22 people took part in the first training event for this season. With lots of people over in South Australia for the second week of the Easter Carnival, we were missing 5-6 regulars - so 22 was an excellent turnout for a first event. There was a little apprehension in the group as people tried to work out the best strategy for the event. The objective was pretty straightforward - 20 controls on the map, you get to pick two at random that you get for free - then visit the other 18 (or as many as possible...) in the 60 minutes available.

At 7:00pm we had waited 1 more minute - just in case Peter Maloney had decided to come along after all. With no sign of the missing Maloney people turned over their maps to see if their choice of controls was helpful. Louise had picked 2 controls for the course-setter, Geoff Hudson, and she did a pretty good job....although she did even better on her own pick! The optimum choice was probably 2 and 15 for an accumulated saving of about 1.2 Km. See tonight's map here) . Bryan sent apologies for non-attendance - something about doing 85 Km over the weekend - explaining why I didn't see him at the finish at Cake-O on Saturday afternoon...we had probably left by the time he completed this course (bad luck on the route choice there Bryan...that must surely be the longest A course in streetO history...and the late-penalties would have been pretty severe too).

In spite of being course-setter, I hit #9 and then turned South - and it was only as I realised that nobody else followed that I realised that this was a mistake.. Ian Greenwood later remarked "we wondered where you were going..." and this was heard again a little later from all accompanying Ian as he decided to bypass #18 even though it wasn't one of his free controls. The penny dropped about 200-300m later as he approached the next turn - and he backtracked to get the control....still finishing all 20 controls within time in spite of a paltry 300m bonus from free controls. Clifford wore new shoes this evening, got blisters, coded several programs in his head and still managed to do 18 controls in the time available.  A few runners were concerned about time and chose to drop controls early - and then discovered to their horror that the course was actually pretty short.

Overall winners by a comfortable margin were Chris Sayers and Marta Salek (I wonder if we can find a comfortable jacket/weight belt to handicap the winner on the following week...).

Being the first training event of this season most people stayed around for tea/coffee - sampled left-over Easter eggs - and had a chat. As a result of the discussions that took place:

• We have offers from 11-12 course-setters (I'll put an initial list of suggested dates/locations into the streetO event database this evening. Don't we concerned if the dates don't work - just let me know and we'll shift things around. It's worth noting that I can provide 2-3 'emergency' events...just in case someone has a last minute emergency and we need to reorganise quickly).
   
• We're suggesting that we plan a BBQ or visit to a nearby pizza parlour after 1-2 events each season. Let's think about the dates once we've agreed the calendar.

Ian Greenwood kindly offered to run next week's event - see below:

Next Week's Event

• Monday 23 April 2007

• Hewish Rd, Croydon

• Car Park next to cinemas

• Melway 50 K3

• 7pm start

• Toilets in the park opposite.

• Event format - Hopkyn's notation, scrabble-O with a twist (see Louise's event last year...rumour has it that Geoff's imaginary friend Max will probably come along to this event)