Street Orienteering

Darn meetings - and how dare they call one from 5:00 - 6:00 pm on a running night! I jokingly asked people that lived past Ferntree Gully if I could travel by train from the city to Ferntree Gully by 7pm - and they were very pessimistic. Realising I had to hurry, I raced back to my desk and threw a few things into my bag....only to get waylaid by people with questions. Sprinted to the station - next train 6 minutes - damn! Took the opportunity to use the loo - saves time at the other end (so to speak). Arrived at the platform, only to find that the train was still 6 minutes away - stupid Connex! Arrive at Box Hill at 6:40 - escalators faulty - is nothing going to go right today! Once out of the congestion in the area of the station, I was fortunate to get a pretty good run - took the opportunity to change at traffic lights - although what people in nearby cars thought of this, I don't know. Green lights all the way to Ferntree Gully - arriving at 7:02 or thereabouts. Changed at the side of the road - oops, no socks....never mind, black business socks will do just fine.

Bryan explains briefly - it's a combined RadiO and Score course - and judging by the points on offer, it seems appropriate to do the radio course first. Grab a sniffer and head out as Bryan calls "switch to channel 2 or 3"....fortunately, I've used his gear before, so I know what he means and head off. Pass our most recent newcomer David Rowntree who seems a little confused about use of the sniffer. I suggest that he runs with me - thinking I can instruct him along the way....but being a stalwart chap, he's keen to try it for himself - so I leave him to his own devices. Run South initially and then kick West as the signal swings. Across one street and down to the park at the end of the road - and as I move towards the park, the signal swings sharply pointing at a nearby street tree. Not sure what I'm supposed to do (curse of being late) - so just circle the location on my map. Notice that there's a streeto control there, so I punch my map too. Wonder if I was supposed to have a control card at this stage? Head Northish to the 2nd transmitter and then kick right and up a side-street into a small park. Dale and David are just ahead of me and find the transmitter quickly - allowing me to get in more quickly than I otherwise might have. Head back to Bryan's place and swap sniffer for a normal street-O map.

Some had not fared quite so well with the radio component of the course - Pam tried 3-4 times to close in on the second transmitter but got confused by a nearby amateur radio operator transmitting on the same frequency. She could hear the voice and realised what was happening - and could still hear the radio beacon when the amateur stopped transmitting. Terrific job Pam to still find the beacon in such difficult circumstances. Di had initially headed North, but the bearings were confusing - so she switched to the second channel and headed South. Having found the 1st transmitter, she then headed back to almost the same location to retry the second one. She had more luck this time and soon found the second transmitter in the small park. Mark Besley and Andrew Baker left the radio course until after their run - and after a terrific score course simply ran out of time to look for 2 transmitters - Mark took a somewhat circuitous route to transmitter 2 through local alleyways that connected one park to the other - while Andrew was enjoying himself and was determined to find the 2nd device, regardless of the time penalty.

The score course was good - although, not having heard the instructions regarding control #19, I was somewhat bemused by this control - in the middle of a grey area - with no obvious route in. In spite of assurances, this had all the makings of a truly hash-inspired bollock! Fortunately, Di came along at this stage - making her 2nd (or 3rd) pass around transmitter 2 - so I swapped her a hint about the transmitter location for instructions on how to find my way into #19. It was only as I wandered into the newly developed housing estate area that I realised that the only street light I could see was actually in the dead end court that ran up from the South....but as I went closer, I realised that this was no ordinary bollock - this was a NON-ILLUMINATED hash-inspired bollock (something which will probably get Bryan an honourable end-of-season mention in the Street-O equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials).

Participation is growing - and will probably continue to do so if people like Rob Mason continue to come all the way from Somerville and Jun from the city (wonder if he came on his bike?). The atmosphere is friendly and people hung around for somewhat longer this evening to trade tales of woe and compare route choices. Thanks to whoever brought the scroggin mix - it was really nice after the run.

Finally, my apologies to Rick - as we ran towards the finish I was a few metres behind him and spotted the light on in the garage as we approached the finish. Being a 4 wheel drive motorist, I acted in the finest 4-wheel drive manner and changed lanes - yelling 'excuse me' as I accelerated and cut across his path to race into the garage. Not sure if he followed me or not, but I had to change course again, just as quickly, when I realised that it was Bryan's next door neighbour putting his car away for the night. Me zig-zagging across his course probably cost Rick the 3-4 seconds that he was late - I'd be happy if the scorer took pity on him and refunded him the 3 points I cost him.

All in all - something really different - and a lot of fun. Congratulations to Bryan for combining two activities into one that proved so interesting.

See you all next week - Bernie's place in Surrey Hills. Bernie will use the Wattle Park + Surrey Hills strip - with no controls in the park. Be prepared to carry a large score-card - he's giving some thought to a course with *lots* of controls.

"Radi-O" - Results


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Where:	Bryan's place
When:	7pm, Monday 28th August
Map:	Ferntree Gully

Name	Category	Arrival pos	Radio (10pts)	5 points	4 points	3 points	2points	Late mins	Total	Position
Adam Scammell	Runner	15	2	5	4	4	3	3	70	1
Marta Salek	Runner	16	2	5	4	3	3	4	64	2
Lauris Stirling	Runner	6	1	5	4	2	2	0	61	3
Dale Howe	Runner	4	2	4	4	0	2	0	60	4
Mark Besley	Runner	5	1	5	4	1	3	0	60	5
Geoff Hudson	Runner	12	2	5	4	1	1	2	60	6
Jun Okabe	Runner	13	0	5	5	5	3	2	60	7
Andrew Baker	Runner	17	2	5	5	4	2	7	60	8
Rob Mason	Runner	2	0	5	4	4	3	0	59	9
Vic Sedunary	Runner	3	0	5	4	4	3	0	59	10
Louise	Runner	9	0	5	4	3	3	0	56	11
Rick Bailes	Runner	11	0	5	5	4	2	2	55	12
Ray Howe	Runner	8	0	4	4	4	3	0	54	13
David Beard	Runner	7	2	5	1	0	0	0	49	14
Tina Smith	Runner	1	0	5	4	1	2	0	48	15
Mike Hubbert	Runner	10	1	5	4	0	2	0	45	16
David Rowntree	Runner	14	1	5	2	0	2	3	38	17

Pam King	Walker	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	10	1
Dianne Shalders	Walker	2	2	2	2	0	1	5	25	2

Report

"Radi-O" - Results