LuxNUL 2 – no contours, but plenty of hills in Limpertsberg
On Wednesday 15 January, Limpertsberg saw the second run in the 2019-20 Luxembourg Night Urban League (“LuxNUL”) take place. Just like in Sandweiler last month, the only people to get wet were the planner putting out the controls, and the control collectors after the event.
Despite a few regular contenders being absent – business trips, new babies, illnesses, it happens… there was a good turnout, 24 in total. It was particularly good to welcome five SudOLuxiens, our guests from Arlon and beyond.
Sasha Rybakov took the honours on the long (“Deer”) course. Some might say Sasha had a home advantage – and yes, it is true that the course did start and finish at the front door of his very own flat. But, to be fair, Sasha has only very recently moved to Limpertsberg. It was a close result, too, with Ondra Kotecky only five seconds behind, despite trying to cross Parc Tony Neumann in the dark with the gates shut. Not the “approved route”, Ondra. (The planner apologises for having marked the out of bounds area not quite as extensively on the map as it was on the ground – sorry if one or two people were misled because it looked as if there was a way round the Parc, there really wasn’t!)
On the medium (“Rabbit”) course, Elisabet Wirtz won by three minutes. Again, home advantage may have contributed – Elisabet lives two blocks away from Sasha, and had very kindly offered to host a control in her front garden. (The planner, whilst grateful, opted not to!) Second place went to Maggie Roach – here it can be confirmed that being the planner’s wife conferred NO advantage at all!
As usual, the full results for the run have been compiled by Michael Hock, and are on the Helga website – see https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=3115
Cumulative placings to date for the overall LuxNUL rankings are also attached. The outcome will become clearer once people have three or more runs, and begin to drop their least good runs. Remember – the best three results will count, out of the series of six runs.
The planner was delighted to see so many people talking after the event with maps in their hands, comparing route choices. Views seemed to differ on which was the optimum route on several legs, especially those with hills, so it looks as if the route choices the planner was offering were well balanced. The consensus seemed to be that Limpertsberg had made a much better area for urban orienteering than anyone had expected, and that the University of Luxembourg campus in particular was tip-top terrain.
People seemed to manage with a map without contours – this time, it hadn’t been possible for the LuxOC mapping guru to work the magic of adding brown lines to the base OpenOMap. The planner just had to add lots of spot heights instead, to keep things fair. It seemed to work.
Thanks – firstly and mainly to Sasha, for not just hosting the run, but also for collecting some of the controls – the planner really appreciated not having to do the whole 5km circuit twice. Thanks also to the school caretaker at control 85, for forgetting to lock his gates – the planner only found out after the run had started that these gates are officially locked at 20.00. And thanks too to the good citizens of Limpertsberg for not removing any of the controls. Especially to the deaf old lady who (after a long and difficult conversation, speaking none of the same languages as the planner) eventually agreed that the planner could tie a control to “her” lamppost, outside her front window.
LOST PROPERTY – a nice pair of green Innov8s were left in Sasha’s front hall. Email the “info” club email address if you want them back – or collect them at the AGM on Wednesday 22 January. Also, we also still have no taker for the nice blue gloves left in the garden at LuxNUL 1 in Sandweiler last month.
Luxembourg OC looks forward to welcoming all members and friends to LuxNUL 3, on Wednesday 29 January, in Helmsange and Walferdange. Further details on this website a few days before the run, but the start and finish will be in the Club President’s garage. Venez nombreux!