Colonie Town Park (in the process of being renamed Colonie Mohawk River Park) is a great venue for orienteering, with plenty of interesting features packed into a small area. It's such a small area, though, that it is difficult to set a course above orange length. Previous meet directors have met this challenge by suppressing the trails and using a map exchange. I decided to try a scrabble-o. Each control was given a letter, and the object was to create the highest-scoring word by punching no more than seven times. There was a huge incentive (50 points) to net a seven letter word, and a small incentive (up to 7 points) to punch the controls in the proper order. With a 90-minute time limit, it wasn't quite possible to visit all of the controls before deciding which word to make. No one got the highest-possible scoring word, QUICKLY (82 points if gotten in order), but the Canham family came very close with ZYGOTES (77). Most remarkable is that they were heading back, ready to turn in ZYGOTE for a mere 26 points but happened upon the S conveniently near the finish line. A very honorable mention goes to Dorinda Hamilton and Emmanuel Bryant for the relevant BOULDER.
I affixed actual scrabble tiles to the control boxes, and amazingly got them all back with the help of Phil H.-T. and Brenan Tarrier. We didn't get all the control boxes back, though - one of the few not part of the scrabble-o (on the white and yellow courses only) was at the end of the boat dock jutting into the Mohawk River. Two years ago when I set a course here, this location was a big hit with the kids, so I used it again. It happened to be the last control I set before the meet, but less than an hour later the early competitors reported it missing, though the stand and the flag were undisturbed. The only thing I can figure is that some kids made their way down to the water's edge, saw a strange electronic gadget sticking in the water, retrieved it, saw that it had no obvious function, then either couldn't figure out how to snap it back in place, or just heaved it in the water. Which raises the question: do these things sink or float? In case of the former, I waded around in the muck for a bit afterwards but with no luck. The moral of the story, I suppose, is to set controls at least somewhat off the beaten path.
All in all though, it was a fun day, and by special request the next club scrabble-o will use the Cyrillic alphabet.
Scrabble (8)
Score Word Time
1 Canham Family, Krista 77 ZYGOTES 1:20:49 1:04:19 1:07:51 1:09:33 1:13:00 1:14:15 1:16:47 1:19:56
EMPO *125 *121 *103 *105 *36 *39 *32
2 Swank, Doug 71 CATCHER 1:22:25 53:51 58:57 1:01:30 1:06:18 1:12:49 1:17:37 1:19:58
EMPO *102 *38 *36 *40 *104 *33 *101
3 Conway Bagnato, Amy Stephen 67 CRINGES 1:00:34 32:11 37:05 39:11 42:33 47:07 56:05 58:42
None *102 *101 *127 *35 *103 *39 *32
4 Hamilton Bryant, Dorinda Emmanuel 65 BOULDER 1:17:34 44:12 47:57 57:55 1:01:19 1:08:57 1:13:12 1:14:38
EMPO *110 *128 *124 *122 *123 *39 *101
5 Goodwin, Bob 61 BLOATED 1:23:45 54:04 56:26 1:01:50 1:06:55 1:11:21 1:14:28 1:20:24
EMPO *124 *123 *122 *105 *38 *36 *33
6 Lange, Bob 13 GLOATS 1:22:00 56:16 58:41 1:02:23 1:06:57 1:09:50 1:20:20
EMPO *103 *122 *105 *38 *36 *32
Hawkes-Teeter, Susan DSQ 1:20:25
EMPO
Fisher, Kathy OVT 1:45:43
EMPO
Orange (8) 4.3 km 16 C
1(38) 2(106) 3(107) 4(105) 5(108) 6(126) 7(127) 8(124) 9(104) 10(128) 11(103) 12(122) 13(121) 14(123) 15(125) 16(200) F
1 Bobok, Gabor OO 48:23 2:52 5:17 9:00 11:57 13:36 15:29 22:31 26:10 29:20 31:11 33:16 35:46 38:44 42:15 44:26 47:55 48:23
EMPO 2:52 2:25 3:43 2:57 1:39 1:53 7:02 3:39 3:10 1:51 2:05 2:30 2:58 3:31 2:11 3:29 0:28
2 Soloviev, Dmitri OO 52:07 2:45 4:58 10:59 13:53 15:58 18:16 24:17 27:34 30:24 32:46 35:15 37:21 42:18 44:57 47:15 51:41 52:07
EMPO 2:45 2:13 6:01 2:54 2:05 2:18 6:01 3:17 2:50 2:22 2:29 2:06 4:57 2:39 2:18 4:26 0:26
3 Forti, Adam OO 1:02:44 4:48 6:57 12:40 16:53 18:49 20:27 26:53 29:57 38:16 41:13 43:08 45:00 54:15 56:35 59:29 1:02:25 1:02:44
EMPO 4:48 2:09 5:43 4:13 1:56 1:38 6:26 3:04 8:19 2:57 1:55 1:52 9:15 2:20 2:54 2:56 0:19
4 Collins, Eric OO 1:04:38 3:21 5:39 13:00 16:13 19:12 21:54 30:20 34:20 38:08 40:36 43:48 46:25 52:49 55:51 59:06 1:04:08 1:04:38
EMPO 3:21 2:18 7:21 3:13 2:59 2:42 8:26 4:00 3:48 2:28 3:12 2:37 6:24 3:02 3:15 5:02 0:30
5 Frielinghaus, Chris OO 1:10:03 3:26 13:22 17:32 21:45 24:38 28:52 34:49 39:42 45:15 47:43 49:44 53:19 1:00:34 1:03:03 1:05:47 1:09:32 1:10:03
EMPO 3:26 9:56 4:10 4:13 2:53 4:14 5:57 4:53 5:33 2:28 2:01 3:35 7:15 2:29 2:44 3:45 0:31
6 Guskie, Paul OO 1:13:57 4:14 6:52 10:52 14:03 16:15 19:09 31:55 38:01 47:29 50:38 53:06 55:58 1:00:30 1:03:44 1:08:16 1:13:32 1:13:57
EMPO 4:14 2:38 4:00 3:11 2:12 2:54 12:46 6:06 9:28 3:09 2:28 2:52 4:32 3:14 4:32 5:16 0:25
Collins, Jeff OO mp 5:32 22:42 37:48 41:55 47:32 1:01:31 1:13:12 1:25:00 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 1:29:29 1:34:39 1:35:13
EMPO 5:32 17:10 15:06 4:07 5:37 13:59 11:41 11:48 4:29 5:10 0:34
Collins, Aaron OO mp 3:17 9:50 16:47 21:21 25:21 30:10 42:12 48:32 1:06:35 1:09:50 1:14:16 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 1:31:58
EMPO 3:17 6:33 6:57 4:34 4:00 4:49 12:02 6:20 18:03 3:15 4:26 17:42
Yellow (5) 2.7 km 11 C
1(32) 2(39) 3(40) 4(101) 5(34) 6(35) 7(102) 8(103) 9(104) 10(105) 11(200) F
1 Poole Family, Stuart OY 50:50 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 50:50
EMPO 50:50
2 Gurzler, Beth OY 51:21 2:47 8:05 10:59 13:40 0.00 21:12 26:52 36:00 38:15 43:01 50:26 51:21 33:07
EMPO 2:47 5:18 2:54 2:41 7:32 5:40 9:08 2:15 4:46 7:25 0:55 *104
3 McCormick, Elena OY 59:36 1:42 14:49 17:55 22:09 0.00 27:59 33:45 38:27 44:52 52:27 59:08 59:36
EMPO 1:42 13:07 3:06 4:14 5:50 5:46 4:42 6:25 7:35 6:41 0:28
4 Collins, Kelly OY 1:00:06 2:48 10:11 15:58 19:39 0.00 29:03 34:43 40:26 43:20 48:52 58:47 1:00:06
EMPO 2:48 7:23 5:47 3:41 9:24 5:40 5:43 2:54 5:32 9:55 1:19
5 Scout Group, Berloff OY 1:07:00 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 1:07:00
None 1:07:00
White (2) 1.9 km 8 C
1(31) 2(32) 3(33) 4(34) 5(35) 6(36) 7(37) 8(200) F
1 Carrubba Group, Beckie OW 52:30 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 52:30
EMPO 52:30
2 Tobin Family, Lily OW 1:34:03 3:48 5:40 8:58 0.00 52:15 1:11:34 1:17:22 1:30:49 1:34:03
None 3:48 1:52 3:18 43:17 19:19 5:48 13:27 3:14
