Big Foot Orienteers

Thanks for coming out to Darks Common today.

Results in all the good places:

AttackPoint (splits) | Winsplits | Eventor | Routegadget | Big Foot archive

Blue Mountains netball sprang a surprise on both us and the council with their Sunday comp, hope that you took the opportunity to enjoy their snags.

Today's event was made possible through a lot of hard work by Miles Ellis, who was planner and organiser wrapped into one and also had to negotiate access permission with a new group - we only got the final go-ahead this week. Eoin Rothery popped in en route to Broken Hill to do some controlling (apparently in a suit). The usual Big Foot rabble helped run the event.

Thanks to the competitor who found an old control out there - it has a flat battery, but once we have replaced that we might be able to figure out which event it was from, if it still works.

Paul Darvodelsky has passed away in Alice Springs. Paul was one of the St Ives High School kids who helped form Big Foot Orienteers over 30 years ago.

Paul and his cohort produced Big Foot's first orienteering maps, chose the club's name and colours and, as importantly, set a course of irreverant competitiveness that is still at the heart of what we are about as a club. Paul's approach to orienteering in those years is exemplified by his map of a massive section of forest on the Jenolan Caves Road which was named Billenbenbong and had a lurid pink infill.

Jo Parr went back-to-back winning another wooden spoon to join her 2017 spoon. 2016 runner-up Tracy Marsh got the crumbs despite starting so late that her entry had to use a munching start. Jo confirmed that her kitchen is currently being rebuilt completely to feature a trophy cabinet as the wins pile up.

Michael Roylance has succeeded Andy Simpson as El Presidente of Big Foot in a peaceful transition. In his new role as Absolute Tyrant we can look forward to the e-bike class at MTBO going on to better things, together with a division for killer robots in Metro League.

Formerly president of Mountain Devils 2nd in their final year, Michael will bring his can-do mentality and enthusiasm to a role where his predecessor seemed to have run out of both.

Alastair George finished 3rd in a hot field in M20E to get a place on the Junior World Champs team. After 4 days of competition, Ali was less than 3 minutes down on class favourite Aston Key.

Other Big Feet who snatched a place on the podium and received one of the troublesome towels were:

Lucy Mackie added to her silverware collection at the weekend despite being unable to compete as she recovers from pre-season surgery. Orienteering Australia named Lucy as the athlete of the year following her silver-medal winning performance at the Junior World MTBO champs in 2017.

Yay for Lucy, who has been having some surgery to repair damage done to her shoulder through too many podium hugs, such as this disturbing incident at the end of the World MTBO champs: