Eureka Orienteers staged the 8th Annual aMAZEing Ballarat at the weekend and will be donating over $1000 to the Balladonors who support the Relay for Life Organisation and Cancer Research.

Special thanks to Ken, Anitra, Heather and Blake who all played key roles in making the event such a success. As well as to our members who participated and in many cases came away with some of the precious mugs. Jenny, Geoff and Rod alias the”Pink Tutus” knocked off ”The Magpies” who boast Monica Dickson and Helen Bloom, and Tony and Harrison Keeble were close up also masquerading as “I thought you said left”.

Tim Dickson deserves a special mention as well as he guided Geordie and Maeve around the course.

Update – Full Report

8th Annual aMAZEing Ballarat

Saturday dawned a little overcast but the spirits were high as the 22 teams assembled at the Eastwood Leisure Complex ready to tackle the 8th aMAZEing Ballarat.

All teams now understand that a little time spent on preparation at the beginning can have major benefits later in the four hour event, so the first half hour was taken up with frantic phone calls, the tapping of keys on phones and ipads and a good deal of the usual head-scratching, as the participants tried to make sense of the clue sheet and be certain that they had the right locations.

Team Albacutya took preparations to a new high point this year spending over 90 minutes, but it paid dividends for them with a first place in Class C at the end.

Multiple past winners The Magpies were quickly into stride but were facing stiff opposition this year from the Pink Tutus who had speed as their major weapon and Noah’s Champions who had a breadth of local knowledge to carry them through.

This year teams had to plot a course which brought them back to the start area during the event where they were challenged with a Tai Chi routine. This proved to be something of a leveller for many front running teams as they took a little while to grasp the fact that it is better to be slow and methodical to achieve success.

Other challenges involved bagpipes, unicycling, golf ball drop into a narrow pipe, memorizing a tray of objects after a 10 second glance and the observation test on photographs around the city. As well competitors went to the Combined Charities Christmas Card Shop to purchase some cards and donated a packet of shortbread to the local charity Breezeway.

All in all there were 18 various tasks for the teams to perform and when the results came in there were 6 teams who had managed to get to all the points and had to be separated by numbers of correct photos or memorized items.

The unique categories devised by Mark and Blake on the day made sure that the coveted mugs were spread though out the entrants.

The major recipient of the funds this year was again Balladonors who through various events over the year raise money for the Relay for Life Organisation. Eureka Orienteers will be able to present them with a cheque for over $1000 later this week.

Results

Class A – The Runners

Pink Tutus – 1083

Noah’s Champions – 1073

Fab 5 – 1073

The Magpies – 1037

I thought you said Left – 1037

Fririe – 1037

Class B – The Mid Rangers

Where are we Now – 896

Don’t Confuse me with Directions – 886

Dukes of Hazzard – 877

Two Saints & Magpie – 844

Spinning Searle Snrs – 655

Rascally Rabbits – 410

Class C – The Extras

Albacutya – 762

Balazantine &BB – 751

Adventure Time – 674

Fossums – 674

EZ & Nick – 600

Class D – The Newcomers and Others

Drops of Jupiter – 856

Frog & Snail – 809

Anything to Win – 756

Spinning As – 708

Baby Magpies & Dad – 580