Luna-r Park (just for fun)

And fun it was. Against a spectacular Sydney city backdrop, Bryony and Tim Cox put on a cracking winter solstice event last night at Kirribilli. This special mid winter treat for those summer series addicts that can barely wait till October, attracted 60 die hards - including the legendary Andrew "Hills Hoist" Hill, and Michael's, Burton "On Trent" and Free "At Last". Also great to welcome back to Sydney running ex Garingal star Mathew Cull.

The course included an innovative 100 point control (which everyone visited), and a tempting extension to the rarely visited Kurraba Point. The course proved challenging, with Andrew running the lot but back 15 late for 550 points. Mathew was close behind - as I'm sure the late running Mike Burton was. Most runners swept east (past the puzzled federal police outside Kirribilli/Admiralty House) to get 26,12,25,8,19 and 24 - and on to points north. 28 was a cracker and worth the out and back. The sculpture control (#27) apparently went missing causing some difficulties in the dark (the ghost of Brett Whiteley!) but everything else seemed to provide lots of rewarding loops. The lonely pot award was probably #9, although the 50 points at Kurraba Point rarely troubled the pencil - sadly.

All in all, a great night. Sydney's lights sparkled, the generator didn't run out of petrol and everyone loved getting the shorts on again. There were lots of requests for 'more please' - with the Moonlight Madness series providing a bridge until the 08/09 summer series kicks off on October 8 -refer to the Garingal website for details of these monthly MM events.

The SSS programme is in final draft and I will post details once finalised. It will be exciting - 26 events and several new and reworked areas will make the wait worthwhile.

In case anyone is out there....

Planning is well underway for the exciting 2008/2009 Sydney Summer Series season with three new areas proposed in addition to many of our favourite venues. With daylight saving now beginning in early October, the entire 26 event season will be in summer time, so all events will begin in the 4-4.30pm window. We are also introducing an event between Christmas and New Year's eve for the first time (Tuesday 30 December) - and at a venue with excellent picnic potential. Something for the whole family.

Things kick off on Wednesday 8 October (probably at McMahons Point) until our final on April 4th. Lots of harbour side, park and bush action as you would expect, including tackling familiar areas from new starting points. Full details should be up on the SSS site by early August.

In the meantime, don't forget Bryony and Tim Cox's Winter Solstice event coming up on Wednesday 18 June at Kirribilli. This mid winter 'summer series' run is for all the SSS addicts who can barely wait for October. Bryony has engineered a great course taking in the highlights and views of Lavender Bay, Luna Park, Kirribilli and Neutral Bay - it should be a corker. Assembly is in the small park at the south end of Broughton Street, Kirribilli overlooking our magnificent city. Starts from 4pm (for the night shy) to six (bring your LED) - don't miss it!

More news as the programme develops.

Out with a bang! Our final Autumn Evening event at Macquarie Uni went off in fine style last night with around 65 punters wrestling with the LED and dodging the strange queue's of commuter traffic.

Course setter Warwick Selby greeted us with an excellent deployment of pots - 80 points in the sports fields, 70 to the close north, 80 to the west and the balance in the Uni itself. Most headed east to the Uni, tempted first by #28, and then ran around in circles as they tried to work a loop to pick up the rest. At 1:10,000 scale, the Uni buildings and pathways are quite hard to decipher, requiring close study as runners ducked first one way and then the other amongst the sculptures, car parks and puzzled students. Despite the challenges, it is glorious running here - especially the feeling of flying past queue's of bus commuters held up by hurtling orienteers.

It appears the northern pots were the least visited, especially the long haul to 18 and 26. In the inner north group, many runners had fun trying to find the elusive alley to #10, discovering many other 'roads' between the units in this vicinity. A rewarding loop to the west (15,2,22,12,20) as a prelude to the Uni work found favour, although correspondent Rosscoe did not enjoy getting stuck on a high fence NE of #20! Generally the running was open and free in the grassy stuff, and fast around the Uni roads as mentioned. A great course with lots of differing routes and results.

Best score on the night went to Glenn 'Dracula' Horrocks who swept the lot in just over 50 minutes! A spectacular run for 540 points, and a clear lead over Nick Earl 'Wood' with 460. Kar-Soon and Peter Annetts are other 400 plus runners (both 430), in front of the two old Amigoe's Ron and yours truly who managed 390 - and a couple of schooners afterwards. Paula 'The Roof Tile' Shingler led the women home with 340, a touch in front of Caitlin 'The Cake Tin' Anderson's 310 points. Great running with many happy campers at the finish.

So this brings us to the end of this night time series. Numbers have been encouraging enough this year and we may well programme a follow up evening series to the 08/09 Summer Series, using close in and runnable venues. The Night Champs is on this Saturday night at Ryde where AE addicts that have not entered the night orienteering courses can have a final Petzel/LED fling. It's a great area with a touch of bush track stuff to keep runners honest, so make it a date.

Given that both series are now over, correspondent Rosscoe (alias Pork Pie) will retire to the front bar and the winter orienteering programme. Details of the wider orienteering events calendar are now linked to this web site (on the programme page) so you can see what's on - and hopefully join in - there are many great and fantastic O events planned in the coming months, both in and out of Sydney.

The 08/09 SSS programme is in early draft form and will be posted to the site around July/August when details are finalised. We commence on Wednesday October 8 and can promise another exciting and challenging series. Can't wait?? Hey, only 22 weeks to go!!

Finally, big thanks to everyone for being part of Australia's greatest city 'navigation on the run' series - you are ALL champions and a pleasure to share Wednesday evenings with. We will return!

I'm ashamed to admit that event four in the fantastic 'Autumn Evening' series went on without me! A combination of some sort of flu/cold and the wet night kept Pork Pie behind the curtains. However, and despite the appalling wet evening, over fifty addicts pulled on the volleys for a shot at Carol's great and challenging course. I have looked at the course and enjoyed the mental challenge of where 'might I have gone'. Much regretful mutterings on my part to have missed such fun.

I gather many enjoyed the bush track challenges, including the mandatory control on the little mangrove spit that juts into the river. Looping the road controls looked tough also, as would have been getting into those maddening bits of yellow in the green! Not sure of scoring, but presume someone bolted home with a goodly bunch. Big thanks to Carol and Ken and the Garingal helpers for putting it on on such a night.

This week sees our last outing, this time under the hand of the 'Running Elvis' - Warwick Selby. Waz should have us weaving and motoring around the Macquarie Uni buildings and parks in fine style, so this is a great one to end the series on. Bring your LED, bring your Petzel - even bring Granny! - but, don't forget to give us hope to keep these events on the radar for next year, by bringing yourself. A big roll up, in what should be a fine evening - at last!!

And don't forget to saddle up on the Saturday night for the night champs at Field of Mars. Details in the AE programme or from Garingal. Also note the link we have added to orienteering website and their programme of events (on the SSS 'programme' page at the top). Much coming up for all those that like map-sports. Be there!

Once again a suspect day gave way to a great evening for a bit of cunning running. Ron Junghans devised a top course at Primrose Park that saw a spread of pots to the east and west, and a little bit south for the hill-climb addicts. After an initial worry about the lighting situation, brilliant flood lights illuminated proceedings and the rain held off. This was much appreciated by the 85 entrants - another healthy turn up that gives us hope of building this series in years to come.

Looking at the map was easy, but which way? tackling #14 to #29 in the daylight is relatively easy, but in the dark this became quite tricky. Still, the western loop (29,11,10,28,12 27 etc - note no visiting #9!) saw many tear off this way. The smart money needed to clear the east, so many avoided the pull up to 13 and 24 - instead settling for the low swoop from 30 to 23 and then the eastern scenic circle. Once again, number 16 didn't have many friends - except a bloke called 'Cliff'!

And how many runners in the dark mistook the creek leading to #15 from above as a track! Several crashing headlamps were seen as other runners witnessed the fun. A great night, ad a top roll up, with some excellent scoring. Richard Green topped out with a fantastic 530 points, followed by Peter Annetts on 510 and Matt Dowle on 490. The girls were led in by a blistering run from Sue Davis (480), a length clear of Wendy the Stovepipe on 440. Correspondent Rosscoe managed 460, although the first half was a daylight/twilight run. Also good to see Jaap Bakker back from injury and travels with a nice stretch for 420 - welcome back JB. All good stuff, so thanks Ron.

This week sees us out west at Boronia Park/Hunters Hill. This area has a nice touch of the mangrove river track/boardwalk stuff - beloved of fast men in Dunlop Volleys. The bush areas also provide a challenge, with relief in the 'normal' street running. So, lots of fun in stall as Carol Jacobson gets the reflectors twirling. Don't miss this opportunity to see more of Sydney by night - and maybe repair to the Woolwich Pier for a pie and peas afterwards. Sounds excellent!

A great location beside the Parramatta River, and a beautiful evening for a run. Ian Cameron put on an excellent course last week that saw the 70/75 competitors get to know the local Putney hills, and then some. Now that daylight saving has gone, this was for the true believers - although a couple of runners got underway before five to beat the dark. Ian deployed across the area, including several stretches up to (almost) Victoria Road. This chug would not have been bad as a steady flog, but the rehab hospital sits on a midway high point, meaning you were up then down and then up again! Great stuff that had the legs screaming.

Corespondent Rosscoe is writing this without the map for reference (age is catching up with me!), so I can't remember the exact pot numbers for commentary purposes. The scoring is another matter. It looked like 'Braddles the Paddles' (aka Malcolm Bradley) topped the table with 490 points, a touch in front of the fast finishing GP Kar-Soon (on 470 points). Peter Annetts enjoyed the mild night for 440, in front of a brace of likely horses on 410 (Sister Wendy, Sue Login and Marie OK/Dokie). Old gelding RB also managed this score after running 440 and three late. A feature of the evening was the number of competitors who 'beat' Michael 'I'm smokin' Burton's modest 240 points. Even though Michael protested that he was just accompanying Connie, we know he was at full stretch and a score is a score!

This Wednesday we move back to Cremorne where Ron 'The Jugular' Junghans has some fun in store at Primrose Park. Word is that Ronnie intends to stretch us both left and right from this harbourside park, and we all know what that means! A bit of the uppity up. Summer Series competitors would have seen the east side with last seasons Willoughby Bay outing, and older hands will know about the Tunks Park bits. Expect an excellent mingling from the vegie man.

Daylight desparates should be ok at five, although the true AE addicts will wait to be underway with the moon and dogs howling. What a way to run past most of Sydney's BMW's! Be there!

The Summer Series might be over, BUT, welcome to the Autumn Evenings!

Last Wednesday opened our account in spectacular fashion at Lavender Bay, where 101 competitors fronted for Rod Eckles great course in this beautiful location. Sydney turned on a treat, with a beautiful afternoon giving way to the bright city lights of a Sydney evening. The early runners enjoyed another daylight outing (courtesy of the later daylight saving change), but we got a fair smattering of LED addicts - dusting off the 'on' button as they charged the steps and alleys of MacMahons Point after dark. We even had a group of late starters who went out without torches - but made a fair fist of night pot proceedings.

Looking at the course, Rod deployed the tough 'multi-step' technique, sending us up and down (and then back up again) several sets of stairs in the dash for cash. Checkpoints 20 and 16 come to mind, and #15 in the east (sixteen was particularly cruel, reducing this old goat to unfamiliar depths of heavy breathing!). These beauties all had the thighs burning although the panoramas from each were worth the effort. The course had a great spread with most runners enjoying both sides of the area and it's spectacular views and pot sites. Classic locations were #18, #30 and #11 on the east and #9 and #30 on the west. My guess for lonely pot probably goes to # 7, although six was out of the 'round the edge' loop, and could have been a bit lonesome.

Great runs from Richard Green with 560 points and Peter Annetts with 520. Peter ran them all except 6,7 and 10 for 49.5". There were many who dropped these three, myself included. Wendy Stevenson and Gill Fowler were on fire for 460 points, a shade in front of elderly dude, Warwick Selby on 450. There were plenty of other good high 400 scores (Matt Dowle for instance with 490). Speaking of scoring, we hope to have the Autumn Evening scores up on the Garingal website (not this one) - probably early in the week following the event. Go to www.garingal.com.au

Round two sees us move west to Kissing Point where course setter emeritus Ian Cameron is at the controls. Ian will no doubt set a beauty at this great riverside location, with plenty of interesting bayside and park running. Remember, it will all be night navigation for the rest of the series, so don't forget the headlamp - and don't forget to come! The SSS may be over, but this is just the same fun with the added night running element. For those that haven't tried it, we attach a reflector to the pots so they can be easily spotted in the torch/lamp beam. As I say, fun, fun fun. Join us!