Making competitions competitive

[SeanC]

Those in the South East might have noticed that the South East League, until recently a completely predictable and possibly rather boring single league with SO as the annual winners by a million miles, has become rather interesting now the league has been split into two. In Division 1 HH are suprisingly ahead of SO by a point with two events to go. At the bottom any of 4 clubs could be relegated. In Division 2, two local rivals are competing with the army for the promotion spots. I don't know how much the ordinary member follows these leagues - but it must be easier if the competition is interesting.

Are there any other competitions that need a similar shake up?

Last but one league event is at Mereworth March 18th if you want to support your club (blatant plug).

[madmike]

Sean,
that's good news. Of course when the split of SE Lge into 2 Divs was originally muted I proposed that Div 1 = SO and Div 2 = all the other SEOA Clubs. If HH do manage to turn over the mighty SO over the Lge season, I will have to apologise to NeilC

Even more embarassing will be the fact that HH's stellar improvement will be totally coincident with me emigrating

[awk]

Are there any other competitions that need a similar shake up?

I have long argued that the Compass Sport Cup/Trophy should be merged, and the qualifying rounds be organised in broader geographical categories on a divisional basis, with winners of each division going forward to national divisional finals. Winners and last places in each area division would get promoted/relegated for the following year.
We'd then have a competition based on a club's strength not on some nominal size, and more interesting competition between clubs of similar strength.

[plain lazy]

I have long argued that the Compass Sport Cup/Trophy should be merged, and the qualifying rounds be organised in broader geographical categories on a divisional basis, with winners of each division going forward to national divisional finals. Winners and last places in each area division would get promoted/relegated for the following year.
We'd then have a competition based on a club's strength not on some nominal size, and more interesting competition between clubs of similar strength.

I'm not saying the current format for the CSC is right, but in Scotland this year in the big club competition it wasn't the biggest club that automatically won on the day, it was the club that managed to get a good spread of competitors across all age ranges, AND more importantly they performed really well across the board.

[awk]

I'm not saying the current format for the CSC is right, but in Scotland this year in the big club competition it wasn't the biggest club that automatically won on the day, it was the club that managed to get a good spread of competitors across all age ranges, AND more importantly they performed really well across the board.

Great! I'm not averse to the biggest winning if they are the best (i.e. it/s not pure numbers but strength that matters, which does to some extent obviously go hand in hand). What I'd prefer though is that they win againts the rest of the biggest and best in a more real competition, and not just against those clubs in their relatively immediate vicinity.

[LostAgain]

What I'd prefer though is that they win againts the rest of the biggest and best in a more real competition, and not just against those clubs in their relatively immediate vicinity.

Is that not what essentially happens now? The best get through to the CSC Final and slog it out. If not who was missing from the last few finals?

[graeme]

Is that not what essentially happens now? The best get through to the CSC Final and slog it out. If not who was missing from the last few finals?

What was missing was competition between the two strongest clubs who always win: FVO and SYO. Maybe you guys need to enter the trophy for some real competition

[LostAgain]

What was missing was competition between the two strongest clubs who always win: FVO and SYO. Maybe you guys need to enter the trophy for some real competition

OK. Maybe we could enter both? Not sure our fellow YHOA clubs would appreciate it. Top 9 counters for Trophy and top 25 for Cup would just kill the small clubs.

[awk]

What I'd prefer though is that they win againts the rest of the biggest and best in a more real competition, and not just against those clubs in their relatively immediate vicinity.

Is that not what essentially happens now? The best get through to the CSC Final and slog it out. If not who was missing from the last few finals?

Exactly. They do it in the final, having won through some (often) pretty uncompetitive earlier rounds. I'm suggesting (a) they have some more interesting competition in the earlier round, (b) there's some incentive for all clubs, not just the few, and (c) the finals are a lot tighter too.

Graeme - as yet we've no idea if FVO are one of the two strongest clubs, as they don't compete against the Cup finalists.