Welcome
2024 is now well underway and we have been enjoying orienteering events over the summer with the Sprint series, and the second half of the Twilight series.
We are very pleased to welcome a number of new and returning members:
Alice Westwood, Kelvin Meng, Ella Streeton, Tom Sellings, Ellen Macintosh, Alby Mackintosh, David Braun, Hazel Braun, Danealle Gilfillan, Charlotte Papworth, Oliver Gourlay, and our Coach-in Residence Kriszta Gera.
Some of you have been orienteering for some years, and others are relative beginners. No matter what your level of experience and expertise, you are all very welcome. Do make yourselves known to me and other Bushflyers at coming events.
(And see later for ways that you might acquire Bushflyers O-tops too!)
Summer Swarm and Annual Awards – Thank you!
Thank you very much to Ari and Maddy Piiroinen for generously offering us their home on Sunday 4th February, for our first swarm of the year and our Awards presentations.
1. OA Merit Badges
An aim of the Badge Scheme is to recognise the achievements of a consistent orienteering standard relative to one’s age-group peers.
The events at which badge credits may be earned are:
- Australian Long Distance, Middle Distance and Sprint Orienteering Championships;
- Australian 3-Days;
- State Long, Middle or Sprint Distance Championships as nominated to OA;
- Nominated Orienteering Australia controlled badge events
An orienteer qualifies for an OA merit badge by earning three credits at specific events within a two-year period. The two-year period commences on the date of the event at which the first credit is earned.
While a large number of Bushflyers earn badges each year, Bushflyers buys and presents badges to club members when they are earned for the first time in an age-class, and in subsequent years if they achieve a higher ranking! (That means that if you win Gold in your first year, you will get a badge; but even if you win Gold for the next four years, you will have to wait for another five years and a new age class to be eligible for another one!)
The 2023 OA Badge recipients are:
| Matty Maundrell | M14 Gold |
| Joshua Mansell | M16 Gold |
| Max Johnson | M20 Silver |
| Ian de Jongh | M21 Silver |
| Robert Hembrow | M21 Bronze |
| David Penton | M35 Silver |
| Craig Johnson | M45 Bronze |
| Andrew Hobson | M50 Silver |
| Ken Mansell | M50 Gold |
| Peter Miller | M50 Silver |
| Greg Terrill | M60 Bronze |
| Naomi Penton | W12 Gold |
| Nina Davis | W21 Bronze |
| Elise Palethorpe | W21 Bronze |
| Emma Penton | W21 Bronze |
| Susanne Harrysson | W55 Silver |
2. Bushflyers Fly Swat Award – Memorable moments and dastardly deeds
…when everything splatted around you but you kept on buzzing anyway…
Jesse Piiroinen
A little tale…of a little tail?
It’s very short and sweet! Ari tells us that Jesse mentioned on the way home from the Yarramundi Reach event in late November last year how he was very annoyed with his 20-second mistake between controls 10-11 on his course.
He was apparently running at the usual Jesse cruise speed around the bend of the lake. He had a green tree thicket hugging the lake and he was anticipating that he had to go about 50m to the control which was on some feature by the shore.
As he was running past the green thicket he heard a control being punched in the green. He thought that surely there could not be another control that close to his one. But he also thought it best to investigate, just in case.
Upon running and doing a little pirouette in the green he heard the control being punched again and very close. That was even more confusing! He then found a bird perched on a branch nearby happily mimicking the sound of the control punch. His comment was ‘Unbelievable!’ Ari’s rejoinder to Jesse was, ‘to concentrate on orienteering and not birds’.
3. Bushflyers Blue Bottle Award – Services to Bushflyers
No nominations this year!!
Note that previous winners have been:
2018 Ross Stewart
2019 Alison Inglis
2020, 2021 – no club awards
2022 Matt Stocks
4. Ian Booth Award
This is named after Ian Booth, a Bushflyers club stalwart who died suddenly of a heart attack in 2011. Ian enjoyed a red wine very much, so in the early years this award was based on a good quality red wine.
In recent years, however, a gift voucher ($120) from the Runners Shop has been awarded in lieu of the wine.
The prize is awarded to the most improved Master’s level competitor. It is calculated on relative improvement based on ACT League results. The winner must have competed in at least 50% of events in the year, and the award cannot be won by the same person on more than one occasion.
Previous winners have been:
2022 Jo Hobson
2019 Matt Stocks
2018 Chris Andersen
2017 Anita Scherrer
2016 Valerie Barker
2015 Chris Stocks
2014 Carol Harding
2013 Toni Brown
2012 Robyn d’Ascenzo
2011 Pauli Piiroinen (the inaugural recipient)
The 2023 winner is Craig Johnson
OACT 2023 Awards
Congratulations to the following Bushflyers who were recipients of OACT awards at the recent Presentations ceremony:
- Audun Fristad Awards (Encouragement to juniors):
- Max Johnson
- Ben Mansell
- Patrick Maundrell
- Jim Sawkins Award for Event Management:
- Ian de Jongh
- Services to Coaching:
- Ken Mansell
Bushflyers Events
Since our last newsletter in January, Bushflyers organised and presented the following Twilight events.
Thank you very much to the following club members for setting courses and organising the event, and also to their teams of helpers who set up and packed up each event, managed the registration desk, and especially assisted with control collection.
- Twilight Series #8, Wednesday 14 February, Weston Park
Course Planners: Josh, Ben, and Ken Mansell Organiser: David Penton - Twilight Series #12, Wednesday 13 March, John Knight Park
Course Planner: Justine Hobson Organiser: Chris Andersen
Club events in the next few months
We are now moving into the first events of the winter program; we have already had the 2024 OACT Sprint Championships, and have some important AL events on the calendar ahead, and the first Metro event in the next two months as well.
Of course, course setters, organisers and controllers/vetters will be needed for the 2024 events in all events as well. Don’t worry if you haven’t taken on any of these roles before as we have lots of people who would be happy to help you out with the practicalities.
Watch for emails from Jo Hobson, our roster manager, and consider how you might be able to support our club.
Coming Major Events
- 29 March – 1 April 2024 (Easter), AUS 3-Day Carnival, Lower Murraylands, South Australia
- 8-10 June, KBIII, Rylestone area, NSW
- 28 September – 6 October, Australian Championships, Armidale, NSW
We have a small number of Bushflyers travelling over to South Australia for the Easter Carnival, including several of our younger (Junior) Elites. These are important events as they are JWOC selection events.
For many of us, the Easter carnival offers not only wonderful orienteering, but also the chance to meet up with friends from across the country.
We hope that all competitors are fit and well (there is still quite a lot of COVID lingering…), have safe travelling, and the best results that you can manage – and lots of fun as well, of course.
2024 Membership Renewal
If you have not yet renewed your memberships for 2024, this will be the last newsletter you will receive.
Thank you for your continued support of our club. We do hope that you’ll continue to be a part of the Bushies family in 2024. Remember that the easiest way to renew your membership is via Eventor. If you need assistance, please contact the OACT office
Other news
- Do you subscribe to the OACT weekly e-bulletin? What about the Orienteering Australia monthly e-bulletin? Find recent OA e-news, January 2024 here.
- I encourage you to subscribe to each of these bulletins, to enable you to keep up-to-date at both a local and a national level. They have so many links to interesting and inspiring articles, news items, YouTube videos, health and fitness advice…
- And I continue to remind you that I have a range of Bushflyers’ clothing (O-tops and jackets mostly) for sale. The range of sizes is becoming a little limited, but we will still be able to meet the needs of quite a few of our members. Please check with me if you would like wear our Club colours, especially if you are competing in major interstate events.
And finally…
I indicated at the recent Swarm that after about seven years, this year is to be my last as the Club Convenor; my family demands and commitments are beginning to take more of my time, and I have to listen to my adult children!
This presents an opportunity to you, perhaps to your family, to take on this role. We do not have elections or committees in Bushflyers, relying instead on the goodwill of all of you to take on a huge variety of roles within the club. I will be very happy to support and mentor the next Club Convenor, of course. Why not let it be YOU!
Keep safe; keep well; and keep moving!
Valerie Barker (Club Convenor)
(Please note my new address)
0410 151 554
For Bushflyers Orienteering – where no-one gets left on the bench!