NSW State League Series Kick's Off at Clandulla

Sunday, 14 March 2010

The opening rounds of NSW's State League Series kicked-off by revisiting the 2009 World Masters finals areas at Clandulla.
Buddy clubs Central Coast and Uringa combined organisations to provide a challenging opening two rounds to the series.

On the left, Uringa's Dave McKenna and extended family demonstrate  how to use the SI stick to Garingal's James Lithgow, while on the right Garingal President Tony Hill  demonstrates a flying "leap of faith".

 State League 1 courses set by Uringa's Lisa Lampe used the WMOC qualification area of Prosser's Reef for the "middle distance" races on the Saturday, while Central Coast's Nick Dent used the WMOC final area of Carwell's Labyrinth to set some challenging long distance courses in the gullys and the rock for Sunday's State League 2 courses. Typical of many of Sunday's courses was at least one long leg providing competitors with a more than normal amount of route choice, and a number of twists and turns, which kept the competitors concentrating right up to the last control. The events attracted just over 200 competitors from around NSW, and it was pleasing to see so many inter-state visitors from the ACT also return to Clandulla.

On the left OA President Bill Jones contemplates crossing Carwell's Creek. On the right NSW's Tamara Orr.

State League 1 results can be found here.

State League 1 splits can be found here.

State League 2 results can be found here.

State League 2 splits can be found here.

Fresh from his success's at the previous week's National League events in Victoria, CCO's Julian Dent flew around Saturday's M21A course of 5.6Km in just under 28 minutes, leaving fellow competitor Ben Rattray speechless.

One other performance of note was the return of SHOO's Robert Prentice, who has not been seen much in the bush in the last couple of years. Rob finished second  to NSW Junior Squad Manager Russell Blatchford by 80 seconds on the Saturday. While on the Sunday Rob just pipped Waggaroo's Alex Davey by 26 seconds to take out the victory in the M50A class.

With the 2010 State League series now underway, it is hoped that as many competitors as possible will provide their feedback and responses for the NSW 2010 Course Setter of the Year competition. The survey forms for State League 1 can be found here, and for State League 2 here.

Routegadget junkies can now get their fix and add their routes to the weekend's courses and compare how they fared against others. SL1 courses can be found here, and SL2 courses found here. While on the subject of Routegadget, many thanks to Garingal and to Garingal's David Bowerman for making Routegadget available to NSW orienteers. David has now handed over the reins to NCN's Russell Rigby. Any future Routegadget queries should be addressed to Russell.