Top Clubs

[afterthought]

Great magazine CompassSport, and excellent writer of articles based on performance data Dave Nevell, but recent article, club ranking 2013 (Vol 34, Issue 4), is for me a miss. Now I think it's a great idea to have articles about clubs, but the problem here is a ranking based on club averages, meaning a club does better without its less good members. To do better get the chairman to suggest to the less fast people they clear off to join a club more suited to their ability, and only accept new members who are already good for their age.

So I don't want a list that rewards keeping your club small (or a competition, but don't mention the CompassSport Trophy.) Is there an alternative that might be interesting? Which are the top (most significant?) clubs in the UK?

Maybe a list of the clubs by number of ranked members (another column in the table).

But, as I do whenever I have some free time, I turn to Nopesport's favourite conversation topic, the Ranking Lists.

So just in case anyone is interested, here is in a different list of the top-10 UK clubs.

It is made just by counting men and women in their respective top 100s.
In brackets is the number of ranked members from Dave's CompassSport article.

Code: Select all

SYO    (109)
LOC    (103)
FVO     (49)
OD     (102)
AIRE   (124)
INT     (44)
SLOW   (129)
MAROC   (58)
BOK    (136)
SO     (125)

Notes:
The top-100 men are listed under 39 club names, the top-100 women under 43 club names.
The top-10 clubs have nearly 50% (97/200).
Several runners are listed for closed clubs when they run major relays for open ones, and vice-versa in the case of ShUOC. From those I know SYO and BOK could claim a larger number of top-100 (99/200), but I think it would not affect which clubs are on the list.

Top clubs just below this premier group:
CLOK
DEE
ESOC
EUOC
NOC
SBOC
SROC

This list of 17 clubs covers approx two-thirds of the leading runners, with the other one third of runners spread evenly through the lists.

[sloaner]

Both are flawed as juniors aren't ranked..... it was thanks to the strength of our juniors (and sheer numbers) that we won the CSC this year.

[Rosine]

Is a top club the one with top runners?

Or is it a club that puts a lot of effort in School O, or one that puts on a lot of events at all sorts of levels, or one that provides controllers, or anything else that matters to its members, nearby clubs and other people?

Next month our club will put on its annual Christmas Score event, which is highly valued by both our club members and those of nearby clubs. There are no ranking points of any sort to be had

[afterthought]

Both are flawed as juniors aren't ranked

The youngest people in the rankings are 1997 and some have made the top-100 (both men and women.) The other end of the range is some folk born in 1960.

[afterthought]

I see the UKOL answers the "top clubs" question. taking into account all senior classes:

Code: Select all

1. SYO    6696    
2. OD     6277    
3. MDOC   6067    
4. HH     5602    
5. AIRE   5320    
6. SROC   4947    
7. DEE    4672    
8. BOK    4658    
9. ESOC   4637
10.HOC    4527

With DVO and SOC just outside.

In this choice and previous top-10: SYO, OD, AIRE, BOK.

Not in this list and in the other (UKOL position in brackets): LOC (14th), FVO (25th), INT (30th), SLOW (16th), MAROC (29th), SO (17th).

In this choice and not in the other: MDOC, HH, SROC*, DEE*, ESOC*, HOC
(* Three in the "just below" category in the rankings based list.)

[Big Jon]

You have to be very keen* to get enough UKOL events if you live north of the central belt in Scotland. (*or is it sad?)

[graeme]

I see the UKOL answers the "top clubs" question.

If you colour in the clubs' locations on a map you'll see what question it actually answers

[The Loofa]

Only 2 from SLOW got to 10 or more of the series