Newsletter Highlights

The President's Report ~ January 2004

A warm welcome to all New South Wales rogainers and their families, to yet another solid year of enjoyable events.

As is our tradition we begin the year with an event close to home, in an urban area of Sydney. Although with the sprawl unrelenting, ‘close to home’ may not be that close! This year we will begin our adventures discovering the Hills District in Sydney’s northwest. Billed as being a "navigators paradise", the 2004 6 hour Metrogaine will kick start another year of discoveries.

In April the "Flaming Quads" 12 hour event takes us north to the foothills of the Barrington Tops. This years Paddy Pallin Winter 6 hour event in June is at last report taking us west into the Blue Mountains. Pack your beanies and gloves for that one! The 2004 Lake Macquarie event should be warmer on the north coast in late August. Graeme Cooper no doubt has another challenging and well set course for us to discover in October at the NSW Champs. This will once again see us enjoying the Upper Hunter Valley at Gundy. And for the last event of the year in November, John Barnes will be showing us his take on Terrigal on the Central Coast. All in all a packed year of rogaine events in New South Wales – and there is always the ACTRA events in and around Canberra. For those of you who want more don’t forget the Australian Champs in July. South Australia is hosting the event this year, so after putting your best in for New South Wales you should have no trouble justifying a few extra days in the Barossa Valley sampling the wine.

As is the tradition the Annual General Meeting of the NSWRA will be held at the conclusion of the Metrogaine in February. One of the purposes of this general meeting is to elect new members to the NSWRA committee. This is open to all interested rogainers. An infusion of new blood (so to speak) into the committee would be appreciated by all. A flood (or trickle) of new ideas and approaches to the way the NSWRA manages its events and support functions, such as this newsletter and the website, would only be of benefit to the future growth of the sport in New South Wales. This is especially so with the World Champs our honour to host in 2006. Some members of the NSWRA committee will be standing down from their roles at the AGM, so the Association would appreciate some new faces volunteering their time and skills to the sport in 2004.

A brief description of each role within the current committee is printed on the reverse of the nomination form included with this newsletter. Read it and consider how you can assist. If you are keen either contact a current committee member or forward a nomination form as directed on the base of the sheet indicating a role that interests you.

We look forward to seeing you in February at the Metrogaine.

Andy Mein

Letter to the Editor - Two Trips and a Whinge

I recently competed in the NSW 6 hour Socialgaine in Belanglo forest, and in the ACT Spring 12 hour near Nimmitabel. Both events were enjoyable and (apart from the leeches) relatively painless; thanks to the organisers. For those that missed the Belanglo event, a new (to me) concept was to have mystery controls, which were not marked on the map, but had clues at other controls so that route choice could not be finalised before the start. This made it more interesting; I am not sure what it did to the overall score-line.

During both of these events, partly due to the number of participants who chose similar routes to my team, I witnessed extensive cheating. For some teams, notably consisting of a couple or father and child, the normal practice seems to be to leave the girlfriend/child waiting at the trail while the (presumably faster) team member leaves the trail and goes to punch the control. In part, the map of the Nimmitabel event encouraged this, as most of the controls were within 100 m of a trail (due to rough terrain the organisers placed them this way deliberately). Some of the teams doing this were very experienced, and it was done in a blatant manner - the slower team member often did not even attempt to leave the road, in front of several other teams.

I have confronted teams about this on my last two rogaines, following the example set by my teammate on the NSW champs. On that occasion, after we struggled back up to a track after descending steeply in the dark through thick undergrowth to one control, he mentioned to a team (which had left the female partner sitting at the track) that the rules state that all team members must approach within 20 m of a control and see it. They denied having broken this rule in spite of the obvious nature of what they had done. In the two rogaines where I have mentioned this to teams, I have had similar responses, and once "I'm not a mountain goat like you".

Cheating like this breaches both the rules and the spirit of rogaining. It is not acceptable. If a person is too slow and it is frustrating to wait for them, their "partner" should rogaine with someone else. The family category is not expected to achieve the same point score as the open category, precisely because the child must visit every control. A girlfriend or wife is not going to learn navigation and be empowered if she is "dropped off" at the trail while her partner punches the control. If a person is not prepared to scramble down a cliff to a control, the team does not punch that control, unless they find a way to get to it together.

Apart from the moral objection to cheating, there is also a safety issue - if one person became injured while the team is separated, they may have trouble finding each other.

I believe that the solution to this problem is two-fold:

• any team, which sees another team cheating, should remind them of the rules on the spot (please don't leave it to me - I can't patrol everyone!). If someone thinks you are cheating and you are not, but your partner is out of sight, don't be offended at the accusation.

• organisers should be prepared to disqualify a team which is reported by several other teams as having cheated. I realise that this is harsh, but they certainly wouldn't do it again.

The setters can also assist by setting a course in which most route choices will take people past a control, continuing from there, rather than short "there and back" sections to punch controls. Obviously, this is not always possible, but it can be kept in mind. I am not a great rogainer, but I love this unique sport and I think that those who chose to participate should do so within the rules, or find another sport (orienteering?).

Madeleine Schultz