It’s 20 years this week since we first used the Balmoral Beach map for a SSS event. In SSS events prior to 2003, the pre-Christmas event was notionally held at Clifton Gardens by BNN. The “new” Balmoral Beach map at the time has enabled the pre-Christmas SSS event to be held each year from Clifton Gardens to Georges Heights, Balmoral Beach, Chinaman’s Beach and now this week at The Spit. Each location has such great scenic and hilly areas to run around.
With the timed parking situation at Balmoral Beach, using this as the assembly location has meant it is not favoured anymore. It is a great location, we used this as the assembly a few times after 2003, until Mosman Council changed things with the parking.
The mapping took a quite a while as there was no Google maps, Nearmaps or Lidar info available, just the hardcopy CMA orthophoto map which we photocopied, scanned into OCAD and traced the contour and street detail underneath then did the field work. There were so many hidden lane ways, paths, and parks, including the old tramway termination “discovered” during the mapping. There have been some changes since, and Terry has been able to merge all the areas, so it is possible to combine and extend courses into neighbouring maps.
The map from that night is attached, the top score was 540 from Andrew Hill; possibly too many 30 pointers up on the high side of the map, and that was in the days before SportIdent; using pencils and cards to write down the control codes on the flower pots. The good old days?
Have a Merry Christmas,
Regards Wayne
