Setters : Adrian Day, John Toomey.  Admin. Assistant : Sue "Rambo" Johnston

With thanks to question venue providers : Peter Trench, Clinton "Pea Heart" May, Robyn "Guru" Scott, Matthew "Bulldog" Jennings, Sue "Rambo" Johnston, Richard "Bourbon" Matthews, Wildman Dufty, Helen "Chardonnay" Bailey, Ken & Carol.

And a big thank you to Gary "Fog" Carroll, our illustrious president, who decided to eschew our event in favour of the Victorian Champs. It wasn't the same without you.

AAAAAAAA

Having blown everybody away in last year's pedal-fest we were bestowed the McNificent honour of organising the '96 version. Searching the calendar for a date had to wait for the triathlon calendar to be issued, otherwise we would have had to run it on an honour system. Eventually we found a free weekend and chose a date (24^th November), and a venue (as close to home as possible) just before Bryan "Chain Saw" Hardy forcibly chose one for us or swallowed the phone.

Then we promptly forgot about it until 8^th November when a typical phone conversation between us brought up the humorous recollection of the number of phone calls Chain Saw had made to us to see how the setting was going and to get some hints on answers etc. Independently we told him "Yeah, it's going fine, no problems" These memories made us think for a moment - "I suppose we'd better get on with it" - so we picked the 10^th of November after the Freo Tri to organise the event.

At about 12.30 we got started, armed with a Hyundai Excel, brand new bike map, some scrap paper, biro and felt pen and some lunch money and Maccas vouchers. Two hundred metres from my driveway to the first control, no stopping and down Norman St. we went - another 200m. Not bad, 2 questions in 3 minutes. Now where? Where's the closest hill?… Hale Road! Off we went. Now we want a question up there somewhere… that's it - how many recycling bins? We decided not to go further north than Scarborough Beach Road but on the way up there we remembered a friend who lived in Doubleview, so we extended our map. Stanley St. in Scarborough looked interesting but more importantly steep so we plonked a question at each end. Quick check on our splits - a question every 3 minutes - not bad!

Eventually we got hungry so off to Maccas Innaloo for some well deserved nourishment, another question and some course planning. Thirty minutes later Adrian reminds me that he has a meeting to be at by 4.30pm so we'd better arc up the pace a little. We leave the restaurant.

By 4.10pm we had it all done and were back at my place. The size of the map looked about right and definitely was "gettable" by any reasonable teams which we hoped would make it a little more competitive. The week before the event we typed up the questions, added three more, found answers for a couple we'd forgotten to write the answer to, altered a couple slightly when councils put up new signs etc. Friday the questions were copied and the maps? Well, Adrian was doing those at work so it was all under control, so to speak. On returning to work, I found a message to call Adrian at work urgently. I called him but he had gone to training. He called later that evening but I was out. I called him Saturday morning and he said the maps weren't photocopied as both copiers blew up at work, could we do them at my work? This wasn't possible so eventually he got them done at the Uni.

The event itself seemed to run smoothly. Once we'd accepted our bribes from the competitors (100 points for the coffee cake - thanks Carol & Ken) and got rid of the competitors we drove to South Perth to work out the answer to the last question (54 parking bays at Maccas) Then on to Red Dot to buy some prizes for the event. And what a selection we came up with, all beautifully wrapped in newspaper to be opened in front of the throng of exhausted, but all satisfied and rewarded competitors.

Our admin assistant was impressed at the feedback she received about her house (once she worked out it was hers!)
Q41. "What does number 10 need?" (A) Paint job  (B) New curtains
(C) Demolishing  (D) All three
Technically the correct answer was (D) all three, but we accepted all answers. Eighty percent of all teams that visited the question actually chose (D), to our merriment! Most teams answered the questions correctly and some were marked right anyway as they had to have been to the spot and were pretty close.

Ken and Carol counted 84 parking bays in South Perth at Maccas so even though it was quite likely they had been to the car park their answer indicated they couldn't work out what was MacDonald's and what was Chicken Treat. Off came 250 points, but added to their total was the 100 points for the coffee cake so it wasn't THAT bad. They ought to have got the prize for the best answer too. In answer to the question at their house :
Q20. "What colour is the light on the front wall at number three"?  (A) Red  (B) Blue
(C ) Black  (D) Yellow
they answered "Blue and Black" with the comment - "B and C are both correct. We know - we live there!" As everyone else found out when they actually visited the question the answer was Yellow (there was a blue light thingy under the eaves, too, but it obviously wasn't the light we were after, was it?).

Unused to winning prizes the Rogainers, normally only competing for the intrinsic rewards of their chosen leisure activity were amazed at the lavish gifts paid for by their exorbitant entry fees. Pearlers amongst the prizes included Steve Fletcher's CD "Great Truckin' Hits" featuring songs such as "Me and My Diesel" and "18 Wheels and an Empty Road". Penny Dufty liked her Santa hat and Matt Seward was impressed with his chewy dog snacks.

All in all, we had a great time and the participants seemed to also, and setting an event, as we've found several times in bush Rogaining, is a lot more fun than actually competing.

John Toomey