Thursday, October 20, 2011

TERRY WORKS THE HANGMAN'S NOOSE AS BURNT BRIDGE BRIGADE BURN THE BACON TAKING THE LONG DROP

In fine but cool conditions, Summer Series event #3 chief flag man, Terry 'The Judith Street Jockey' Bluett, presented a circular track last night that had the nags wondering whether to run Melbourne (anti-clockwise) or Sydney (clockwise). Both options meant the puff-o-meter would be fully engaged sometime on their run as the 'Tezza' fully deployed the 100 metre drop in his cunning control deployment. You started high, but.... down and back up could not be avoided if you wanted more than the Friar Tuck haircut.

Terry also pulled out a few old favourites as he worked the spread sheet - 11,23,29,14,28,5 and 18 all being familiar locations to those who survived the January 2010 outing here. Nothing wrong with that of course, especially when joined with the tempting eastern descent and the attractive 90 points to the north west. A wide spread, outside the 'Larry Hand', and looking a real toughie. Mid fives looked podium material, and I think that's what we got. Let's have a closer look.

Arriving behind Terry's old house (and where an early SSS event began out the back gate!), the Bennelong crew were in full flag deployment, almost signaling for the ambulance before a Nike had released the handbrake. There were hushed tones, there was incomprehension, there was that old sinking feeling as you contemplated a loop with a big dose of 'Long Drop Lodge'. At least the loop aspect was easily grasped. You had a fairly basic circle to work without too many interior incursions needing to be factored in (#3 the exception). There were also two add ons - the 90/100 points close in on the NW, and the 90 down on the eastern border (the New Zealand controls).

The NW 'haircut' had many fans with the 90/100 in the bag within ten minutes, and the motor just warming up. The question then was do we plunge via 23 and work the creek line (doing a Melbourne) before pulling back up and some late bush work - or getting the (often slow) bush beeps in the bag while the puff-o was still in idle mode. Many, like Pork Pie, took this latter option and quickly worked up the scoreboard bagging 21,12,2,and 29 before facing the haka and/or the creek. Note the tempter on the low track (#13) being ignored. A case of 'contourus ignorus' - for the old goats anyway. Going the other way needed the exhausted body and brain to retain a modicum of clarity if the bush was to yield anything on the dash (should I say stagger!) home. Going clockwise looked the better plan.

Many other runners appeared to blast off straight away down via #23 and a bit of Burnt work. Discipline was then needed in deciding when to pull out of the dive. 26 to 5 to 14 was the sensible route (with maybe the nice bare rock excursion to #28), although several threw caution to the wind in going for 27/19 before the old LBJ 'escaladio' to #6 and 28. Hard to get this nicely, as #18 had to fit the plan, but couldn't be collected without a bit of contour contretemps.

Looking for our lonely pot (hey, this was now the lonely flag), you would have to say #4 in the east was easy to flick, as was #3 in the middle. I'd say it was a toss up. Thankfully they were only tenners - as many of our 'only the lonely's' are. Numbers 13 and 6 also went home without a partner, and will hope to be up and dancing at Whites Creek next week. Bring it on young Dunk!

So, in conclusion, another top night with the nose bag on. A wide range of scoring was in evidence, with many late back penalties bringing some fancies up short. Big thanks to Terry and the BNO crew - and the yummy new flags. It looks like over 200 fronted the starter with many new faces and Si signings. Excellent stuff.

Next week sees the caravan heading to the inner west, where Duncan & Colin Currie will work us along Whites Creek (one of the world's great rivers) and out to the bay. Expect to see the missing corner cop a few points, as well as some nice running out to Glebe and the gigantic figs. Trams, viaducts, grassy stuff and history will have us in a thrall as we run this little ripper, and maybe head up to the North Annandale for dinner afterwards. Mmmm, sounds like a plan.

1 comment:

Fly on the Wall said...

Now that we are well and truly in the SI era of SSS, my first fear was that all those lovely bush controls would no longer be possible - replaced by lamp posts, signs, fences, sewer pipes and the like. So what a pleasant surprise it was to see flags hanging from greenery everywhere on my route: 21-12-29-14-28-20-26-17-16-24-15-23-11-22-30. Add in your bog-standard fences at 2 and 5 and that's 390 (I was 26secs late) points of sub-tropical rainforest beauty in a distinctly urban environment. That was 6.55km with 74m of climb according to Map My Run. My only errors were following the creek from 26 to 17 instead of taking the much-quicker path, and not being fit enough at this stage of the season to fit in 8 and 1 as planned. Terry Bluett? No way, he got it spot on !

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