will the harvesters be more popular this year?

[SeanC]

Every year nopesport has a debate about why the Harvester relays are less popular than in the past. This year I thought I'd start it early to give a bit of publicity to the event. Now's a good time to get your club to enter a team if there isn't one already.

Should be no excuses for a good turnout this year as it's in a central(ish) location. Don't know what the area is like. Assume halogen's aren't banned

[Angry Haggis]

With the legendary JOK Chasing Sprint also happening nearby on the Saturday, this should be a top class weekend in the Chilterns.

[Big Jon]

"Central-ish" - "Chilterns" - who is trying to kid who??

[graeme]

Well, its about as close to the south coast as Culbin is to the north coast.

So it'll be just as central, just as good and a bit warmer

[IanD]

"Central-ish" - "Chilterns" - who is trying to kid who??

It's officially in South Central

[greywolf]

It's officially in South Central

I thought South Central was the dodgy bit of LA, south of the Santa Monica Freeway, as immortalised in NWA's "Straight outta Compton".
Of course they could've been referring to life in the sleepy village just SW of Guildford...

[Big Jon]

Hmmmmm, I can accept the "central" bit - that's central in a lefty-righty way ..... but its the "south" bit that I reckon is the give away about the real location. Last time I looked Britain was a lot longer up and down than left to right

[zulu_warrior]

Hardly central in terms of time. Maybe in terms of people so there should be a bigger attendance. Does not necessarily mean it will be a better competition.

[RJ]

The new event structure is going to allow any person to run any colour course they please and the ranking system is going to be able to work out points that are consistent with any event, anywhere, with any set of competitors..

OK..... so statisticians.... lets have a 'working out' so that there can be two/three/four Harvesters on the same day in different parts of the country, with the winning 'overall' team decided by working out its ranking (positional?) points. That way many more people can enjoy the competition without travelling the length of the country to compete. There is no reason why each of the 'local' competitions can't be as competitive as each other.

Is that not the sort of thing the ranking scheme determines.... an overall winner from a series of competitons.

[Roger]

Is that not the sort of thing the ranking scheme determines.... an overall winner from a series of competitions.

Yes, but the idea of a relay is to determine who's best in a head-to-head race.

[awk]

lets have a 'working out' so that there can be two/three/four Harvesters on the same day in different parts of the country, with the winning 'overall' team decided by working out its ranking (positional?) points.....Is that not the sort of thing the ranking scheme determines.... an overall winner from a series of competitons.

I'm hoping this is meant to be ironical RJ, but I worry about the absence of indication otherwise!

[RJ]

Yes I know...... it is an off-the-wall idea!! Of course you want one main event or final where everyone races head to head! But one of the major problems with the sport is the travel distance for the ordinary competitor, the competitors who make the difference between the event becoming viable or not. The more people involved the better, and they should be given more opportunity to take part, well at least rather easier to get to them.

So..... if we are going to have a ranking list that allows ANY person to run ANY course at ANY event and be given realistic points..... where is the fundamental flaw in using the same system to work out Harvester team results at different venues? It would be good to have just one competition, but is it possible to have two or three?

[Harley]

Hmmm.... We have one event, garnering teams from across the country, which is alledgedly falling in popularity, so the plan is .... to split it up into several smaller events, which will be even more popular?

Sorry, I just can't see the maths in that one. The Tio Mila gets a huge entry precisely because it is one event - what would be the point of going to a small local version?

[Guest88]

Well I guess in brainstorming sessions they say that you should chalk even the craziest ideas up on the blackboard as they can lead to other ideas, and this one is unlikely to make it off the blackboard in my honest opinion. It's best just to leave it just sitting there rather than wasting time getting into a debate about it's lack of merit, but I believe that it could actually work in many different locations....if it was using a modified version of Catching Features and we all logged on to Second Life...

My preferred solution would be to hire a couple of buses from far-flung large conurbations, and allow teams made up by the organisers of spare individuals as this would remove the barriers to entry that seem to be worse for this event than any other.

[Fratello de Pingu]

What's to stop groups of people getting together to field a team and running, sure they might be non-comp but it will still be fun. Also there are groups that have got together and formed clubs, probably not BOF registered but still it can happen.
Near by clubs could get together a sort out getting a bus or two for transport. For the last 2 years HOC has had a minibus to take 2 or 3 teams to the event. I could see a coach being used for West Midlands, if someone organised it, I'm sure that this could happen in many places if clubs got together and talked.
I'm sure there are many people out there that think they would like to run but don't think they will be able to get a team out. Maybe people could post on the UK relay league board to try and get a team together.