Score events - making them more enjoyable?

[NeilC]

With many of the events being discussed on here starting at 7:30pm you really don't want a points system which encourages runners to stay out over the time limit (think about the poor control collectors - especially when many rural pubs stop taking food orders after 9pm). There's actually quite a good guideline on planning score events http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/i ... line_g.pdf though I suspect that it's not read much. Nothing wrong with runners having the same control points score, just then sort by time taken. In a mass start event this can lead to sprint finishes if there's a likelihood that the person finishing with you may have accumulated the same points total.

[bewildered]

Isn't the important thing to have a format that allows people to have fun doing a bit of orienteering? If you want to have a Score Championship then have lots of rules, otherwise plan whatever kind of score event you like.

[SeanC]

They're only guidelines, not rules.

However the implication of a guideline is that this is how it should be done. In this case could be done would be better because it depends on why we're doing a score event.

For example, I think it's often better for an event targeting newcomers and intermediate standard to start in as public a place as possible (eg next to a park café), rather than in the middle of the area for maximum route choice. A mass start of 50 people can be good publicity and people can be cheered off by non-competing family members from the café. For this market the route choice is less important. There is a danger of guidelines discouraging innovation because organisers will see it as how an event should be done.

A more informal section on the BOF website - "ideas" might be better and could be used to add some of the interesting score formats that different clubs have used for small events and training, and for targeting different markets.