Sydney Summer Series

Flying at Federation!

A cool evening, a user friendly course, and one of our favourite venues, saw the field fire up as runners filled their shopping baskets with points last night. Course setter Dave McKenna, gave us a nice outing on the two halves with the stretch on the west being nicely contrasted with the puzzling loop work to the east side. The event saw the early return from injury (much to the disappointment of his rivals!) of series star, Glenn 'The Fall of the House of Usher' Horrocks, who had the hooves flying for a full compliment in a tidy 41 minutes. The 'G' was not alone in the 600 club though, with Richard 'The Kangaroo' Green home in 42 and stargazer Michael Burton 'With The Show' a minute back in another tidy display from the Coogee veteran.

Numbers seemed to be in the 170/80 area - a little below expectations perhaps, given the nice weather - but with many new faces fronting once again, including some of the no shows mentioned in Porky's initial Form Guide. Good to see both Bryony Cox (in the dark green hoops, and at full gallop again) and Angela 'The Pedal' back on the paddock. Also noted were Mike 'Tyson' Weller in a bit of relaxed pencil work, and long time WHO pony, Owen 'It Won't Hurt a Bit' Sharpe, getting back to some map fun after not being sighted for many seasons. Great to see both in action again.

Looking at the course now in more detail. With 430 points around Callan Park, everyone had to put away the Federation Houses Guide Book in an initial wrestle with the eastern pots. Dave created an excellent array in the middle of this part of the map, with many variations being noted as patrons collected the 150 points here. Most seemed to opt for the 'water route' on the outward journey, bagging #22 and 14 on the sweep from 28 through to 23. The northern pots then fell in line astern before a bit more fun south from 29 to 11. Of the 'uphill first' brigade (of which The Pork was one), many ran 16, 11, 22, 4, 5, 25, 1, 14, 13, and on to 25. There were variations however, as some connected 22 and 14 to their return leg. The Pie Face lost time with an absurd 22-14-13-1-4-5-25 excursion, contouring the course like a small rack railway steam engine, and no doubt a factor in giving Gordon 'The Blue Engine' Wilson his excellent 510 point rails run.

The speedsters all had to do more than Callan of course (especially after the 'Ghost', Dave Lotty, was home early with the loud announcement that you needed 500!). Crikey thought the yet to start nags that had pencilled in a rough 450! So off west they went, with #26 an obvious bag of feed to try. A nice loop was the 7-17 and home via 24, and many loosed rein to do just that. 30, 20 and 10 seemed a long way down for the older stallions and mares, with #20 possibly being last nights 'lonely pot'. Number 19 might have needed a hot cocoa as well, but probably got a cuddle from Michael 'The Fur Coat' Free in going 26-19-7 etc.

As anyone who ran on the World Masters warm up event here on the 1:5000 scale map will agree, it is just great fun to be in orienteering 'Sprint O' mode around the buildings and gardens of the Callan Park area - and so much more tricky at 1:10,000. Quick decisions and small boo-boos in this area can quickly change placings. For instance, the small alley way through the buildings between 11 and 22 shaved the seconds from the more obvious 'around the road' route. Excellent stuff indeed.

Looking at the leading scores, nobody seemed to card a 590, but we had a dollop of likely lads on 580. Mike Free, Mark Schaefer, Pete Annetts and young Mr Doule all were attracted to the 58 class goods engine. Peter 'The Undertaker' Fallows and Neil 'Pitch' Lefevre both pulled an excellent 570 as did our female star last night, Lisa '1500' Grant. Eoin Rothery was a neck away with 560 (great to have Eoin over from 'LOST' in WA and enjoying the Sydney fun), a blinker clear of Jo 'It's Not A' Sinclair's 550. Graeme 'Look At' McLeod and 'Tiny' Tim Austin also carded this impressive total, ahead of Peter 'In' Hibberd's 540 and Sue 'Hairnet' Login's tidy 530.

Mel Cox was in running mode for his 490, cuddling up to Steve Flick and Davy 'The Vacant' Lot on the same total. Larry and Rosscoe pinched a bit to go one better on 500, as did the 'Sellby' - no doubt still feeling his Sunday six hour rogaine. Another notable in this area, was the first run this preparation from Alison 'Don't Be' Curtin a place getter last series, and great to see her back on the nibble (I have your badge Alison!!). Clare 'The Carrot' Murphy played with 460, a shade behind Vicki 'Ointment' Stitt (470) and Junior star Michele 'From The Flight Deck' Dawson in an impressive flog for 480.

In the Legends, Mal Gledhill didn't need a climbing rope for 430 points - Ronny running later for something hopefully in the high fours. Bev placed 200 in the WL intray and may have collected a ton as Janet was not sighted. Also didn't see Carol Jacobson in SVW, so Sue 'In The Key of G' Thomson's 310 might go gold. As always, there were many other excellent scores and contests within contests. All will be revealed when results are posted.

I managed to get the first issue of the Form Guide out last night, and many will have collected their copy. We will post it to the web site shortly, so all can enjoy the increasingly eccentric race calling. Apart from the fun side, take note of the 'fair play' comments in helping us in continuing to conduct a great and fair-for-all series with no 'neighbour' problems.

Next week sees us back on the north shore at Pottery Green. This has often been a record attendance venue and always provides a good stretch. Gordy is on the pots and will create something big, maybe very big! Coffee at St Leonards Gord? As well as the intricate street work, the 'Pottery' features a golf course, with many routes needing the putter working to card a good total. Enjoy the fun on the course as we pull out the wood in returning to Lane Cove, and the promise of a tidy Stella and dinner at the Longueville Hotel afterwards. Summer Series nirvana, with the assembly area and watering hole a mere toddle apart. See you there!