Nillumbik Emus Orienteering Club  StreetO Training Nights - Results

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Report                            by Bernie Shuttleworth

The terrain for this event comprised two roughly equal areas separated by Wattle Park.  In the spirit of trying new ideas at these informal Monday night events, I decided to set 20 controls in the streets to the north of Wattle Park and 20 to the south.  It was a normal score event with the usual point scores, but with the constraint that a maximum of 20 controls would count towards a person’s score.  This gave the faster runners an incentive to use both areas, to try and get all the 4-and 5-pointers in both areas.  To my surprise, six of 21 participants managed this feat.  First finisher, at 7.50pm, was Adam Scammell, with a “full house” ie 90 points.  Second, two minutes later, was El Presidente, who, like several others, recorded more than 20 controls – presumably to have a few 3-pointers up the sleeve as insurance against not getting all the 4-and 5-pointers. 

As course setter, I did not think it would be sensible for slow runners or walkers to go to the southern area, because of the quite large distance separating the two areas.  However, to test this view, I went that way myself, just to see if it was feasible for a walker to cherry-pick both areas.  As it turned out, I believe I got a better score than I would have if I had stayed in the north.  One other walker, Judy Hopkins, went south and was the highest-scoring walker, by a long way.  All up, 15 of the 21 participants used both areas.

I must apologise for the missing control 6N.  It was on the draft, but somehow did not make it onto the final map.  The pole is still there, at the corner of Shepherd and Lambourne Streets (Mel 61 A1), so if you were in the vicinity, you deserve another 3 points.  Sorry!

Two people got back late.  In Bryan’s case, he wanted to make the most of the training run and if there were 39 controls out there, he wanted them all. To do so by 8.12pm was pretty remarkable.

For some of the street lights, different numbers appeared on score-cards.  I went and checked the poles the next day to clear up the ambiguities.  For control 11N there are light poles on both sides of the corner, and both in the circle.  The numbers are 5 and 6, although the latter’s light is out.  Both have been paid.  

For control 13N the intended pole had a No 8.  Three people recorded a 3, so I thought perhaps there would be another pole just around the corner.  There isn’t.  However, the correct pole has a white plate reading “BH 763” as well as the yellow number ending in 8.  So I paid both 8 and 3. 

Control 16N is on a bend in Broughton Road, and I tried to map its position very carefully.  The intended pole has a 9, but most people recorded an 8 and Lauris a 5.  Well, the 8 is one pole to the south of the “correct” pole, and since most of you voted for it, I have to pay it.  The “correct” pole, in addition to the yellow plate ending in 9, has one of those white plates – it reads “BH7075”, so Lauris gets paid as well.

There was a bit of discussion on the night about 17N, which didn’t have either a white or yellow plate, but a single 1.  People recorded either a 1 or a dash.  All paid.

Some lessons:  Street signs make better controls than light poles.  The southern area used street signs and there were no ambiguities.  I used light poles in the north so that not every control had to be on a street corner, but a feature such as a bend in a road can obviously be interpreted differently by different people.  And the yellow plates on light poles can be hard to see, as some of us discovered. 

I think the evening confirmed the view that more controls are better than fewer.  The constraint of “best 20 controls” made route choice more complex, but people managed perfectly well.  However, any such constraint should not be set too low, as people like to get their full hour of training.  I certainly enjoyed setting the course, and it seems that the Monday night participants do enjoy trying different things.  Keep on innovating, everyone!

Feedback/Quotable quotes

From Judy

That was the best fun I've had so far last night, on the Monday events. I'm still feeling stuffy from the cold and sore from when I was tripped over, and was also sore from cleaning Kirsty's house for five hours, but decided to hell with it, I was going to take the challenge to head down south past Wattle Park.

Had second thoughts part way down the hill, which meant I might have got another control or two if I hadn't been worried about getting back up the other side, but ended up with plenty of time to pick up controls in the north. I think Debbie and Tina both stayed up north, but I managed to get seven 5 point controls, and five 4 point controls so I found it really interesting that the object of the exercise (pardon the pun) really worked, i.e., it was possible to do better by heading south to pick up the points. Great fun. I might never do so well again!

From Bruce

"I really appreciated the refreshments after the event. I was going to offer tea or coffee after my event but everybody left so quickly"

From Geoff

I arrived at control #17, but couldn't find any number - so recorded the pole in Hopkin's Notation (1st letter of Street Sign).

David Prentice

Has kindly offered to run an event in Bulleen in a few weeks time. I was bailed up by his wife last Wednesday night - she noted that she found street-O and now husband, David was running on Mondays.

At the Start

Double-O normally means "license to kill" - do you think this is a comment on the severity of the course?

At the finish

Bryan made a Herculean effort and came in about 12-13 minutes and one slice of cake too late. Only moments before Louise had polished off the last slice (she said it was only her second piece, but we had our suspicions...)

Peter Maloney - who arrived on the dot of 6:59 and a bit, noted that we left 15-20 seconds early. To be fair to participants in future, we'll try not to start before 7pm in future.

"Double-O" - Results

Finally, we experimented with printing score cards on heavy duty, waterproof paper. Did anyone have any problems with these cards?

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