Thursday, November 26, 2009

Green cleans up at The Pottery

A beautiful Sydney evening, a puzzling, tough course and the worst parking of any SSS venue, all combined to deliver our biggest roll up this season so far! With around 225 ponies on the flog at this popular venue, Pork Pie was a happy camper counting the resultant lolly on his banana lounge. With Gordon 'Tit' Wilson creating what must rank as the most puzzling outing in many a moon, runners struggled to find a rewarding loop, working the string - and then the rosary beads in a quest for salvation. Although low point totals were the go for most (with no one over 500), Richard 'Broom' Green swept the field in another outstanding run. His 490 was all class last night in a tight competition at the top of the board.

On first sight, Gordy's course looked troubling, with a big stretch to the east (#30) and a maddening grouping of 'close in' points near the Green. Trying to get out of the Pottery into loop mode proved an exhausting challenge. Getting up to the highway meant working in #23 somehow. And then the middle 'golf option' needed adding. Up and then down again seemed to be the go. Then there was the west. The 50 points through the shops were almost a must do, although not everyone realised that the walls along Epping Road (#5,9) needed rapelling skills to negotiate. Still these pots helped begin a western loop if you could work in a way to secure 15 and 17. Much head scratching all round seemed to be the goss, with many runners planning something, and the changing their minds in the start queue!

Particular pots that required determination were 16 (a down and up flog), 27 (the same, with cliffs and dark green preventing a nice link to 28 - thanks Gord!) 30 and #1. The 'draw' factor from #7 up the brown lines to #1 and then on-loop to the 30 points at #30 before a long return bash, was expertly constructed, although few took the bait. Dave Bray's 7, 29, 26, 27, 6, 28 and then west was a neat take on the temptations in this part of the map.

Most runners seemed to like the 3, 20 beginning - coming home up the middle, and back past 3! One runner worked 3, 23, 17, 15 2, and the western loop before a few golf lessons and a Pacific Highway return. Not a bad way to fill in a Wednesday evening it seemed. There were a myriad other tales as maps were poured over - and as the apres-O beer was poured! Another great evening at The Pottery goes down in history.

Let's look at the scoring. With Richard across the line with 490, the members stand has the pencil chewed down fingering those who followed. One out, one back we see Mounty, in his opening run in the series, posting 480 points. Mounty has been distracted with 'adventure sport' racing, but will rattle the barrier here if he's in town for more SSS action. James 'The Red Engine' McQuillan also carded 480 in one of his best results so far. Outstanding stuff from these hot stallions.

On 470 points was Glenn 'The Glove' Horrocks. A fantastic result given 'The Cannister' sweeps the lot every week - and this would have seen lots of 'out and back' work. Behind Glenn, Callum 'Don't Hesitate' Thomson and Michael ' Hold On, I'm Coming' Free posted 460 - as did our winning woman, Mary 'It was Nothing' Fein. A fantastic run from Mary. Kar-Soon played 450 ahead of a great run by Mel Cox 'S Orange' (430), Lisa Grant (420), Rachael Best 'Buys' (410) and Pete 'Rotating Paddocks' Fallows (also 410). To get over 400 was a score - man, what a score. The old Pie Face is sweaty with admiration.

Gil kept the OW comp in gear with 390, as did local Ian 'Nose & Throat' McKenzie (no doubt working the back gate route!) Eoin Rothery, in his third series show, carded the same in another top run. Others of note were Carolyn 'T Remover' Haupt (370), veteran Karin Hefftner's 360 shading Robin 'The Bank' Cameron's 320, Vicki Stitt cruising for 340 just behind fellow open runner Amy 'Mr' Bennett (360). In the senior stakes, Sue Thomson posted 270, well ahead of still recovering Dale 'It's Not' Thompson's 230. Also great to see Anne Stewart boosting the Legends with a tidy 200 points, a tad behind Legends leader Janet Morris 'Minor' (220). Hieko worked the singlet for 350, ahead of Lloyd 'George' (310) in the LM race - although Ronny was a late finisher and may have crashed through. Mal was not 'on song' last night apparently, and Kenny 'The Portable' Jacobson was caught on the rails for his 310. The SVM fell in behind Graeme and Warwick (400 perhaps) once again, with Gordon taking the setters 100 to keep up his average.

Again, lots of new faces, including James Landon Smith, running in the Commonwealth Bank colours, and a tidy first up total of 310. Also good to see the number of younger runners, and groups out last night - often with mum going the wrong way, only to be corrected by the youngies. Excellent stuff!

Next week sees us again close to The Longueville pub - with another harbourside outing just down the road at Butchers Block Point. Wendy 'Top Gear' Stevenson will be on the other side of the table this time and no doubt will be using her skills to engineer a great outing at the Block. This map has some great harbour parks and views, and also yummy and tempting creek tracks and mangrove fun. It's an area not many have visited, making it all the more exciting for new series runners. Join us as we give Windy Wendy's course a right flogging - before an exhausted repair to 'The Longueville' once again. Top venue, top running - another Wednesday to savour. Be there!

4 comments:

Fly on the Wall said...

First outing on this map - saw the myriad of brown lines and thought &%$#!
The only solution was to follow as flat a route as possible for as long as possible and see what there may be left at the end if I was running early.
Hence I picked up 2-17-4-25-19-18-28-6-27-26-29-11-12-10-22-23-3 for 360 in 43m 30s. That was 5.8km with 80m of climb, so a pretty fair result given the short distance run and hopefully 80+ in the absence of Michael Burton.
Certainly was a confusing map for plotting routes. Unsure of the wisdom of the in-and-outs at 1, 7, and 16 in a time-restricted event. They were probably lonely pots anyway.

Also Ran said...

Interesting route choice. One of very many variations, no doubt, due to the wily course-setting.

My first thought on looking at the map was to discount the farthest 110 points (27 28 6 1 30) - too far and no easy way to connect them. I also discounted 20 as being too isolated, so it was then a case of how many of the rest could I get.

I started off with the western loop which, judging from the control visits, wasn't a popular choice. My sequence was 9-5-21-8-14-24-16, all easy running so far, but a grind out of 16 again, then 4-25-19-18-26-29-7-13, which contained nearly all the climb, particularly the haul from 29 to 7 and on up to the highway, then 22-10-12-11-23-17-3 and to the finish in 44:23.

No surprises that 1 and 30 were the lonely pots (VERY lonely!), but I was surprised at how many went to 27, an in and out to the bottom of a steep hill.

Wiz said...

Just a suggestion for those that don't make it to an event... any chance of attaching the course map to the event summary?

Wiz

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