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100 Point Score Puzzle by Keith

Report

My apologies for not sending out the warning email a little sooner - it was clear when Keith dropped around to put controls on the map and print his maps for Monday night that there was a possibility of confusion. In future, I'll put a little skull and crossbones type warning up on the street-O homepage and most of you can review it from work.

It seemed to me that the concept had merit - but was perhaps a little too challenging when sprung on one at short notice. For better or worse, we experiment with novelty events on Monday Nights every now and then and some go better than others. If we want to reap the benefit of the good events, we have to be prepared to accept that don't work as well and offer constructive advice about how the concept could be improved...so here's my suggestions:

• Giving instructions out at the start seldom works - many people don't listen, some that do just don't get the idea. We probably need to float new ideas on the web site for a week or two beforehand and solicit feedback. After a few of Mark's razor sharp insights and Bruce's witticisms most people will see how a new idea might work ...or not work. Either way, there will be a core of people that arrive at the event with an understanding of what's required and the strategy required to handle it - and they can tell those less well-informed than themselves what they need to do.
   
• The concept proposed was not that difficult; what made it even more so was "chaining" invisible controls to one another. If we had made invisible controls relative to visible controls only, that might have been better.
   
• A concept like this slows everybody down. I noticed that it was possible to mark-up my map while walking, but I was a little concerned that I was too focussed on the map rather than watching where I was going. There's a safety issue here - the map is an aid to navigation/walking/running - and we need to ensure that people don't need to look at it too often for too long.
   
• The actual area used was tiny....but I didn't come close to getting them all - nobody did. 25 controls in even a tiny area still adds up to about 10+ Km....this gives us some interesting opportunities for areas between current maps (Mike - if you've got the map register open, can you put me down for the area bounded by Burke Road, Riversdale Road, Trafalgar Raod and Canterbury.....a tiny event...but with the right format, it could be fun when the weather gets warmer.

Comments

Notes:

• Keith and I had both seen the map beforehand - note unofficial status below.
• Ray - need your card or controls...can you send it over via email (Must have been a good run....59 minutes 58 seconds - you got your money's worth!!) Thanks....what a great effort after what seemed to be a difficult start. Well done!!
• Jun - please be back by 8pm in future - otherwise we have to wait around until you get back (which was OK on Monday cos it was a nice night)

Results (Note - due to late start - penalties based on actual running time)