Everlasting Rogaine: Western Australia

WRC1996: 2nd World Rogaining Championship


After three years of planning it finally came the weekend for the Fruit n Veg 2nd World Rogaining Championships.

Nearly 700 people entered the Rogaine and dispite blisters and sore feet I think that everyone enjoyed the Everlasting Rogaine. The weather was good for Rogaining with clear skys for most of the night and maximum day time temperatures around 20 deg C. Even a shower just after the start did not dampen the enthausiasm too much.

WRC 1996 Winners

The rain over the weeks leading up to the event was enough to cause the tracks to the planned Hash House site to be too soft to get all the vehicles in, so the Hash House was moved some eight kilometres NW. This, for the top teams, made the route planning more difficult than with the original Hash House site. For the more recreational teams, the planned concentration of controls close to the Hash House were no longer available and the scores were low.

Nearly half the teams set off, through the carpet of wildflowers that surrounded the Hash House, to climb directly up Mt. Singleton, 350m above the start. A heavy shower of rain made the steep rocks slippery and the views were all lost in the mist.

Many teams regreted this choice as they used too much energy climbing to the summit and the rugged slopes that were crossed to descend to the controls on the far side were slow going.

Later in the night there were three hours between sunset and moon rise and quite a few teams found themselves in difficult terrain and decided to make the long walk back the the Hash House for very few points. The teams that had missed Mt. Singleton at the begining of the course were able to reach some of the easier controls at the SW end of the map as the darkness arrived.

When dawn arrived most of the fancied teams were still out on the course. There was little opportunity for teams to plan a competitive route that included a stop at the Hash House. At the finish only a couple of teams were late but many of the best arrived within the last ten minutes.


Placings

Categories

M: Men
W: Women
X: Mixed 
J: Junior (less than 18)
V: Vet (40 and over)
R: Super Vet (55 and over)

The section place getters and the top ten teams were:

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Place       Cat   Score       Who & Where from
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1st     1st MO          2980    David Rowlands, James Russell (VIC)
2nd     2nd MO          2810    Allan Stradeski, Peter Mair (Canada)
3rd     3rd MO  1st MV  2770    Geoff Lawford (ACT), Rod Gray (QLD)
4th                     2760    Andrew McComb, Peter McComb (SA)
5th             2nd MV  2730    Peter Merrotsy, Richard Robinson (QLD)
6th                     2680    Iiro Kakko, Ossi Autio (Finland)
7th             3rd MV  2510    Liegh Privett, Rob Taylor (VIC)
8th                     2490    Peter Taylor (SA), Geoff Mercer (ACT)
9th                     2380    Chip Lundstrom, Martin McNiff (WA)
10th    1st XO          2370    David Ellis, John Nitschke, Vanessa Walker (SA)

16th    2nd XO          2300    Gary Carroll, Dianne Challen, John Tonai-Moore (WA)
20th    3rd XO          2230    Simon George, Joanna Parr (NSW)
21st            1st XV  2200    Ian Maley, Peta Kelsy (WA)
22nd    1st WO          2190    Christine O'Keefe, Jenny Casonova (SA)
25th            2nd XV  2120    Phil Dufty, Penny Dufty (WA)
28th            3rd XV  2010    Bob Northey, Lesley Northey (VIC)
31st    2nd WO  1st WV  1990    Bev Lockley, Patty Nathan (WA)
36th            1st MSV 1960    Gordon Birch, John Supanz (WA)
40th    3rd WO          1900    Cora Wolswinkel, Kate Hodge (VIC)
60th            1st MJ  1600    Andrew Jenkins, Daniel Towers (WA)
67th            2nd MJ  1520    Russell Honeybun, Henry Wong, David Murray (WA)
86th            2nd MSV 1200    Dick Mountstevens, Ian Rannard (NSW)
95th            3rd MJ  1220    David Elderfield, Ryan Lamp (WA)
97th            1st WJ  1200    Cassandra Wade, Josephine Lockley, Breanne English (WA)
98th            1st XSV 1190    Marjo Hill, Ian Chambers (VIC)
111th           3rd MSV 1050    Barrie Thompsett, Robert Fergie (WA)
117th           2nd WJ  1010    Theresa Klass, Elizabeth McCutcheon, Jemina Toia (WA)
123rd           2nd XSV 980     Peter Hamilton, Kathy Hamilton (WA)
136th           2nd WV  820     Theresa Howe, Lois West (WA)
140th           3rd XSV 800     John Kirke, Lorraine Kirke, Dan Hugo, Heather Hugo (WA)
141st           3rd WV  800     Kristiane Herrmann (ACT), Kathy Herrmann (NSW)
208th           3rd WJ  460     Jackie Porter, Lauree Hastie (WA)
233rd           1st WSV 380     Joyce Pitfield, Patsy Roche (WA)
260th           2nd WSV 160     Jo Hiller, Beryl Walter (WA)

Many thank you messages are needed to congratulate all the efforts that went to make the event a success and I would particularly like to record my thanks to:

The station owners Don and Leah Bell who helped from the very first visit to the station when they drove me around and proudly showed off their home, to the event days when they drove out on motorbikes to parts of the map that we could not reach to help put out controls and water drops.

The sponsors, Healthway, Wilderness Equipment and ARA who provide financial support for the event keeping the costs down to normal rogaine levels when the expenses were higher than normal.

The donors of spot prizes; Wilderness Equipment, MacPac, Big Country and Ultimate Direction. The tremendous support of these outdoor manufacturers and shops was much appreciated by the lucky winners.

Henning Lenz, the Western Australian Orienteering Association and the Scout movement who loaned extra Hash House equipment

Of the many people in WARA that put in many hours to make it all work so well I would like to highlight:

The WRC committee

Bryan Hardy and Andrew Thomas; the setters
Jane Robley; Treasurer, Bus Co-ordinator and Event Administrator.
Maggie Jones; Event Secretary
Gary Carrol; Communications and Event Booklet
Nicole Davis; Event Entry Form and Social

Other Key workers

Craig Dufty; my co-vetter
Lois Allen and Yvonne Smith; Hash House Organisers
Vince Harding; WARA President and Truck Driver
Warren Smith; WARA Volunteer Co-ordinator and Flag Man!
Ken Martin; Truck Driver
Alastair Honeybun; World Wide Web Site
Adrian Day; Cartographer
David Stephens; Press coverage

Also many thanks to all the other people who worked on Admin and Hash House over the weekend as well as the Dunny Diggers, Control Collectors, Truck Loaders and general clearing up that everyone lent a hand with.

Last but not least the rogainers - who came and said nice things at the end when they were tired and really were not sure after 24 hours of stumbling over rocks, fighting off the wild emus, getting stuck in endless spider's webs and marvelling at the display of wildflowers if rogaining really is FUN.

Yes it is - see you in Kamloops
Richard Matthews, Organiser