This is the response i got from Andrew Kelly about the scoring system:
I'm sure, (although he doesnt sit on the comitee anymore?), he would be willing to answer any queries about it. I hope this clarifies things.
Drew
Your comments on the YBT are spot on. As the person who set the competition up, can I offer a few words of explanation about why the scoring system is as it is (I can't post direct to the board as I'm an M45!). Please feel free to post what you want of the stuff below.
The competition is designed both to test a club's junior strength across the whole age spectrum, and to allow clubs with weaknesses to still be competitive: few if any clubs are strong across the whole age range. Unlike the Compass Sport Cup (for instance) the system allows small clubs to compete against big ones on a reasonably even basis.
Thus, even if a club has nobody who will score points in one class (as Robert says is the case for HOC), they can still do well, even win, by getting their counters in other classes. Thus NOC managed to win one year without having a single runner in one class. It also sets up the intriguing siituation whereby one club which is really strong in one age group can have a realistic and close match against another club with completely different strengths.
M and W20s are included not only because they are juniors by BOF and IOF definition, but also because one of the purposes of the competition was to try and enable 20s to maintain links with their open club, and provide a competition where they are important to the club. There are not many of those, and this is one of my concerns about M/W20-21.
Whilst top M/W16s will obviously struggle to compete against top M/W20s, the race was deliberately set up on the Green to give those M/W16s a fighting chance of getting in amongst the M/W20s, and they do! Also - it's not always about who wins, but what the lower counting runners do. One critical counter for AIRE (who only won by one point) in the Yvette Baker Final this year was their leading M16, Ben Stevens. In all of the 25 individuals who counted for their clubs on the Green, 9 were M/W16 or younger. Indeed, Catherine Taylor, a W14, scored 95 points for CLOK in the Women's race!
So, in spite of what Robert says, good M/W16s ARE important. The scoring system took a long time to think through, and I believe it's a wee bit more subtle than is being given credit. Personally, I was dead chuffed this year: a huge range of juniors counting for their clubs, where the top 3 teams finished within 2 points of each other, all with very different team profiles. A competition convener's dream!
Regards, Andrew (Kelly)
Yvette Baker Trophy - Reasoning behind it.
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Yvette Baker Trophy - Reasoning behind it.
It's all about next year
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Drew - junior moderator
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