Saturday 28th January and my second turfing event, TurfEmbra10, centred on Oxgangs and Colinton areas of Edinburgh. The event ran from 3.00 to 4.30 pm and some 23 intrepid turfers signed up to take part. The event base was the bench near the triangular shaped zone ColintonPark, in Colinton Mains Park.
The weather was dry, even sunny at times, but somewhat spoiled by a chill wicked wind from the west. Not too bad in sheltered areas or when generating heat while cycling but no fun for the motley and brave turf crew who manned the event base for all 90 minutes of the event, and the 30 minutes or so post event chat, shivering, blethering, prize giving and photo session. Well down them.
My trusty Surly Ogre bicycle was my chosen steed for the day (I’d used my Swifty Air kick scooter last time) and I managed a reasonable 7th place with 899 points, just staying ahead of turfer Aibo by two zone takes. We both had the same number of points. I must say I enjoyed the event, exploring new paths and a number of muddy woodland trails along the various burns in the area. (A burn is a small stream in Scots).
Not being familiar with the area was perhaps my main handicap, often not knowing exactly where I was or the best routes to reach the zones. I suspect the local turfers with a good knowledge of the area had the advantage. Mind you, I suspect no amount of local knowledge would get me anywhere close to winner MarkkuESOC who finished in 1st place with 1417 points.
At the end of the event participants all gathered at the event base, close to zone ColintonPark for the usual Crowdy medal and photo session. I was pleased to get the Crowdy-13 for my collection. Thanks go to ElsieSpanner for organising the event, FeTaTo for her delicious chocolate brownie cake and everyone else for making the event so enjoyable. And not forgetting the prize giving. Turfers CoolESOCAds, ESOCKisaKat & MarkkuESOC all received chocolates for their efforts. Bye for now.
Links to further in TurfEmba10.
Image courtesy of ESOCWalter.
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- Crowdy-13 – a medal that is given to the turfer who has been one of 13 turfers that have assisted with a zone takeover.
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