Our Sydney interclub competition was back to familiar terrain for Round 4 with Big Foot hosting us on their track-laden Darks Common map at Lapstone.
After some easy running at Mt Annan and Botany, this was more like bush O. But the plethora of tracks can mislead - what sounds like simple trail running actually requires a sharp eye to ensure the correct track is taken; sometimes the cross-country bearing was more productive and less distracting.
Only two competitors (Dave Shepherd in Divn 1 and Riley Grainger in Divn 5) went under 35 minutes. Setter Miles Ellis tested the fine navigation with well thought out twisting, turning courses and again used a novel road-crossing control for safety.
The morning began with a minute's silence for Bennelong legend Frank Assenza, who we farewelled on Tuesday. Frank started the MetrO League in 1994 and was at events right up until his passing earlier this month.
With matches underway in bitingly cold but sunny weather, times were surprisingly long given that recent back-burning aided visibility in the southern half of the map.
We also thank Big Foot for allowing an undermanned Uringa-Central Coast to field two ACT elites as fill-ins; it cost the Feet the match - but with Garingal tripping up in a draw with WHO the Pink People still lead Division 1.
SHOO-IKO thrashed the GO Dragons in Division 2 in a battle of the heavyweights that was a likely preview of the final.
Division 3 is a three-horse race, with unbeaten Bennelong and Knox to meet in the last round. SHOO-IKO lie in wait hoping to sneak into the final. It's a similar tale in Division 4, where the unbeaten GO Legless face the strong Bennelong and WHO teams needing just a point to make the final. The GO Monitors are third.
In Division 5, Bennelong and WHO would both have lose badly to allow SHOO to leapfrog into the competition decider.
Thanks to Big Foot for a great day out - they had all the results up on their website before we were home! Most of these are linked on our ML web page. The individual points tallies are also up.
A reminder that our next round is on July 31 when WHO unveil their new map of Mulgoa.
