Despite forecast showers, the weather was perfect for the first Sunday Special of the series – slightly overcast with the sun breaking out later in the afternoon. We set a hageby course on a brand new map (thanks to Adam Scammell from the ARDF group for producing this one!), providing two standard orienteering legs, one 2m Fox-Oring legs and one 80m ARDF. The orienteering legs, in particular, were designed for beginning orienteers, and this allowed the Thomas family kids to successfully navigate around the first orienteering leg without their dad’s help – well done, guys! Both kids and dad then successfully completed their Fox-Oring leg, their first foray into RadiO sport despite a long interest. It was great to see them enjoy themselves.
We had an exceptional turnout today – 37 people went out with control cards, and some of those were families. This was great to see, because the ARDF events often do not attract a large following. While some of the non-ARDF members enjoyed a normal orienteering run on our new map, several other brave souls forayed into the brand new world of RadiO orienteering, with great success! We’d like to mention in particular Steve Peacock and Jeff Hughes, who completed both Fox-Oring and ARDF legs! An excellent first attempt, and we look forward to seeing you again at future events. Bernie Shuttleworth also gave RadiO orienteering a go, completing an entire Fox-Oring leg as well as finding a couple of ARDF transmitters. Excellent effort, Bernie. And welcome back to Jun and Miki Okabe, as well, who ran both orienteering legs as well as completing a Fox-Oring course. Good to see you back out there. Also well done to the Diggins family, who successfully dealt with the ARDF leg despite an intensive workout earlier in the day at footy. Finally, a special mention to Chris from the Newbury Navigators, who joined us for a pleasant stroll around the lake. We hope you enjoyed yourself, Chris!
Congratulations to Bruce for completing the entire four-loop course in 1:10:13. This was closely followed by Gary and Darian, with 1:13:26 and 1:15:35. A special mention also to Denise and Peter, who despite completing their two orienteering legs in different order, both finished within 3 seconds of each other. (Well done, Denise; you pipped him at the post!) We always like a sprint finish.
Thanks to everyone for joining us out there today. Hope you had a good time, and hope to see you at more RadiO events later in the year. Results are below (and Simon Rouse, if you read this, you snuck in without us recording a finish time – if you recall what time you got in, please contact us.)
| Competitor | O1 | O2 | FoxOr | ARDF | Legs | Time |
| Bruce Paterson | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:10:13 |
| Gary Panter | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:13:26 |
| Darian Panter | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:15:35 |
| Ewen Templeton | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:23:37 |
| Ian Dodd | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:28:22 |
| Geoff Hudson | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:50:47 |
| Kristian Ruuska & Orry Thomas | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:53:35 |
| Mark Besley | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1:55:04 |
| Steve Peacock | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2:01:30 |
| Ryordan Panter | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2:03:55 |
| Jeff Hughes | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2:11:25 |
| Pam King | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2:23:08 |
| Henk de Jong | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2:44:50 |
| Greg Tamblyn | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1:43:00 |
| Mike Hubbert | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 2:26:30 |
| Bernie Shuttleworth | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 2:25:45 |
| Dianne Shalders | 7 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1:59:52 |
| Mark Jarvis | 7 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1:36:10 |
| Tim Hatley | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0:44:14 |
| Peter Dalwood | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1:06:30 |
| Miki and Jun Okabe | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1:30:55 |
| Ian Stirling | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1:14:16 |
| David Beard | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1:40:26 |
| Greg Williams | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1:53:42 |
| Suzanne O’Callaghan | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1:35:20 |
| Denise Pike | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0:30:43 |
| Peter Grover | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0:30:46 |
| Rosie Salvaris | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0:43:47 |
| Ian Baker | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0:45:02 |
| Schon Hudson | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1:07:27 |
| Simon Rouse | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ?? |
| Diggins family | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0:35:19 |
| Thomas family | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1:06:45 |
| Jacinta, Renee & Nathan Thomas | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0:30:00 |
| Wally and Caroline Cavill | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0:33:50 |
| Newbury Navigators | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0:40:15 |
Click here for a spreadsheet with individual leg times.