This was to be the seventh annual critter hunt but the first time that it was run by Karen Hewitson. It was also the first year that the Ridgeline team were to be involved and quickly became apparent that Karens organising skills were very precise. She had a marque set up with a bar as well as a truck set up as a stage. The idea of the critter hunt was that all competitors had to try and catch all of the animals in their category.,
For the seniors they had to catch a pig, deer, goose, possum, hedgehog, starling, pigeon, trout and an eel. For the junior section they had to catch a Hare, possum, rabbit, yabby, eel, goose, hedgehog and a goat. There was also a section for the real young kids to get them involved, they had to get a moth, slater, worm, crab, jelly snake, butterfly, yabby, spider, huhu grub and an earwig.
All of the teams that were entered had an electric standard in the ground with their team name on it.
As each team arrived they were checked for how many of the ten animals they had caught. To be into win the main prize they had to have all ten animals. Out of the twenty four teams that had entered the critter hunt fourteen teams had all of their ten animals. Once the weigh in was finished it was drawn to out that the winner would come down to the biggest possum.
At a normal pig hunting comp we scrutineers the animals as they come in yet at this comp we only had to make sure that they had all of the animals until the close off at 2pm. Then we went around followed by most of the competitors as we weighed the possums. For the biggest pig and deer we only needed to pick out the biggest animals and scrutineer and weigh them.
Their were also eleven teams entered in the hare hunt. To judge these we only had to count how many hares they had.
The nail driving was also run by another member of SAR. You paid a small
amount to buy a nail and then the object was to see how many hits it took to
drive the nail right down into the wood. Rodney kept a running record of all adults and kids hits and the winners received some great prizes for their efforts. There was also a treasure hunt for the kids in the sandpit. They had to dig for a plastic bottle top and then got a small prize for their efforts.
Also face painting for kids was all free and also Vicky made balloon animals
for the kids which she kindly donated balloons for.
And for the golf fans there was the nearest the pin golf competition for kids and adults.
There was also an area cordoned off with ridgeline tape and inside they had set up hay bales, 44 gallon drums and tussock as places to hid for the two volunteers that where dressed up as rabbits. Any person could purchase paint balls for the paint ball gun and shoot at these two rabbits as they moved around. I am positive that a lot more comps may take on something like this once they know about it.
The two people that were dressed as rabbits also had wet suits under their rabbit suits to take the sting out of the paint balls, they where members of the local search and rescue team and all of the proceeds from this competition were going to their SARs team. While the comp was going on they had a local singer Casey Kennett up on stage singing. Another advantage of having Casey their was that at prize giving we got to use her sound system which makes it a lot easier for the crowd to hear what is being said.
There was one sad story of the day Darryl Shanks had a dog killed on the boar that his team weighed in at161 pounds
with their 191 pound boar
I was very impressed at the involvement of the locals as many of them are involved with their local SARs and supported the comp well
Results
Seniors
1st The Jamesons
Adrian Shute
Kim Hiko
Cameron Clark
Darryl Waby
2nd Keen as f**k
Daniel Burgess
Brayden Penycook
Todd Keen
Cameron Burgess
Intermediate
1st I like talking
Neave Ramsey
Holly Burgess
2nd The Slayers
Hadley Clark
Ayson White
Biggest boar
1st The Jamesons 191 pounds
Adrian Shute
Kim Hiko
Cameron Clark
Darryl Waby
2nd Who Knows 178 pounds
Ryan Griffith
Rob Grey
Heaviest deer 277 pounds
Lost in Chasland
Peter Shanks
Darryl Shanks
Tom Jenks
Albert Jenks
2nd the Goons 259 pounds
Ian Hogg
Cary Hancox
Brayden Gutsell
Best tusks
18 6/8 The Jamesons
Most hares The A team 140
Thomas Grey
Jeremy Grey
David Woodrow
Clayton Latta