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1992 VETERAN WORLD CUP
30th Anniversary
WARWICK MOORE (OTAS)
The Programme cover
This 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. 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. 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
The late John Brammall and John Brock with promotional materials, including the red Devil’s hats that were a hit with the Scandinavian visitors. Christine Marshall (Technical Director) and Mike Dowling (Course Setter). Mike Morffew, Director of Mapping and Course Setter VWC Final Race.
photographs and a folder of media releases and stories that had been published in the Tasmanian newspapers. Warwick Moore, who was President back in 1992, and a member of the organising committee, prepared a brief PowerPoint presentation and led a panel discussion reflecting on the significance of the event. Members of the original organising committee were present and commented on the slides and talked about their experiences, highlighting the differences in event organisation between today and 30 years ago. Many of the audience were amazed at how we were able to organise and conduct such a massive event before the days of online entry, the internet, and computer results processing. John Brock talked about the origin of the idea to apply for the VWC, how he was told that it would never happen, and described the associated marketing trips to Europe. Mike Morffew described the non-digital process of mapping, including field-working, cartography and the offset map printing, which he managed. It was a huge task to prepare the map, do the cartography, set the courses, supervise the printing process and turn out a masterpiece. Christine Marshall talked about the use of control cards (before the days of e-sticks and electronic punching). Her team had to check and verify every one of the 128,000 punch marks on the control cards before results could be published. The carnival was one of the first in the world to use computer technology extensively, with special software developed by our own orienteers. Many evenings after work were spent entering all the entry data into the computer system that was used to generate start lists, registration and merchandise lists and accounts, and to produce results lists for award ceremonies and for publication in the media. Valerie Brammall, Promotion and Publicity Manager, was successful in attracting unprecedented publicity for the event. The Examiner newspaper sent a reporter and photographer to cover the event. They provided extensive coverage and regular media reports. One of the significant issues that arose at the carnival was the unseasonal rain that led to the flooding of Littlechild’s Creek. The crossing points became uncrossable. Local Forestry Commission and Parks and Wildlife workers came to the rescue, felling trees across the creek and converting them into bridges. This work necessitated a change in the order of the events and the communicating of this information to the competitors, who had been accommodated all along Tasmania’s East Coast and as far away as Launceston. Remember that this was before the internet, Facebook and the like! There was no facility for online results available in those days. Results had to be published in a booklet that had to be distributed to the competitors from around the world. The booklets were large and heavy and expensive to post from Australia. Event Director, John Brock, eventually determined that the most efficient and cheapest way to distribute the results was to fly to Heathrow, with the results booklets as luggage, and to post them in the local post office before flying back to Tasmania!
At the conclusion of the event, feedback from the competitors and the tour groups was very positive. One tour group made a substantial donation to Orienteering Tasmania for junior development. Under Executive Officer, John Brammall’s management the carnival organising team took on a highly businesslike holistic approach that involved government, media, provision of accommodation for tour groups, and the local school, the local community, as well as the normal event organisation. This very professional approach led to Orienteering Tasmania winning the Australian Marketing Institute Excellence in Marketing Award and the Tasmanian Tourism Award for Major Festivals and Special Events. The influx of so many orienteers during the Veterans World Cup was appreciated by the local people - the postmaster at Bicheno sold over $700 worth of stamps in one day for mail to go to Sweden, and Coles Bay residents who sold refreshments during the second qualifier raised $500 for their volunteer ambulance and fire services. One local wrote to the organisers to say how amazed and pleased they were by the absence of litter on the site the following day. (Note the photographs are scanned from photos taken by the media and from other sources at the time.)
Many of the organising team and officials on stage at the Closing Ceremony. Left to Right: Steve Bittinger and Rod Bilson (Entries, Computers and results), Mike Dowling (Course Setter and mapping), Sue Hancock (Course Vetter), Christine Brown (Course Setter), Mike Morffew (Director of Mapping), Andrew Stocks (Course Vetter), Valerie Brammall (Promotion and Publicity), Christine Marshall (Technical Director), John Brammall (Executive Officer) and John Brock (Director.
Bertil Nordenfelt, the oldest competitor (Sweden; Class M-85) was a hit amongst the media and fellow competitors.
