Nillumbik Emus Orienteering Club  StreetO Training Nights - Results

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100 Point Score Course by Geoff

Report

Crystal clear evening and mild conditions. A small area, with 25 controls. Strangely, it seemed to be very long - as the available light poles were quite limited during the armchair planning stage and I didn't have time to cruise around and check things out. The technology work somewhat better this week - even recognising that Geoff was trying to start early and telling him to come back in 15 seconds at 7pm (a special check to make sure that we give Peter Maloney every second he's entitled to to get to the event on time).

Hey guys - if there's no number on a pole or even no pole around - improvise! Missing number - copy down ANY number that appears on the pole or just put an X in the square - - we trust you (all except Greenwood who's just too darn cocky {and beats me comfortably} to be completely honest....).  If the pole is missing - it's probably that Greenwood fellow again - although I have known the course setter to make a mistake re control placement on one or two rare occasions - so let's give Ian the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Anyway, if there's no pole there - just use the nearest pole or write something amusing on your control card (scoring is not exactly riveting work and I'm worried that if I do it too frequently...without comic relief, I'll end up like Mark - or even worse like Ray who spend their time thinking up handicap groups and badge-award timings so they can win a prize in the end of season awards or possibly just impress us all with their mathematical talents).

Bemused by the software's refusal to start early, I headed off as the computer told us to "Go, Go, Go...". I headed South towards 25 and didn't cross the oval - most pleased with the fact that I was ahead of everybody else...even Eric who was running alongside me....oops, I'm supposed to be walking!! Momentary loss of concentration and I've made myself unofficial to compensate....sorry. In the finest spirit of low adminstration orienteering, we've introduced a fee of 10,000 points for lodging a protest. Recognising that the cost is steep, we've agonised over Keith's protest that he should considered "in on time" because there were buildings adjacent to #25 and he couldn't run across the school oval. There were many reasons for dismissing the appeal and these included:

• Our perception that Keith wouldn't have made it over the perimeter fence anyway; and even if he did, the time taken to climb in and then back out would approximate to that which he might have saved had he just walked around the street (like Eric, me and many others did).
• Staying out of the school grounds was probably good on OH&S grounds - an unnamed orienteer was seen going behind a bush about 1-2 minutes into the event - thereby making at least one route choice through the school grounds that much more hazardous.
• Not wanting to be completely mean, we've rounded the time down to the nearest minute, thereby saving him 3 points (and I've given him the 72 points that I don't need).
• It doesn't really make a lot of difference
• He didn't ask nicely.... 

Terrific event - which proved longer than expected...and as an added bonus, we've got several map corrections for the kindly DROC folks that loaned us the map. It was really good to see some new folks turn up - a keen welcome to Andrew and Merran and to Chris Wallis who came along with father Graham (parent - not vicar).  Please make them welcome at the next event.

Finally, several people asked why David and Marta's car was still at the start as we all finished. Apparently, David had noticed several pre-loved goodies in the hard-rubbish piles that he passed during the event and had asked Marta if she would help him carry some of these back to the start. Is there no limit to this girl's tolerant and understanding nature?

Ian Greenwood's report from this evening...."What a beautiful night for a run!  I wasn't feeling 100% today so took it easy and did 10.3km.  Excellent course with lots of choices.  I have attached my course.  I went 24-2-19-5-14-18-23-11-25-6-12-15-8-22-16-17-21-7-4" (p.s. Several numbers on poles were loose and I have collected these so we can return them to the council and request that they be fastened more securely for future events. Hope this didn't inconvenience other runners that might have visited 3, 20 and 25 tonight).

Results