ablogoaMAZEing Ballarat 2015Eureka Logo

On a fine, clear day in Ballarat on Saturday 5 December, 18 teams tackled the 9th Annual aMAZEing Ballarat. This year’s event was reduced to 3 hours, but this still had most teams busy throughout discovering back streets and little known facts about this historical city.

Teams were caught off-guard this year, when their first task had to be completed before they left the start area and without the use of their mobile devices. Most discovered that they didn’t know Victoria as well as they thought, as they had to place 10 ‘smallish’ townships onto a blank map of the State. Although one team did get all correct, but it did have a Forester in its midst!

There was also a guesstimate exercise on the course this year with teams having to estimate the number of smarties in a jar. A few teams got within 5% of the correct total which was a great result considering there were 852 in the jar.

Target shots with a tennis ball proved something of a challenge for a few of the teams, and the location of Adam Lindsay Gordon’s Commemorative statue stumped some as well – perhaps they were looking for a figure or a bust, when they should have been looking for a horse!

When the time came for the usual handout of prizes and all the calculations had been completed, the real winners again were the local fundraising group for Cancer Research, the Balladonors (who will be presented with a cheque for $1000 this week), and the beneficiaries of the ABC Giving Tree program, because 18 gifts were added to the pile in the local ABC Radio station.

Final scores

Group One “The Serious Ones”

  1. Archie’s Avengers 780
  2. Segrodjengeo 770 }
  3. The Magpies 770 } (Teams 2,3,4 separated by finishing time)
  4. Team XY 770 }
  5. I thought you said left 740

Group Two “The Street O Visitors”

  1. No Clue at All 750
  2. Totally Clueless 740
  3. Albacutya 670
  4. Haven’t a Clue 655
  5. Team Xiaoping 475

Group 3 “Local Knowledge”

  1. Team XX 750
  2. Happy Feet 730
  3. 2 Saints 500
  4. Fluff Heads 440

Group 4 “The less Experienced”

  1. Walkie Talkies 690
  2. Wisejacks 650
  3. Sarah & Ivan 640
  4. Adventure Time 490