Our 2016 MetrO League season wound up with some tight, thrilling finals on a new Garingal map at Galston on Sydney's northern fringe.
A total of just 6 points decided the top four grades, with the all-female WHO Hahs' 30-22 win over Bennelong Northside in Division 5 the only 'comprehensive' victory.
Carol Jacobson's new map was a mixture of campus sprint (a novel 1:4000 inset at the start), followed by some up-and-down in Sydney sandstone and all sorts of vegetation.
SHOO-IKO (Divn 2) and Bennelong Northside (Divn 3) were crowned champions despite being one runner short. SHOO-IKO edged the Garingal Dragons 28-26, while Bennelong drew with SHOO-IKO 27-27 but prevailed due to their higher ladder position after the round robin series.
Garingal Goannas won Division 1, which was being decided on a first-past-the-post basis, thanks to a 29-26 upset of Big Foot. Both teams were hampered by the unavailability of key runners. It was only when start official Peter Annetts (pictured in orange vest) finished his run that the result could be calculated.
Garingal Legless got home 25-24 against Bennelong in a nervous Division 4 encounter to record a perfect 7-0 season. Each team had a runner mp and the vanquished were again ruing being one runner short.
In the race for the individual medals, the winners are Andrew Hill (WHO, Divn 1), Doug Jay (SHOO, Divn 2), Ross Barker (IKO, Divn 3), Ian Jessup (GO, Divn 4) and Riley Grainger (GO, Divn 5). The two lowest divisions were decided after the favourites - two juniors with plenty of promise - suffered the cruel fate of a mispunch.
The MetrO League web page has been updated with all the results.
Thanks to all the clubs, club captains, runners, setters, organisers for another great year. We look forward to the 2017 competition, when several new ML maps are tipped to be used.
