January fixtures
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January fixtures
Ii've just been looking at the fixture list for the rest of the month and it seems very unbalanced for those in the midlands areas. this weekend there is absolutely nothing listed except a night event at Severn Valley country park on saturday - and indeed the rest of the country is very quiet also. Next weekend there is a cc league event at Hawkesmoor near Cheadle - a badge at Delamere (which is pretty close by) and another CC in Matlock, anyone living in the midlands or not very far north could choose to go to any of those. There are also loads of events elsewhere in the country. the net result of this is likely to be that numbers will be down at some or all of these events as people are spoiled for choice - how has this situation come about - don't regions talk to each other over fixtures - particularly in neighbouring areas?
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Mrs H. - nope godmother
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I wrote an article for our region magazine "Y Ddraig" on the very same subject and suggested clubs look into a twinning process with neighbouring clubs, so if the club next to you is putting on a C3 or C4 one Sunday then try to put a C4 or C5 on for the Saturday. It seems that clubs are competing against each other to get orienteers to their events, even within the same region!. Fixtures should be a region/club/neighbouring region/club process. I also mentioned abit of EVO is also needed to coax orienteers along.
Cymru am Byth!
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freaky_phil - orange
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Yes Phils article was very informative on how the system works.
The problem with the events Mrs H. mentions is that I think they are in 3 different regions NWOA for Delamere, WMOA for Hawkesmoor, and EMOA? for Matlock. You are looky there is not an event on in Shefield as well. The knowing what is happening in the neigbering regions local clubs side of things is not working well.
Ifor
The problem with the events Mrs H. mentions is that I think they are in 3 different regions NWOA for Delamere, WMOA for Hawkesmoor, and EMOA? for Matlock. You are looky there is not an event on in Shefield as well. The knowing what is happening in the neigbering regions local clubs side of things is not working well.
Ifor
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ifor - brown
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Do we know whether the clubs involved are actually bothered about these clashes? Perhaps it doesn't concern them.
I'm all for letting the natural forces within the system sort out fixture clashes etc. The bottom line is the surplus generated at each event. Clubs are the best placed decision takers on that one!
On the general theme of fixtures.....
There ought to be District events all over the place EVERY weekend, but with the proviso that we try to keep them at least 30 miles apart. That is what the sport needs if we are to expand and bring in new people. There are maybe 20000 (max) orienteers in GB, so we need plenty of events. You can't tell a newcomer to the sport that there won't be an event locally for another six weeks!
If manpower is a problem then we need to explain to everyone that events are put on by PEOPLE, you and me! 20 people on average per event, with everyone being involved once a year, gives 1000 events. So if there isn't an event close to you every weekend then we need to do some explaining!!!!
I'm all for letting the natural forces within the system sort out fixture clashes etc. The bottom line is the surplus generated at each event. Clubs are the best placed decision takers on that one!
On the general theme of fixtures.....
There ought to be District events all over the place EVERY weekend, but with the proviso that we try to keep them at least 30 miles apart. That is what the sport needs if we are to expand and bring in new people. There are maybe 20000 (max) orienteers in GB, so we need plenty of events. You can't tell a newcomer to the sport that there won't be an event locally for another six weeks!
If manpower is a problem then we need to explain to everyone that events are put on by PEOPLE, you and me! 20 people on average per event, with everyone being involved once a year, gives 1000 events. So if there isn't an event close to you every weekend then we need to do some explaining!!!!
- RJ
Fixtures committee tries to avoid any clashes at C1/C2/C3 level, and in NWOA any C4 clashes should be between clubs at either end of the region (ie WCOC & MDOC). But its a fair point that maybe there should be more care between adjacent clubs across regions.
Some Championship/Regional events are held around the same time every year (Delamere Trophy, Concorde Chase, Scottish Champs etc) so it shouldn't be tooo difficult to try and avoid C3/C4 clashes in obvious cases.
And then its always difficult to judge without knowing access constraints, available slots within a league framework, availability of officials, etc.
As to whether clubs are bothered, I'm sure they are - I guess us regional fixtures secs need to work harder .
Some Championship/Regional events are held around the same time every year (Delamere Trophy, Concorde Chase, Scottish Champs etc) so it shouldn't be tooo difficult to try and avoid C3/C4 clashes in obvious cases.
And then its always difficult to judge without knowing access constraints, available slots within a league framework, availability of officials, etc.
As to whether clubs are bothered, I'm sure they are - I guess us regional fixtures secs need to work harder .
- richtea
RJ wrote:Do we know whether the clubs involved are actually bothered about these clashes? Perhaps it doesn't concern them.
that's a bit of an odd thing to say - next week's clashes is only half of the problem - there is nothing at all going on this week. we as a family will not be orienteering this weekend because there is no event for us to go to - we can only go to one of the three events on next week (I forgot to mention the NGOC mini league on saturday another event - another region!) just one of those events would keep us happy this week and make loads of money for the organising club - it's such a missed opportunity - it's not a case of clubs being bothered - or not - about clashes - its about providing a well balanced fixture list for the orienteers - you know the paying customers
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Mrs H. - nope godmother
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I wrote
My point is that there aren't enough events. We don't need to regulate C4, District events. They are supposed to cater for the DISTRICT and if people travel 60 miles to attend, then they are a bonus.
I'm not bothered if there is another C4 60 miles away, that might clash, because our event is being staged for our club and adjacent clubs.
If there isn't an event to go to this weekend then the problem as I see it is not to take an event from another weekend, but to find a club to put on an extra one. In fact I would go as far as to say that if there are no events on a particular weekend it is a wakeup call. Put more on, not shuffle existing ones around. This is for District events, where, the 30 mile gap between venues should be adhered to.
I would like to bet that next weekend's organising clubs are aware of the clashes, and that they decided to leave them as there are, for whatever 'constraining' reasons.
There ought to be District events all over the place EVERY weekend, but with the proviso that we try to keep them at least 30 miles apart.
My point is that there aren't enough events. We don't need to regulate C4, District events. They are supposed to cater for the DISTRICT and if people travel 60 miles to attend, then they are a bonus.
I'm not bothered if there is another C4 60 miles away, that might clash, because our event is being staged for our club and adjacent clubs.
If there isn't an event to go to this weekend then the problem as I see it is not to take an event from another weekend, but to find a club to put on an extra one. In fact I would go as far as to say that if there are no events on a particular weekend it is a wakeup call. Put more on, not shuffle existing ones around. This is for District events, where, the 30 mile gap between venues should be adhered to.
I would like to bet that next weekend's organising clubs are aware of the clashes, and that they decided to leave them as there are, for whatever 'constraining' reasons.
- RJ
30 miles would be great. As we live in South of region and Hawkesmoor is in extreme North East I think it's more like 80 miles. I suspect that there is probably not much more than 30 miles between Hawksmoor and Delamere. Certainly due to the road network Delamere is quicker to get to for us. Just a cool four hours driving(return trip).
Diets and fitness are no good if you can't read the map.
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HOCOLITE - addict
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RJ wrote:. This is for District events, where, the 30 mile gap between venues should be adhered to.
Blimey - where you live orienteers must be thick on the ground - if you stand in the middle of Hoc land and travel for 30 miles in nearly every direction you're still in Hoc land - I certainly don't think there should be more events - i think there should be fewer - the fixture list is generally already chronically congested for the most part and many events are struggling to make a profit - the fixture list needs to be better regulated with better communication between regions to avoid messes like this!
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Mrs H. - nope godmother
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Mrs H, Surly you are getting your Fix this weekend at the Wrekin Night Event on Sataday, you will at least get one outing for the weekend. I am looking to go up for it myself. And then rumor has it SBOC have a Mountain Bike O on Sunday in Pembray if I can find some more details...
Ifor
Ifor
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ifor - brown
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Mrs H. wrote: I certainly don't think there should be more events - i think there should be fewer - the fixture list is generally already chronically congested for the most part
Nah, disagree. It may be congested with events at the top end, but there's a distinct shortage of district events. Need far less fancy events, and far more district events.
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awk - god
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Well I could easily be persuaded if they were more like the NGOC mini league. If the selection races and all the other imperatives were amalgamated into a straight forward national series - say one every 6 weeks and every thing else was local and fairly low key - sounds good to me - we do way too much travelling.
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Mrs H. - nope godmother
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