The inaugural AATBL car rally on Saturday 14 October 2017 was, if the press is to be believed, a rampaging success.

Five teams departed from Clancy’s in City Beach after breakfast, not knowing that they would take a circuitous route to the lunch rendezvous at Paddy’s Bush Bar and Grill in Karragullen. Four of the five rally teams teams were the same as the league’s playing teams.

As Digger was having his legs waxed and RE was a car rally steward, SuperMario and Stella were without their usual bocce partners, so they combined to form SMS for the rally. Shibumi was entirely absent, as Banker was attending yet another Star Trek convention and Reg was said to have been lost somewhere in Whitfields Carousel.

The stewards, Hank Scorpio and RE, released the teams at five-minute intervals. The Circus, not quite grasping the fact that the rally was not a race, made much of the fact that the Mystery Machine had been reverse-parked, ready for a Le Mans start. Some have suggested that this might have had some influence on the stewards’ decision to start them last on the first leg.

The teams were given pages of clues to the route, questions to be answered and photos to be taken, before each of the two legs. Points were allocated for correct answers to questions and for how much the stewards liked the pictures. Points were deducted if teams became lost and had to call the stewards for a “lifeline”.

Two teams, the Nomads and the Circus, called for lifelines, each thereby losing 20 of a possible 190 points.

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective), included:

• SM and Stella correctly working out that one clue required them to go north, but then heading south, as they couldn’t tell north from south;
• Cannonball and Serge bemusing a farmer by stopping to take a selfie with his geese;
• Barney and BP stopping to photograph themselves with The Great Sphinx of North Lake Road (when all they needed was a shot of the sphinx itself)
• three teams managing to photograph themselves alongside craypots;
• a scenic diversion through Seville Grove; and
• the Circus, when asked to “turn right into Antarctic explorer road”, choosing St Jacks Road over Mawson Road.

At the end of the afternoon stage, all teams had made it to the Freemasons Hotel in Beverley. Although the teams had clear instructions to bribe the stewards, none did. Hank and RE then tallied the scores, and we proceeded to dine at The Red Vault.

Over dinner, the placings were announced as follows:

• SMS 102
• Nomads 112
• Circus 117
• Drones 125
• Heaven’s Door 140.

Heaven’s Door very generously donated its prize, the case of wine, to the wine sweep that is held with the league’s finals.