Friday, October 5, 2012

'SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE'. DAN 'THE TONGMASTER' REDFERN GETS SEASON 22 UNDERWAY WITH CLASSY FLOG AT NORTH RYDE

Close to 200 salivating Sydney summer series supplicants surged past the starting pistol last Wednesday in a great opening to the 2012/2013 series. Chief torturer 'Oh Danny Boy' Redfern was in full voice crafting a tasty dish for those that pulled a tenner from shorts recently recovered from the tall boy's deepest recesses. White legs to the fore as Sydney obliged with a nice dose of the warms for our first outing. Nice to report no rain!

Given correspondent 'Pork Pie' was a no show, these meagre notes are rendered courtesy of the SSS spy network. Being in bleak city, the Pie Face has had to settle for a Carlton to get the SSS juices flowing, but promises to reveal the ribbons of steel at North Harbour. In the meantime, the course has been sighted and demands analysis.

First impressions are of a 'tadpole' like spread, with Dan going for a superb collection around the assembly area and to the north - and with a tail (maybe a tale of woe?) to the south. The north looked mandatory, with a very tempting beginning looking like 24,23,16,17,28,10 and across the bridge 'of sighs' and its 20 point payload. One then presumably engaged second gear and cleaned up the North Sydney Bears (ah, Jimmy, just for you!) before returning via 18 (six a drop?), a short black at Cafe Garingal and then some southern fun to #22 and the tadpole tail.

Dan would have made lots of friends with his three thirty's close in, and this probably added to some good scoring, even amongst our walkers (of which I hope we had some). The south seems where the tragedy in three acts might have played out - with #11 as my probable lonely pot. I heard Julian and Andy both dropped this from their loops, and one can easily see the reason. I liked the 21,15,14 temptation that meant you had to work south (with the hood down) past those low top row cowboys, numbers three and four. If you made it down there, there was either a nil creek return, or a wide flog to the east to loop in 1,12 and 30. Sloggerooney stuff, and no doubt undertaken with an eye on the clock.

Not up to speed with the scoring, or who fronted this great beginning to the summer - BUT, I can report Julian 'The Panelbeater' Dent popped over from Sweden (well, Scandinavia somewhere), and reminded us of his exceptional talents with a nicely cooked 580 points. I mentioned 'The Dee' left number eleven on the sidelines, and it also seems #5 was similarly spurned by the champ. Handy Andy is also reported to be 'at one' with Julian in this drop zone, but the 'Cold' Pie is not sure of his final score. Seems like classically good setting if we are looking at 580 opening bids. Perfect work from Sydney's greatest courier.

I have a couple more, with Stuart 'Harry Seidler' McWilliam posting a tidy 360 as he went post modern for the arvo - and a very respectable 420 or so from 'The Woodpecker'. A top score, but then Teddy likes a flattie, especially when running in his 50's stovepipes. A joy to watch, a joy to read, but a puzzle for all those SSS 'news' addicts under sixty.

So, a top opening salvo in the series of the century. I note that we are underway, well underway, casting all daylight saving concerns aside as we rip into a great summer of 'navigation on the run' - with the poor old Melburnians having to wait to late October before they reveal the white leg and engage with the starting whistle dance. Sydney, come on down!!!

Chief stats man David 'Jones' Noble is working the new age group till and should have our openers up on the results sheet shortly. As we say in retail, buy now - pay later. Well, maybe more like, run now, check later. Speaking of checking in, I'm astonished to see we have had 2800 odd hits to the SSS website since resetting the clock in August. Way more than I remember, and a good portent of interest in the series. There are many first time enquiries amongst this, so a good spread of the rusted on and new faces will make for another great series. Hopefully, our greatest ever!

Next week sees the caravan moving east to North Harbour and a great run in the Balgowlah and Manly area. From the great bushy stuff at Forty Baskets to the harbour side track run to Manly Cove, this one has it all. Terry (the M65 supremo) Bluett has apparently augmented this classic map to get us onto the ferry (with our bag of chips), and setter Pierre is sure to exploit the indecision of left or right options and temptations. Should be a toppie, so start ironing the socks.

Week two beckons. See you there.


5 comments:

Fly on the Wall said...

Was 30 degrees at 3pm when the first starters headed out and still about 26 at 5.30pm when I left. Thought I had a pretty canny route for my 430 with only 2 x 10-pointers: 24-29-18-25-19-26-20-28-30-14-21-15-4-3-17-16-23-22. That was about 7km in 44m8s. Then saw on the splits that many people had looped back from 19 or 26 via 25 then 23-16-17-28-30-12-1 and home. This was 500m shorter and a few points richer. Bummer. But very clever setting from Dan. Looking forward to a cooler run in Manly.

Also Ran said...

I note that no less than three groups appear in the subjunior results categories - shouldn't they be in the non-competitve Groups category?

Dave said...

I ran on Wednesday and had a great time, as always. What I can't work out is how people ran from 18 to 25? I checked the bush and there didn't seem to be a direct route and I believe that going via the road was out of bounds. I went there via 20; the very long way.

the unknown runner said...

In answer to Daves comments,crossing Epping Road was out of bounds but the footpaths were not. You can see the foothpath below 19 & above 18 not being covered by the purple OOB hatching. Therefore you would do 18 go via the footpath to 25 then via the underpass to 19 etc..

Dave said...

Huh, I hadn't noticed that, I had only seen the 'out of bunds' markings and hadn't looked farther. That'll teach me! Thank you.

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