Relay Gaffles

[HOCOLITE]

I know these are done with something like 50% of one with 50% of another to make them fair. Usually they are described as AB, BA etc at the British they were done by numbers which I don't think indicate the gaffle mix. That aside. Isn't it usual for all the teams in a relay class to have the same three legs but in different orders? Otherwise surely inequalities creep in. It struck me that the M18 teams all seemed to have different gaffles so they were not comparable(to me). There were 9 gaffles I would have expected 6. Can someone explain them to me.

[tendon]

C = pt1;pt2
1 = 11
2 = 22
3 = 33
4 = 12
5 = 23
6 = 31
7 = 13
8 = 21
9 = 32

Combination should add to 66 to use all 6 parts

ie 11, 22, 33
or 13, 21, 32
etc

There are 36 combinations equalling 66 so the teams in classes with under 36 entries ran unique sets to get from the start of leg 1 to the end of leg 3.

And all parts on M18 shared a common central control (No 9, 117)


QED

[HOCOLITE]

After explanation from mathmatician in family I think I now understand your post, and the use of numbers to check that all have experience of a section 1,2,3. But I can't quite see why 9 and not 6, for an individual class, on the relay, if they all have a common middle section, particularly a smaller class.
Is it the norm to have 9, I thought there were usually 6.
I don't know if I'm being dense, I'll try and look at the map later. It seems to make planning immensely more complex.

[Roger]

Is it the norm to have 9, I thought there were usually 6.

Permutations multiply, not add.

Three options for first part; for each of them, three options for second part. Three times three equals nine.

[Gross]

At the elite test in Devilla in 1996 we had something like 172 different course combinations... each runner had a uninque map.... and in the days before computers and OCAD printing they were all processed with the old fashioned hand overprinter.

A brilliantly planned event even if I do say so myself only spoilt by Dr Palmer getting within 1 second of the target winning time of 90minutes

[tendon]

In the good old days of a hand printer, everyone always had a personalised map, as the circles migrated across the plate. Nothing special there then