My first ever Turf event, TurfEmbra09, took place on Saturday 29th October in the Craiglockhart, Comiston, Greenbank and Oxgangs areas of Edinburgh. The event was planned by the famous Kingslayer and ran from 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm. Myself and my wife Cathryn, a.k.a. ChoccyMuffin, decided to participate. The event was for either foot or bicycle, so I opted to take the Swifty Air kick scooter. Not perhaps the best move in light of the hilly nature of the terrain. The event is also closed, which means you need to register beforehand to take part.
The event is essentially turfing but with a few tweaks. Firstly, all participants have the same takeover time of 30 seconds and a block time of 3 minutes. All zones have a point value of 10 points with a points per hour of 60. There are no bonuses, assists are not permitted and you cannot revisit a zone. Generally, all creating a more even playing field for all participants. The weather was mild for the time of year and the rain stopped just in time for the start of the event. However, my kick scooter does not have mudguards resulting in wet legs and a wet backside.
My plan was to head initially for the high ground, then contour downwards taking what zones I could. This worked out reasonably well, though the kick scooter was not ideal given the steep hills involved. I will almost certainly use the Surly Ogre bicycle next time round. Overall, a very enjoyable experience and one I will look forward to again. Cathryn also enjoyed herself. A couple of points worth noting. One is that the 30 second take time caught me out a few times as I’m used to a shorter 20 seconds. Easy to find myself on auto-pilot and leave the zone before its completely taken. The second thing is how quickly the 90 minutes of the event passed. Flew past in no time at all.
After the event we all gathered in the designated finishing point, zone SeeFlyWalk in Braidburn Valley Park. I just missed out on a prize by a mere 12 points behind JammyDognut. Jammy so-and-so that he is! The final results were as follows. Prizes of woolly hats were awarded for the following:
- Overall, Winner: ESOCWalter
- Best Female Newcomer: ChoccyMuffin
- Best Male Newcomer: JammyDognut
- Top Junior: ESOCKisaKat
Final results:
- ESOCWalter – 955p points
- MarkkuESOC – 722 points
- JammyDognut – 628 points
- PlanetGary – 616 points
- CSL – 593 points
- ChoccyMuffin – 390 points
- HappyHibby – 359 points
- ESOCJeneral – 337 points
- ESOCKisaKat – 315 points
- ESOCNora – 284 points
- Fearglas – 248 points
- Orinoco – 226 points
- Bythesea – 0 points
- CoolEsocAdds – 0 points
Further information can be found at the following links.
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