December Social 2013Monday 2 December
Report from the December social.
The December social was at the Dalgleishes' house in Penicuik. It was a mild but dampish night, which was good for running and walking. The aim was really just to get folk out for some fresh air and exercise, rather than a challenging competition. The street map had 10 controls marked on it and at each control there was a number and a letter. When unscrambled, the letters made the seasonal words ‘Santa Claus’ – no surprise there. Those who wanted a short run had a choice of controls 1 to 5 which reassembled to read ‘Santa’.
The timing was laid back and the scoring equally so. Most people managed to guess the answer pretty quickly, whether or not they actually went to the controls, but the key to being in line for one of the prestigious prizes was not the fastest time, nor was it the correct answer or even the number of points gained. There were simply spot prizes. The names of all those who were brave enough to go to the furthest away control (99) - the ‘super-braves’ - were written on red paper and the names of those who went to the control with our door number (7) - the ‘braves’ - were written on green paper (seasonal theme again) and put in a bowl. Roger Scrutton, who had dislocated his shoulder at Glasgow Parks Champs the day before, used his one good arm to draw the prizes. First name drawn for the braves was Janet Clark and the prize was a bag of Christmas brussel sprouts (chocolate of course). Second name drawn for a prize of a chocolate Santa was Norma Coutts. First name drawn from the super-braves (another bag of chocolate sprouts) was Rachel Fawthrop, and second name drawn was Crawford Lindsay.
Special mention must go to Alastair Lessells, who visited 8 out of 10 controls but opted to miss out the 2 which attracted spot prizes. We didn’t predict that happening! Fortunately there was a choice of seasonally wrapped chocolate for everyone, so no real disappointment in not winning the sprouts!
Margaret Dalgleish
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