Time penalty in trail-O

[Roadkill]

There are two or more timed controls in trail-O in which an answer has to be given within 60s. The total of times taken by each competitor is used to separate competitors with the same score. If you get the answer wrong 60s is added as a penalty to your time in seconds. If you fail to give an answer in 60s you are deemed to have got it wrong and are given a time of 120s. The reason for this 60s penalty, I am told, is to penalise snap decisions. However, if you make a snap guess in 2s and get it right , there is no penalty. If you take 59s and give a considered answer and get it wrong you collect the penalty. This is obviously flawed and unfair. There are 4 or 5 possible solutions to each timed control, so just guessing is going to be a poor way to win. I have tried for some time to persuade the "powers that be" to do away with this unnecessary penalty, so far without success.

What do people think?

[Nemo]

Is the total lack of response to Roadkill's valid criticism of the mechanics of trail O scoring (0 replies in 2 weeks) indicative of the general level of interest in trail O itself rather than just its right to existence and to be called a sport(Trail O in Focus 99 replies)

[mikey]

I guess like most posters, I don't feel qualified to comment on something I haven't tried.