Friday, December 5, 2008

Major roll up at Majors Bay

A warm evening (for a change!) saw around 200 punters slip on the volleys as they fronted Dave McKenna's excellent offering at Yaralla last Wednesday evening. Last year 'results guru' Dave had us on the jog from Cabarita Park stretching west to Yaralla, but this time he fell under the spell of Concord Hospital and had the mob heading north (to Alaska) leaving the 'Cab' and its rapidly developing apartment mazes for next season.

It's been a few years since we have circled the bays here, and those that thought they had seen it all were found wanting in this deceptively challenging course. First glance looked an easy 45 the lot, perhaps forgetting that we were in 1:10,000 scale territory, and maybe forgetting the thinking time needed at the Hospital. Anyway, what looked a runner proved to be a tough cookie, with Andrew 'Cardiff Here I Come' Hill falling short by just over four minutes for the lot, and 550 points. The cruel 'flog' by master torturer McKenna to checkpoints #6, 26 and 16 bringing the fast men undone.

Looking at strategies, most runners seemed content to begin north to the Yaralla and Concord points before giving way to a long run home on the road via #9 - more than two thirds seemed to begin this way, and were rewarded with good scoring. A bolder plan was to begin south via #30 and then sweep the west and north points before the 'brassiere' run home - ignoring the danger of #5 and spending lots of time in deciding when to pull out of the northern temptations (19,8,12 or the bolder 19,23,15,12). Ten and 29 was only for the premium fuel brigade.

Everyone enjoyed the cunning stuff in the Hospital itself, thankfully well mapped and rewarding to those orienteers who could read this beautiful work on the fly. South from #22 to #20 for instance was great stuff, demanding concentration all the way - even to the actual control path and its false neighbour. This area would be great for a 1:5,000 sprint course.

As I said, some great scoring. Beside Andy, a trio of 'open' 530's were noted - Kar-Soon, Mark Schaefer and Adrian White. Down an age group, Peter 'Paul & Mary' Annetts pulled off 510, and Andy Graham '& Eggs' and Mike Wainwright 'Or Left' tickled 500 with the HB - all excellent runs. The Bendy Bus was not far adrift with a brilliant 490, a nose from an even more impressive 480 from junior speedster Jessica 'Thunderbolt' Campbell. What a score!

In the older classes, Barry 'The Coal Miners Daughter' Cole snuck up a couple with 180, but gave the nod to Tim Cox with an excellent 340 rails run. Tearaway Ted and Ron ran in late and missed the Porky 's pencil (but probably scored well). Dale 'Carnegie' Thompson once again pulled the points with a well oiled 310 in SVW but will give her class mates a go as she tries the damp tracks in Europe for the next five weeks or so.

All in all, a great evening. Good course, well set, and enjoyable running with plenty for the 'grass men' (that's you DL). Good to see the numbers building back to previous expectations, as the crowd yells 'show us a fine day Sydney!'.

Next week we move across the water to Putney and rogaining champion Ian Cameron's much anticipated event at Morrisons Bay. This area features plenty of delectable riverside running and lots of nice parks (ok and a few streets). The question is will Ian give us the uphill stuff to the pool, or stretch the carry on to the east and west. Find out more as you join Pork Pie and thousands of other mad SSS maniacs in running event #10 in the series of the century (bets on Barry Cole hitting 200 are attracting serious money - better get in quick!).

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