Sydney Summer Series

Drama (and great running) at Hunts Creek!

Despite another (!) overcast and cool evening, 170 odd punters managed to find steer the Tuza west to Carlingford and the elusive Hunts Creek. Here they found Michael Roylance 'Lot' in charge of his first ever course, and what a ripper it turned out to be. First glance is often rewarding, and this proved to be the case. A tempting spread, tighter than previous outings, but still including the excellent bush/bike tracks and the outlier park to the North for the hill climbers. Larry's 'hand' assessment method of course length gave Michael a ten. There were lots of route options, and the best scorers worked the linkages better than the circle crew - none better than Gordon 'The Blue Engine' in SVM (of which more in a mo).

But firstly, Pork needs to report that Big Foot Generalissimo Andrew Lumsden had a bad fall early on his course, dislocating his shoulder and doing a bit of other damage. Janet Morris gave up her run to go for help, and eventually Andrew was retrieved - and is now hopefully recuperating and ok. A sobering moment for Andy, and a timely reminder for us all to be careful - especially in the bush areas and creeks. Big thanks to Janet, who ended up on the finish desk helping out the remaining 'Feet' crew.

Another very reportable item from last night has to be Garingal President Tony 'The Big Apple' Hill's impersonation of Zola Budd! Tony apparently forgot his running shoes, but, not to be outdone, he took off anyway - completing a very creditable 360 points bare foot! Amazing stuff.

And now to the scoring. Glenn took the lollies with the lot in just under 43 minutes, again piping the excellent 590 point run from Michael 'Nothings' Free (soon Michael, soon!). It seemed that the mastery blokes were the ones with the pedal down last night - Shane Henry 570, Peter Annetts 560 - with no Andrew, Mounty or other OM's on the dias. The Veteran Men also had a ball, with Larry and Melvyn Cox 'Icks' 550 point outings grabbing a hundred points each in the absence of missing superstar, Michael 'Slow Hand' Burton.

Other good scoring was from 'Los Trio Ringbarkas' (Gordon, Graeme and Steve) all liking the sound of 520 points, and from Wendy 'Chicago' Stevenson pulling the same tally in MW - an excellent run from Wendy, and well clear of fellow MW Susan Login '& Tonic' with 480 and Allison Lilley and Karin's 470. In the Junior ranks, Huon Wilson posted an imposing 510, well ahead of swimming star Ben, on 450 points. The Legends also took the eye, with Tim Cox looking good early (420 points and ahead of Mal Gledhill's 400), only to be gathered in on the turn by, first, Ron 'Fire' Junghans (430), and then Tearaway Ted spoiling the party with an excellent 450. And speaking of the Legends, last night saw the welcome return to the series of Barry Cole 'Porter'- one of our great supporters over many years. Baz has been injured but managed to get the walking frame oiled up for a nice and comfortable 140 points to open his account. Ted needs to start worrying!

Also great to see Anne Stewart out again with map in hand in SVW.

Looking at the routes taken, there seemed to be a majority heading east via #1, 10, 14 to the creek, with less going clockwise via #20. Simple looks were common, but as I said earlier, probably not optimal. The puzzle was how to work the big eastern 30 pointers and make 22/23 and the remote 21 chew a bit of graphite. Gordon Wilson ran what is now known as the 'Porpoise with Purpose' - a beautiful curving 'U' shaped course that killed the old Porkster and his simple outer loop. Gordy went east to the high 25/24/16/26 and the looped lower to the creek for 22/7/30/2/19 before once again floating north to 23 and the final fly home via 18/3/21/11/15/20. Brilliant stuff, and an excellent indication of what fun there was to be had at 'The Creek'.

Next week we return south of the harbour/river to Concord, and to the mercy of chief results guru, Dave McKenna. Dave is sure to get the old 'puffometer' working as we charge the harbourside parks, puzzling apartment developments and boardwalks of this great location. Many will remember Dave's excellent run last year on the same map - although this is a new start location. Be there, and bring Granny. Dinner afterwards at the Concord shops is highly recommended.