Day 1 - Saturday - Wattle Park

Well...wasn't the weather spectacular!! A superb day, the sun was out and a surprising number of people turned up to take part in Day 1 of our 3 day streetO carnival. Was it the possibility of a run that attracted them - or the lure of the Hahndorf Chocolate Shop serving good coffee just across the road from the start location?

With so many folks seeing the new timing system for the first time, it was a little chaotic at first, but people will get used to it - and it does provide an added service plus an extra layer of safety for our weekly runs. We had expected 10-20 people and were a little taken aback when 37 actually turned up. We frantically phoned son David and asked him to print more maps just in case, but as it turned out the 32 maps we had plus 2-3 copies that had been scribbled on proved to be enough. David turned up as we yelled GO - so we have 10 spare maps if anybody out there would like to do the run in their own time and email the time into me.

Peter and Ian join in prayer before the event (Judging by the scores, it seems to have worked)	Geoff Hudson reaches out for the finish control	Geoff and Geoff (Double Geofferdy?)

As with all streetO courses - there were a few minor problems with control - there were after all, 25 controls....and more controls does of course mean more mistakes. Peter Dalwood suggested that control 5 was in the wrong spot but when we looked at the control description, we realised that it was the dot that was in the wrong place...not the control. We examined this carefully and suggested that the dot was actually only about a millimetre out. When asked "If you were within a millimetre of the control, surely you should be able to find it?"....he was unable to come up with a suitable response. Protest dismissed.

We have no explanation for the lack of a number, light pole or anything resembling an orienteering feature at control 1, it was there 4 years ago when I set the course that we pinched the control from. I'll complain to the council if I get time - perhaps we could threaten to boycott maps in their area if this happens again!

Jun Okabe and Ian Greenwood got the lot - and logically, we should have offered one of them the box of gourmet chocolates that were passed to us as we left Hahndorf's (in appreciation for boosting their business that afternoon). These were passed on to a family with children - although, I suspect that they'll be savoured over the next week or two and the kids won't see many of them.

Organiser Geoff realised as he ran to the second control that he had forgotten to tell the computer that we had started the event and, as a result, cut his run short today - and so slips to the bottom of the scores (his rightful place on most orienteering 3 days over the last 5-10 years). He's hoping that his planned attendance at all 3 events in the carnival will see him creep a little further up.

Finally, thanks to Graham Wallis for scoring the cards while we all drank coffee and chatted - it made completing the admin work for the series that much easier.

Bernie Shuttleworth has an excellent event planned for Sunday morning! If you can't make it, please get in touch via email and I can post it over or call me on 9888 8121 if you'd like to pick up a map. You can run this course any time that's convenient to you - and send in the result for inclusion in the 3 Day Scores.

For a moment there, I thought that was Barry's hand around Bernie's waist...;-)	Tanya with Ian, Anneka, Lech and Stan in the background

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