Club Minor Singles: T. Hogan def G. Hull. G. Smith def I. Plater

Social Bowls: J. Robbins, J. Edwards & V. Burkinshaw def S. Davidson, I. Crouch & F. Mahon. N. Gay & J. Chappelow def A. Purcell & J. Mitchell.

Fine, sunny and a little cool weather with the occasional wind played havoc with targets for May’s monthly shoot. A fantastic turnout with at least 61 shooters registered on the day; 12 squads, which is the most the club has seen in memory. Great also to see the number of juniors increasing. 

Range setters were out early and set up a varied and challenging range. Unfortunately, there were problems with the odd trap, but persistence and patience by committee members managed to get the traps sorted out and the shoot back on track. 

Good to see shooters from as far away as Bairnsdale, Deniliquin, Albury and Griffith. Thanks to those shooters for making the effort to travel, the club really appreciates it.

Winners for the day

Congratulations to all the winners. Next month’s shoot is over the Queen’s Birthday weekend on Saturday, June 9 starting at midday. Range setters are Bruce Irvine, Lisa Riley, Darren Inglis & Gary Brill. Setup will kick off about 9am. If any member has any spare time, feel free to come and give a hand to set and pack up, all help is much appreciated. See you next month.

At Lockhart on Saturday, Explorers had a 500-yard shoot. The wind was mostly from the SE and fairly consistent at around 4-10mph.  Great shooting conditions, with a readable wind for a change.

John and Rob had great second stages. Scott almost got a double possible but dropped one point on the first stage. Graham and David did an extra stage for practice, with Graham putting in a possible on his third stage.

This shoot was for the John Westblade trophy.  This is for the highest score off rifle in target rifle and was won by Scott.

After the shoot we lit our fire for the first time this year and thoughts started turning to our prize meeting in August.

Next weekend will be 600 yards. It is the long weekend so the shoot will go ahead if there are enough numbers. Please call Graham to advise if you are going to be there.

Results:

Major Pairs Championship quarter finals: Christian Morgan, Zac Gabrielsen  def Rob Marshall, Dane Bland 16/9; Pedro Rudd, John Hetherington def Kevin Cheney, Ken Chalker 23/14. Wednesday blind draw winners: John Hetherington. Wayne Smithers 20 points; runners-up John Ashcroft, Jeff Post, Peter Wild 19 points; 3rd place Barry Belt, Jim Brown, Keith Browne 18 points. Friday nominated Pairs  winners: Andrew Carey, Kevin Wales 22 points; runners-up Mark Pearce, Bernie Benson 21 points; 3rd place Noel Comerford, Dennis Rawlings 20 points. Saturday blind draw winners: Gary Brookes, Max Simmons 18 points; runners-up Paul Wilson, Rod Cramp, Peter Wild 16 points. Sunday Mixed mufti blind draw winners: Col Smith, Bob Connors, Alice Bower 20 points; runners-up Owen Cotterill, Grace Smith, Joy Robbins 16 points.                                                   

Nominations for Minor Pairs Championship close July 2 with first round to be played July 14. Nomination sheet on board for the annual Knights Meats Versatility 5's Tournament on Sunday, June 24 with prizemoney of $1750. Format is fours, triples and pairs 21 ends and singles to 31 shots up with the first 14 teams entered going into the draw.

Coming Events

The weather has been good for riding with nice clear days, but the temperature has been a little on the cool side and unfortunately last Wednesday the weather was everything. Cold overcast and wet.  So our heroes holed up in the back room at Billy’s and rode the tracks of memory over a couple of coffees.

On Saturday, about 12 venture out for the morning chit chat at Billy’s and sat out in the sun with a breeze coming straight from the southern ice cap.  However, most were suitably attired and enjoyed the usual banter and expert advice from our resident experts.

A small contingent of four headed out from Wagga on Sunday and had morning tea at Barney’s in Rosewood after passing through Tarcutta and Humula. From there they took the link road across to Wondalga and motored up to Tumut for lunch at the ‘Pie in the Sky’. Following lunch they took the road to Brungle then across to Gundagai, and after a brief stop there  took the river road back to Wagga through Nangus and Wantabadgery. They clocked up about 350km for the day and as Ian told me the temperature is getting very low up in them-thar-hills.

Our next ride will be on Sunday, June 17 to a destination to be advised and our next branch meeting will be on June 19 at the Radio Club Rooms in Small Street.  Meeting starts at 7.30 and provided there is no trivial agenda that may pop up the meeting is normally over by about 8am to 8.15pm and then supper is provided for $2 a pop, a raffle is run, much talking takes place, the world is saved and we all go home.

If you would like to join the Ulysses Club give our branch secretary Mary a call on 0423 586 196 and she will steer you in the right direction, or if you go to the club’s web page www.ulyssesclub.org you will find a wealth of information.

The Ulysses Club was formed for motorcyclists aged 40 years and older at the instigation of Stephen Dearnley in Sydney, Australia in December 1983 in reply to a letter in the now defunct Bike Australia magazine, the editor being Peter “The Bear” Thoeming. The name Ulysses Club was the idea of Rob Hall, while the club's motto of “Grow Old Disgracefully” was devised by his then-girlfriend Pat Lynch. Peter “The Bear” Thoeming sketched the “old man” logo that is still used by the club in its original hand-sketched form. The inaugural meeting of the club was held in Sydney on December 6, 1983 when the five people present approved a draft constitution and the Ulysses Club was duly formed. From this meeting a draft constitution was adopted, and the three basic principles or purposes of the club were formulated. These principles are:

Ride safe and make sure you have good tires for wet roads in case we get some rain.

WaggaRoos strong turnout resulted in a convincing 78:17 point win in interclub event 3 against Albury last Sunday.

In the interclub orienteering challenge points are awarded for completing the course and bonus points are awarded to placegetters in each course.

Conducted at Connorton just south of Wagga, the forest varied in visibility and runnability within relatively short distances making it difficult to a reasonable running rhythm and disrupting navigability.

Participants had to think hard about how to avoid the steeper climbs and the more difficult rocky areas. On occasions the profusion of rock did mean slow going to ensure navigation accuracy.

Albury was well underrepresented having just six of the 29 participants on the day.

All competed in either the 3.9km or 5.8km hard navigation courses.

These courses were composed of legs that either made participants think about route choice options or which major features they needed to as navigation aids. Large boulders and bare rock sheets proved very useful.

WaggaRoos dominated the 3.9km course with six completing the course before the first Albury orienteer finished. Briohny Seaman had a brilliant day slipping around the course in a quick 33 minutes.

Deb Davey made only a few small errors but was still more than eight minutes behind. John Oliver also had a good run from a navigation perspective and was a further four minutes behind.

Although Alex Davey (W) won the 5.8km hard navigation course convincingly Albury did manage to pick up some valuable points.

Matt Flower (A) just managed to edge out Tadeusz Davenport (W) for second spot and Rob Simmons and Wayne Bajenoff finished fourth and fifth finished second to pick up some valuable bonus points.

Wagga juniors Jack Janetski and Cameron McDougall both missed a couple of controls but still managed to finish before Albury’s High Cameron and Bill Krautz. Josh Roy (A) ws the most resilient orienteer on the day.

He missed the second control badly and reputedly explored most of the map before managing to complete the course in just over 2½ hours.

The 2.3km easy course, although easy in navigation, proved to be a physical challenge for some. It required the following of a number of watercourses and paths to find various boulders and creek junctions.

The litter along the watercourses made it a challenge to move quickly. WaggaRoos 11-year-old Tom Janetski scrambled best and finished well ahead of Ryder Seaman and Kath Oliver.

The moderate navigation course proved to be equally challenging physically. It effectively crisscrossed between two long rocky gullies that had patches of cypress pine regrowth along the spur in between. WaggaRoos again dominated.

Bob Moore did well to win in just under the hour. Dale Clegg has returned to the region and celebrated by partnering Maree Wesley and finishing second in just over the hour.

The battle for third place was tight with Dave and Deb Murray just edging out Iona and Brendan Judd.

Event four in the Interclub Challenge will be conducted at Walbundrie on Sunday, June 17.

Results: 5.8km Hard Course: Alex Davey (W) 56.24; Matt Flower (A) 87.03; Tadeusz Davenport (W) 89.01; Rob Simmons (A) 91.14; Wayne Bajenoff (A) 96.13. 3.9km Hard Course: Briohny Seaman (W) 33.14; Debbie Davey (W) 41.30; John Oliver (W) 45.11; Jack Janetski (W) 51.33; Cameron McDougall (W) 76.57; Sean Sunley (W) 78.17; Hugh Cameron (A) 88.13; Angela Farrell (W) 1.57.47; Bill Krautz (A) 2.03.02; Josh Roy (A) 2.38.54. 3.1km Moderate Course: Bob Moore (W) 57.47; Dale Clegg & Maree Wesley (W) 63.30; Dave & Deb Murray (W) 72.56; Iona & Brendan Judd (W) 73.49; Oliver & Carolyn Hatherley (W) 78.08; Joannah McDougall & Mark Jay (W) 88.04. 2.3km Easy Course: Tom Janetski (W) 31.21; Ryder Seaman (W) 47.11; Kath Oliver (W) 66.41.