Kensington Gardens Reserve was bathed in glorious sunshine for the 37 teams from 19 schools competing in the annual SA Schools Relays on Friday, August 26.

Clive and Marian Arthur set some challenging courses within the bounds of the reserve that had the kids needing to keep their wits about them.   Mercifully, the number of dog walkers had dropped off by the time the kids headed off from the mass start at 10:30am or there might have been more than the single ice pack needed at the first aid station!

Our SA State Schools team reps competing showed that orienteering experience does count as where they were entered, they topped their classes.  Marcus Cazzolato and Ben Marschall took out Junior High Boys in 36:23, Jessica Jarvis and Lucinda Fogarty led Junior High Girls with 48:15 and Senior High Girls was won by Lucy Burley and Ana Penck in 53:31.

Regular orienteers Scarlett Ashforth and Ngaire Cassey from Hawthorndene Primary School also took out Primary Girls in 34:11 with Senior High Boys won by a mixed team of Abbie Faulkner and Mitchell Stephens from Marryatville High School in 47:31.

Primary Boys was a neck and neck tussle between Flynn Forgan and Kalem Weepers of Coromandel Valley Primary School and Archie Wandless and Brock Bezzina of Echunga Primary School.   The final sprint proved the difference with Kalem pipping Brock by 2s in a time of 30:20. 

Full results are available on Eventor.

Schools that sent larger teams including Adelaide Botanic High School (7 teams), Coromandel Valley, Stirling East and Black Forest Primary Schools all with 5 teams featured prominently in the results for the school shields with a revised scoring system to encourage greater school participation.   Unfortunately, Heathfield High School was unable to send a larger contingent due to covid restrictions.  The School Shield winners were

Primary Girls: Stirling East Primary School

Primary Boys: Coromandel Valley Primary School

 Junior High Girls: Mitcham Girls High School

Junior High Boys: No award as only mixed school teams completed the courses for this category.

Senior High Girls: Heathfield High School

Senior High Boys: Adelaide Botanic High School

The event ran like clockwork due, as usual, to a well-organised team of volunteers encouraged along by David Tilbrook, who has the organisation of the Relays event down to a fine art.   Thanks David and his team for a great event!

Article by Dianne Bergen & Colin Burnett

Photographs Zita Sankauskis

The SA Schools team to compete in the Australian Schools Championships in Victoria in late September has been announced following the final selection trial at the Moon Rocks event. The team members are -

Junior girls:              

Jessica Jarvis    
Annabel Lloyd
Lucinda Fogarty

Junior boys

Ben Marshall
Marcus Cazzolato
Austin Clem
Achilles Barnett
Mitchel Morcom
Duncan Still

NTR1- Angus Fairgrieve
NTR 2- Gulio Zuckermann

Senior boys:

Mitchell Stephens
Daniel Morcom
Remi Afnan
Finn Johnston

Senior girls:

Gemma Burley
Jemima Lloyd
Ana Penck
Abbie Faulkner
Lucy Burley
Zoe Carter

All the event information is here - http://aoc.orienteering.asn.au/. The forest events cover both gold mining and granite terrain.

Team officials are Patsy and Patrick Burley as managers and Angus Haines as coach.

An enjoyable weekend of orienteering was held in the Burra area on 28-29 August, with orienteers being treated to fast open mallee spur gully terrain for 2 events.

The Saturday afternoon event run by Onkaparinga Hills on Worlds End North featured courses set by Evalin Brautigam,  Orienteers had to negotiate some steeper terrain with complex water courses through to the gentler more subtle terrain in the latter part of the courses.  Results are here, along with a link to WinSplits - https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/11115

And all courses can be viewed on Route Gadget where you can add your own route - http://ospot.xyz/gadget/rg2/#246

The 2021 SA Middle-Distance Championships were held on the Sunday morning at Paradise, using a section of the map that had not been used for a long time. It was mostly fast-running terrain, generally mallee, but with large areas of rough open land. Many controls were located on watercourses or erosion gullies. The three longest courses had to cross a ridge system that bisected the map, offering long legs with large-scale route choices.

The event was presented by Tjuringa Orienteers with Aylwin Lim as the course planner, and controller Robin Uppill

Results are here along with a link to WinSplits - https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/11110

All course maps and some of the various routes taken by participants are available on RouteGadget. Participants are encouraged to add their routes (either using GPS or hand-drawn) for others to compare, if they haven't already done so. http://ospot.xyz/gadget/rg2/#245

Many photos from both events are on the OSA Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/OrienteeringSA

Yesterday 38 teams from primary and secondary schools took part in the annual SA Schools Relay Championships on a new map of the SE Parklands.. It was a very close competition particularly in the primary girls division with Stirling East Primary School winning by 2 seconds to one of the Goodwood Primary School teams.

Mass start of the Relays. (Photograph by Aylwin Lim )

Shield winners were as follows:

• Primary School Girls: Stirling East Primary School ( Annabelle Laurie & Avie Mildren)
• Primary School Boys: Hawthorndene Primary School (Tom Hobbs & Eric Casey)
• Junior High Girls: Unley High School ( Ella Bruce & Gemma Burley)
• Junior High Boys: Glenunga International High School ( Duncan Still & Giulio Zuckermann)
• Senior High Girls Heathfield High School ( Lucy Burley & Ana Penck)
• Senior High Boys Adelaide High School (Toby Cazzolato & Oscar Johnston)

Full results included leg times are on Eventor
Thanks to all teachers and parents who put the teams together and to all the club members who assisted on the day. Particular thanks to David Tilbrook (Organiser) and Clive Arthur (Course Planner assisted by Marian Arthur). Thanks also to the Dog Obedience Club for making their facilities available.

One of the senior courses.

The 2020 SA Schools Championships was held at Thorndon Park on Friday 28 August, postponed from the original date in May (and we all know why). It was a fabulous day, with great weather, and many enthusiastic students, although with lower numbers than previous years as schools were cramming many postponed sporting events into Term 3!

All results are available here – Overalland Splits

And all; courses can be reviewed here in Route Gadget

The points in the schools trophies were as follows:

Primary Schools - Williams Trophy - 

1) Goodwood PS with 65 points
2) Hawthorndene PS with 26 points 
3) Stirling East PS with 23 points 

Secondary Schools - Wale trophy-

1) Heathfield HS with 45 points
2) Trinity College with 14 points
3) Marryatville HS with 12 points.

Congratulations to all the participants. 

Thank you to all the teachers / responsible adults who helped with school entries for this  2020 SA Schools Orienteering Championships.   In particular

Zita – Organiser - Time for a short rest ????
Course Planners - Clive and Marion Arthur - Superheroes !  Attention to detail!
Controller - Robin Uppill - In spite of being very busy, found time!
Special consultant - Ken Thompson - Can't help himself!
Finish Computer -  Al Sankauskas and Trevor Diment - To the rescue. Appreciated!
Starts - Craig Colwell and his team  - Award for best set up design.
Finish - Erica Diment and her team - How good was this finish!
Pink Hat Brigade - Clive and the 8 amazing PINK HAT PEOPLE - They got to enjoy the sunshine!
Fi - Fairy  Woman Extraordinaire - When you want a job done well!
Jeffa - Best to handle the sob stories.
Rego - Handled the hoards well.
Pungangga Pavilion - Keren - Friendly undercover efficiency.
Peter  - Our first COVID marshal - Great outfit!    
Barry / Des - Early to start -   last to finish!
Evalin – Collating entries, This adds to your CV.    

In these troubling COVID times, Zita as organsier would like to THANK all the TEAM that contributed towards the SA Schools Orienteering Champs 2020 to make it such a successful event.

Renmark Orienteering Weekend 7-8 September.

Sunday 8th September provided the opportunity to Orienteer on the Crooked Straight map near Renmark, that was used last year for the national championships. The event was organised by Yalanga.

The weather was perfect for the 90 competitors and the courses were worthy of a State Champs set by Peter Mayer with oversight provided by Bob Smith as Controller.

The terrain of a sandy plateau dropping to the flood plain of the River Murray allowed for fast running in places through scattered bush, apart from where the loose sand slowed progress. Careful navigation was required on a map which allowed for many route choices and great competition.

Rob Tucker

 How is your OY point score going? Two OY events will be   available on the weekend of 17-18 August at two locations in   the mid North.

 For details about Saturday 17 August in Paradise go   to  https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/7859

 and Sunday 18 August at Mulga Valley https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/8630

 Beautiful mallee country just 3 hours North of Adelaide.

Bush camping at Mulga Valley, or stay in historic Burra.

Sustenance will be provided by the Junior Squad: drinks and cakes on Saturday, and also cheese toasties on Sunday.

Entries close Wednesday 14 August.                                                                                       

 Make sure you pre-enter for discount and     guaranteed map!

Long Champs at Mulga Valley

The Long Champs was held at Mulga Valley on Sunday 19^th August.  For full results, badge splits, winsplits, splits browser and route gadget go to the Results Page.

Jeffa Lyon set the courses on the mallee map featuring complex erosion gullies and drainage systems and was ably assisted with legwork by John Lyon, Bob Smith, Gil Hollamby and Phil Hazell for course checking and control placement.

Eighty five people participated in the courses and there was lots of congregation around the prototype display stands being trialled at the event with live results.

OHOC also perfected their start procedures, having lots of practice in late starts with TT members who were helping, SA runners who didn’t make their start, and their own members who started after their official start times. Looking good for the nationals.

It was a “testing time” for many – with the prototype results stands (built by John Nieuwenhoven) being used for live results for the first time, and Aylwin Lim’s “cup return” also being used by those who took a drink after their run.

With the camping at Bri Glen, this was a wonderful opportunity to return to the bush, enjoy some quality orienteering and relish time with great orienteers for company.

Thanks to TT members for their assistance, and to OHOC and Peter Mayer (controller) for your efforts assisting.

by Erica Diment Organiser

SA Interclub Relays, Sunday August 26^th, Moon Rocks

All orienteers are invited to come out and run around Moon Rocks between Tungkillo and Palmer on Sunday August 26^th at the club relays hosted by the Southern Arrows, South Australia’s elite orienteering squad.

All you have to do is to form teams of 2 – only one member of the team has to be a current financial member of your club - and let your club secretary know who you want to run with. It’s also possible to form teams where nobody is a club member (enquiries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) although then your team won’t count towards the interclub trophy.

As was done last year, we have removed any age limits and the choices are simply: men’s, women’s and mixed age classes on 4 different courses, which are approximately:

·         6km hard (split into 2 x 3.2km)

·         4.5km moderate/hard  (split into 2 x 2.3km)

·         4km moderate (split into 2 x 1.9km)

·         2km easy – each person runs once only

It’s lots of fun, and there will be prizes! For further information as it becomes available, go to: https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/6780

And from the last time the relays were at Moon Rocks:

Marne Rocks middle distance OY event.

Despite the forecast of nasty weather, the weather held off and Marne Rocks surprisingly sparkled with sunshine on Sunday morning, although unbeknown to most of the gathering, a strong breeze blew over the hill! Marne Rocks hadn’t been used for orienteering since a bushfire had swept through the area about 4 years earlier, which burnt away fences and killed many trees, leading to major changes to the map that was originally produced by Irena Palmer in 1991. Given these issues and problems contacting several key landholders, Steve Cooper decided to set a middle distance OY event.  He set very entertaining and challenging courses in detailed rocky country.

Each course had numerous short legs in the rock detail and changes of direction, requiring good focus, and then some faster easy navigation sections linking properties. (He even put out controls on his birthday!) Hopefully, everyone had a fun time and practiced some middle distance orienteering techniques ahead of the Nationals carnival, where the SA Middle distance champs will be held nearby on a new Keynes Gap map. Steve Sullivan did a great job vetting the controls, with organisation of the event ably provided by Dave and Ruth Nicolson, and with SI set-up provided by Gerry Velaitis. The weather was even kind to all the Yalangan volunteers who collected the controls and packed up at the end. The predicted rains did not fall until we were packed up on our way home!

Many thanks to Yalangan helpers Rob, Doug M., Doug F., Anne, Nigel and Leila, to the landholders for allowing us to use their properties, and for a very kind thank-you email from a happy competitor “Great and enjoyable courses, organisation and weather today. Well done to all involved in arranging today's event.”