Sydney Summer Series

CURRIES PUT CHUTNEY IN PUTNEY PUFF

Summer Series punters enjoyed a great evening last night, as young Duncan and dad Colin put on a pearler of close to perfect proportions at Kissing Point Bay. With the weather rather kinder than the week prior, Dunk invoked the 'portrait' format of the big Kiss, and waited for the hill climbers to arrive. And arrive they did - by the bus load! With the Knox kids in early, and the Paddy Pallin promotional magnet working, it seemed like our biggest outing so far this season. Such was the throng at this idyllic spot, that the 230 pre printed maps were all gone at 6pm and later starters waited on a bit of map recycling before working the string - and the thighs. Fantastic stuff.

As well as a bit of the old 'upsey, upsey', Duncan had included the nice riverside stuff, and worked a cunning middle grouping that had many old hands lingering in their auto's with puzzled brows as they tried to work the contour/points equation. The climb proved to be needed if you wanted to score, so many included the 19,30,14,20 flog before descending to the more agreeable middle and river pots. The guns also did battle with the blackberry in the 6,22,18 loop in an up/down, up/down dance that saw them on the Victoria Road sniff twice. Talk about energetic!

Those eschewing the brown lines, saw salvation in a cunning route back from 11,21 to 23, and then via 9,15,17,5,26,13 before toying with a touch of 30 point in-out work. The run home from the north and west was a beauty with soft grass and views galore along the riverside. And how many misread #28 as being a mere sweep-by pot, only to run the 100 k's each way to the end of the wharf! Well it felt that way to the old Porkie.

Although many initially ran south to the Punt, and it's 40 points, most saw this as a distraction and flew off to 16 and a bit of asphalt athletics. I think if #2 had been a twenty pointer, the balance would have changed. But all in all, a terrific course with much to puzzle over, and many options. As a testimony, Glenn once more put the yellow tee through the ringer with a perfect run for the lot in 45.20 (and 580 points, the top score on the night). He worked the Punt before the eastern pots, climbed to 14, descended to 25 and 5, climbed back to 6 etc before a great middle loop (1,13,17,23,9,15,24,25) and the dash home. The 'Lending Library' had too much for his MM peers and even the Open stallions (no doubt exhausted after performing on Melbourne Cup day), with Dave 'Topiary' Hegarty and Adrian 'Flat' White closest on 560. Stevie 'Niks' Ryan was half a head back with 550.

Looking again at the portrait, I'd have to give the lonely pot award to #1 - probably sitting out the dance by quite a wide margin. Checking the contours in this vicinity, it's no wonder most runners brutalised #25 from below and gave numero uno the flick. Nothing else seemed to lack friends and visitors, with runners literally everywhere - and approaching checkpoints from all directions. Excellent indeed.

Before looking at a few scores, I should reiterate that these musings are very much 'unofficial' scores and may not be as finally posted. They give a good picture of proceedings I hope. There is the odd howler, like last nights Super Vet Men having an attack of the vapours when Steve Holloway was posted with a sensational 470 points - but were collectively restored when a 210 amendment was pencilled. So, what else do we see?

Lisa Grant put up a fantastic 510 in OW, forty on from competitor Gill Fowler and well clear of other women competitors in all classes. The only other 500's I saw were Pete Annetts with 510 in the Masters and a couple of 500 scores in the OM group (Simon Williams and Tommy 'The' Joss 'Stick'). Cath 'Earthquake' Chalmers looked good with 460 in MW to stay level pegging with several of her MM counterparts. Kar-Soon, Chris 'Night' Frain 'To Budapest' come to mind, with Michael Free and The Tax Review a tad looser at 450. Richard Green and Gray McLeod carded 480's, as did Pete 'The' Fallows 'Field'.

Some of the Vets put on a show in the high fours, with Wendy 'I Love Blackberries' Stevo (480) and Graeme 'This Is Sydney Tower' Dawson carding 460. The Supers were down a bit, with Steve Flick, James 'Volvo' Lithgow and Ian 'Breathe Normally' Cameron clocking 440's, Neil in the brown and yellow 430, and some honest work in the Singapore singlet by Paul 'The Gardner' Prudhoe for 380. Dave Bowerman 'Kind' got 360, while Terry gave Steve Dunlop 320 days in the slammer for being noisy in court. Good runs from these stalwarts of the series.

Robin Cameron (VW) put up 410 to stay clear of Karin Hefftner (360) and Debbie 'King' Byers (300), whilst Bryony punted another banana through the big sticks in the LW for 310 to shade Ange (300) and Janet Morris's modest 200. That is four from four for the GO star, and a great start to her 10/11 season. At the other end of the ages, Michele 'Copter' Dawson had ten from Rachel Noble (410/400), with both putting on a terrific battle in the Juniors. The young blokes didn't seem to catch the Porkster's eye, except for a great run from Matty 'Shampoo Then Conditioner' Hill - noted as 490. Jeez... 490!!! Crikey, I think I'll cut out that article about arthritis and have show it to a few of my mates. Or maybe just reach for a Reschs.

There are a few other scores that seemed to appear on my note pad. How about Mel Selby running straight past #7 but still managing 430, the same as Claire 'I Like To' Winnick. 'Our' Tracy Marsh ran up 390, as did Carolyn 'With Water' Haupt - ahead of Shazzo Lambert's 360 and another tidy outing from Nerise McQuillan (280). Janet 'The Putter' Eagle and Linda 'I Need A' Sesta worked 300 into the cup (both MW), as did last weeks setter Peter Hibberd - this time running with daughter Natalie in tow. And good to see a new SSS runner up from Tuckonie Orienteers in Victoria, Lisa Linssen timing her run nicely to finish in 45.20.

Ian 'The Turin' Froude piled on 370 in VM to claim from Rod 'Gold Coast' Parkin and Stuart McWilliam on 330 each. Mal Gledhill took home 330 also in the Legends, but didn't, unfortunately, take home the lollies. These seemed to have gone to Heiko and Chippy who both pulled off very strong 400's. Ron might have been thereabouts also, and all were out from Teddy's 360. The man in the suede shoes is just getting fired up though, and will improve with a firmer track. Ken 'Zo' Jacobson was well attired for 370 (as all good Legends should be) and had a bit too much for Timmy Cox (330) and Barry 'The Prime Minister' Cole (200). Viv and Robyn pulled on an early walk for 210, Jai Di Tom Tom navigated a tidy 300, and Ant 'Eric' Burnett plundered 460 - such is the range and quality of the Summer Series earnings profile. Sydney is in love with Wednesday evenings - you betcha!

Ooh. One last classic. Ian Miller reports to being 'embraced' by two (!) women on the wharf as he ran out to #28. Or maybe it was Ian who did the embracing? Now I know the wind there was bracing, but.... !!

I should also mention a couple more things.

Firstly, runners who surrendered their maps last night (grateful thanks) can print off a new copy from the Garingal web site - where a copy of the course is to be found on the 'recent results' page link (www.garingal.com.au). We will also have some there next week. Secondly, many would have heard about the Sportident electronic punching (scoring) system used in orienteering and the Sydney Sprint Series. We are going to try this with the Summer Series at a few selected events to help speed up results processing with the first outing at event 10 on December 8 at Lindfield. A flyer giving details will be posted to the Summer Series web site and you expect to hear more at coming events.

Also worth a plug is our 20th anniversary event in two weeks at Balls head. Expect something BIG and something NEW at this old and fantastic venue. But before that, we move on to event five over at Callan Park, with Dave 'The Mo' McKenna in charge. This is always a great venue, and will also be another Paddy Pallin promo evening. Bring Grandpa, bring Uncle Dave - even bring cousin Eileen who won the egg and spoon at Normanhurst West School in '62. It will be another SSS cracker.