps, the spectators dashed inside to see the mayhem unfold, and soon we were treated to competitors heading every which way – up, down, and around – as they came to grips with navigating four levels of the incredible building. It was quickly obvious that speed was not the solution – it was all about knowing exactly where you needed to be, before beginning the next leg.  Dashing in and out of classrooms, dodging bemused students, popping out onto a courtyard four storeys in the air, avoiding the “paddle pop” marshals who stopped us going the wrong way – all part of the fun. It was over way too quickly. Luckily we had an outdoor sprint to follow, which was almost as complex, and equally as enjoyable.  We’ll do our best to make it happen again soon.

Results     Photos

DROC partnered with fellow Victorian orienteering club, Melbourne Forest Racers, to deliver a superb winter long weekend of top class orienteering in gold mining terrain at Creswick.  Saturday featured the final in the Victorian Autumn Series, and the courses by Dion Keech mixed up some physical spur gully with tricky erosion features.  DROC members turned out in force with 23 competitors – a record for a non-Melbourne event!  We had the most podium finishers, with wins to Sally Barlow, Ian Dodd and Annie Gruby; second places to Sarah and Sammy Love; and thirds to Simon Rouse, Karen Strachan,  Debbie Dodd and Annie Gruby.  Other strong performers were Damian Spencer, Sarah Davies, and James Love.

Sunday was the Victorian Middle Distance Champs, the first time in many years that DROC has organised an individual forest Championship event.  It went off without a hitch!   Courses were set by Vic Sedunary, and they certainly tested everyone’s technical navigation skills as he took us into the hardest sections of the map.  More great results, with wins to Martin Steer, Janine Steer, Sarah Love, Sammy Love and Debbie Dodd; second places to Damian Spencer, Helen Walpole, Amber Louw and Sarah Davies, and third places to Ian Davies, Pam King, Joel Crothers and Wayne Love.

We rounded out the weekend with the Bah Humbug Sprint, which saw us back in the same gold mining, but at a larger scale of 1:5000, on courses set by Roch Prendergast. A win on course 2 capped off a great weekend for Ian Dodd, while James Love was a very fast 4th on the same course.

Our thanks to the three course planners, along with event advisor Warwick Williams, who all did an anazing job; and to the dedicated teams from both clubs who worked tirelessly and cheerfully for 3 days to put on what we think was the best weekend in Victoria!

Click here for more about the weekend, and photos from the Middle Distance Champs presentations.

Great event on our new Chirnside Park map, which we christened with an EndurO. Mapper and course planner Peter G presented quite the challenge, thanks to the hilly terrain, the complicated network of small streets, and a well thought out course. Peter placed several 40-point controls close to the start, which drew competitors out in all directions, only to be faced with a myriad of decisions.

DROC took out both 120 minute categories, with Alicia winning the 120 min Run and gaining a perfect score of 1000; Ian won the 120 min Walk with 780 points. Fantastic effort by both!

Head here for a full event report, results, and maps.

The Victorian Club Relays were held at Mt Lofty, near Eppalock – an area of spur gully terrain with some small rocky areas, and some thicker vegetation.  Due to the dry summer, the tracks were dusty and sometimes hard to pick.  The first half of each course was on open, fast ground, but many teams came unstuck on the second half which was much slower, and harder to read.

DROC fielded five teams across four courses, and came away with very pleasing results – including a fantastic win for our Course 3 combination of Peter Yeates, Pam King and Carl Stemp.  Pete laid the groundwork with a fast run, just a handful of seconds behind the quickest runner.  Pam kept her cool as other teams fell by the wayside, her steady pace bringing the team into first. Carl just had to complete the course safely, and they were home with a couple of minutes’ margin over the next team, taking a well earned victory!

Our other teams all acquitted themselves very well on what proved to be challenging courses, against tough competition.  Well done all!  Results are here

Congratulations to DROC’s Graham Wallis  who has been awarded the highly coveted Park Street Course Setter of the Year award for 2018-19.  Graham won for his course at Kingsclere, in the Monday Summer Series.  He receives a Park Street Season Ticket to the series of his choice.

Runners up were Fiona Fell (NEV), for her course at Skeleton Creek in the Tuesday Summer Series, and Tim Hatley (BKV) for his course on a new map of Mentone Racecourse, in the Monday Summer Series.  According to adjudicator Peter Hobbs, it was a very close contest.  Peter used the following factors to decide the winner:

• Degree of route choice and control choice evident on each course
• Distances of the courses
• Choice of different controls available from the start
• Lack of “one way only / dead running” sections of the course
• Map details such as title, scale, contour interval etc

Kingsclere scored highly in all areas – including control choice from the start and the relative lack of “one way / dead areas” of the course. Graham did an excellent job of providing maximum route choice and control choice for all courses. Even the shortest course could conceivably visit the majority of controls on the map. I still could not work out some of the shortest courses despite spending significant time studying the map. Also included a tricky control 15 near the start where competitors had to make an instant decision at the start to get it first, or drop it all together. An excellent overall map and worthy winner. Well done Graham!

Two other DROC maps were shortlisted – Cathies Creek by Peter Yeates, and Blind Creek by Merv Trease.

View Graham’s winning map here