VETERAN WORLD CUP
1992 Veteran World Cup 30th Anniversary WARWICK MOORE (OTAS)
In 1992 the VWC attracted close to 2000 visitors to Tasmania, including almost 1700 competitors, and at the time was the largest sporting event held in Tasmania. Hopefully, many readers will have fond memories of the event.
The VWC was opened by the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Philip Bennett, at a large ceremony at the recreation ground that included the entry of competitors from each of the 26 countries represented, accompanied by their national flags. The flags were raised and then transferred to the foreshore park in St Helens for the duration of the championships. The Opening ceremony was followed by an Australiana Festival with a welcome by the Imbala Aboriginal Dance group and demonstrations of local crafts, such as wood chopping, craypot weaving, and sheep dogs trials.
The St Helens community was a huge help to the organising team and set up a committee of locals that assisted in many ways, including running the social events (the Beef Roast, Aussie BBQ, and Fish Feast) as well as providing food services at the competition venues. Many residents of the town took in guests or vacated their houses for the week to allow them to be hired by the visiting competitors.
The Programme cover
T
his year is the 30th anniversary of the Veteran World Cup (now the World Masters Orienteering Championships) that was held in Tasmania in January 1992. To celebrate the anniversary, Tasmanian orienteers gathered in St Helens for the usual March long weekend competition, this time to re-run some of the courses that were used for the VWC Final on the Golden Fleece map, as well as some of the courses on the Littlechild’s Creek map that was used for the associated Forestry Commission Classic. The original course planners for the two events, Mike Morffew and Christine Brown, set the courses again. Once again the terrain and courses proved to be just as challenging today as they were 30 years ago!
Changes to the maps have been minimal since 1992 but there were some compromises to the original courses due to thicker vegetation and because the original 26 courses had to be reduced to 8 to cater for our local competition. 32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2022
At this year’s March long weekend, following the Orienteering Tasmania AGM, Event Director, John Brock, arranged for a display of memorabilia, including many of the original maps, the programme and results booklets, the promotional material that was used and a collection of photographs. VWC Director of Mapping, Mike Morffew, brought along the original working drawings of the Golden Fleece map that he produced and that is still in use today. Director of Publicity and Promotion, Valerie Brammall, provided a folder of
