250 Lays? Back to the drawing board!

You would think that after 249 previous lays,  Egghead (ably assisted by Little Tool) would have been able to lay a decent run yesterday, particularly since this one was in his own backyard and didn't exactly break new ground either territory- or track-wise. But no! ignoring one of the Yardstick golden rules (Don't set checks where the long and short runs depart/join) the run managed to lose half the short run (including OaY who also should have known better!) seriously delay Lot Rakaa and family, and confuse the hell out of the long run. Ok, so the situation was not helped by the apparent intervention of some knowledgeable locals (we know who you are!) who not only relaid a section of the run at the beginning and picked up a whole section after the first 360, but also laid a completely new 360 between Fs 5 and 6, thus totally screwing up the long and short run junction which also suffered from some rain damage rendering the short-run paper invisible.

The upshot was that All Black, Eightball and R2D2 came back via the road and the first person to arrive beyond the final check, which by then Egghead had by-passed, was Super Pig followed by most of the short runners who had been herded through the confusion by Little Tool. OaY's group arrived from the wrong direction having used local knowledge to no good effect, and the long run were eventually found at the back of the village and called onto the paper.

But eventually everyone arrived at the run site where there was some great food courtesy of SH3's expanded culinary section to combat the inclement weather, which sadly had one final go at damping down the proceedings before the circle ensued. Winner of the poker game was (ahem!) All Black who by dint of swapping her two jokers, (each of which qualified for a beer) for two queens, ended up with five ladies, beating Sex Sprinter's 5 Jacks which had been more honestly collected on the run.

For the record, the long run all in was 6.8k and the short run, 5.1k with negligible ascent and a high point of about 55m at the first road crossing. The good news? Well that was the turn-out, which despite the weather and the absence of a number of regulars, was in excess of 40 with no less than 6 new runners and barely a hound left at the run site, so 40 people actually out on the runs. The moral to be drawn from the confusion? Recce, recce recce! With the run being set at short notice and the checks being laid on the fly, there was always the potential for disaster although circumstances combined to cause the problem and at the end of the day most people had fun and we will certainly be repeating the poker tournament idea ... as long as we can find somewhere to buy the cards!