2001 Nightgaine
2001 Night-A-Gaine, Laurel Camp - 1 September 2001
Organizer's Report
At 5:30 pm thunderstorms gathered over the Cotter, reducing visibility on the roads for the hardy souls who were venturing out for the start of the ACTRA's second mini-night rogaine. By 6:45 pm, however, only 15 minutes before the scheduled start, the rain stopped and the nearly full moon could be seen through the thinning clouds. Surprisingly, the rain stayed away for the whole of the 4 hour event, and all competitors enjoyed nearly perfect conditions (apart from the occasional patch of blackberry or other grunge). Three teams simply didn't show for the start, possibly thinking that the conditions were going to be too bad. Too bad. Fifteen teams, 36 people, actually started.
Held in the same area as last year's event, the course setter chose to increase the points weighing of the controls in the south section of the map, in an attempt to lure more competitors into this area – and this was partially successful. Although the eventual winners concentrated most of their efforts in the north, and only visited 3 of the 9 southerly controls in their overall bag of 20 (out of 29) controls, the second placed team, only 20 points behind, visited all 9 of the southerly controls as part of their 16 control bag.
The overall winners were family team Geoff and (daughter) Julie Lawford, with 430 points. Their winning route was numbers 7, 4, 1, 3, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18, 23, 27, 24, 19, 13 and 11. Geoff and Julie finished second last year. The second placed team, Paul Mason and Sean Barwick, also improved on their third place from 2000. The winners from 2000 were late minute scratchings due to an injury.
The most popular controls were those in the north (except #8, far to the west). No teams visited #s 14 and 16, whilst the other least popular controls were #s 15, 21, 22, 26, 28 and 29 with 3 teams visiting each.
Adrian Sheppard and David Baldwin showed up in case any teams wanted support or coaching. None did, so both went out independently "for a run". NOTE: Going out by oneself is certainly not recommended practice. The only things on their side were that they are both very experienced, and the Laurel Camp area is not really remote or rugged. Anyway, David came back along the track after his head lamp batteries failed at control #28 (in the far south), whilst Adrian, who went out without a control card, "reported" that he had visited all controls from #9 to #29 inclusive within 3.5 hours - a supposed total of 530 points. Yeah, that’s right Adrian. The pope is an agnostic, and the prime minister is a communist.
All competitors seemed to have enjoyed themselves at least partially (none attacked me, anyway), most found (nearly) all the controls they tried for (some teams did find #s 8 and 15), and none were lost or late back. The Hash House food was again excellent, thanks to 1st Aranda Scouts and Alan Sargeant for organizing same. Thanks also to my wife Lyndall for doing all the admin, son Robert for lighting and keeping the fire going, and Bob Allison of ACTOA for map preparation.
Finally, thanks to all competitors for coming.
Glenn Bridgart
Read MoreOrganizer's Report
At 5:30 pm thunderstorms gathered over the Cotter, reducing visibility on the roads for the hardy souls who were venturing out for the start of the ACTRA's second mini-night rogaine. By 6:45 pm, however, only 15 minutes before the scheduled start, the rain stopped and the nearly full moon could be seen through the thinning clouds. Surprisingly, the rain stayed away for the whole of the 4 hour event, and all competitors enjoyed nearly perfect conditions (apart from the occasional patch of blackberry or other grunge). Three teams simply didn't show for the start, possibly thinking that the conditions were going to be too bad. Too bad. Fifteen teams, 36 people, actually started.
Held in the same area as last year's event, the course setter chose to increase the points weighing of the controls in the south section of the map, in an attempt to lure more competitors into this area – and this was partially successful. Although the eventual winners concentrated most of their efforts in the north, and only visited 3 of the 9 southerly controls in their overall bag of 20 (out of 29) controls, the second placed team, only 20 points behind, visited all 9 of the southerly controls as part of their 16 control bag.
The overall winners were family team Geoff and (daughter) Julie Lawford, with 430 points. Their winning route was numbers 7, 4, 1, 3, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18, 23, 27, 24, 19, 13 and 11. Geoff and Julie finished second last year. The second placed team, Paul Mason and Sean Barwick, also improved on their third place from 2000. The winners from 2000 were late minute scratchings due to an injury.
The most popular controls were those in the north (except #8, far to the west). No teams visited #s 14 and 16, whilst the other least popular controls were #s 15, 21, 22, 26, 28 and 29 with 3 teams visiting each.
Adrian Sheppard and David Baldwin showed up in case any teams wanted support or coaching. None did, so both went out independently "for a run". NOTE: Going out by oneself is certainly not recommended practice. The only things on their side were that they are both very experienced, and the Laurel Camp area is not really remote or rugged. Anyway, David came back along the track after his head lamp batteries failed at control #28 (in the far south), whilst Adrian, who went out without a control card, "reported" that he had visited all controls from #9 to #29 inclusive within 3.5 hours - a supposed total of 530 points. Yeah, that’s right Adrian. The pope is an agnostic, and the prime minister is a communist.
All competitors seemed to have enjoyed themselves at least partially (none attacked me, anyway), most found (nearly) all the controls they tried for (some teams did find #s 8 and 15), and none were lost or late back. The Hash House food was again excellent, thanks to 1st Aranda Scouts and Alan Sargeant for organizing same. Thanks also to my wife Lyndall for doing all the admin, son Robert for lighting and keeping the fire going, and Bob Allison of ACTOA for map preparation.
Finally, thanks to all competitors for coming.
Glenn Bridgart
