will the harvesters be more popular this year?

[SIman]

What's to stop groups of people getting together to field a team and running?

All members of a team shall be members of the same club, which must be affiliated either to British Orienteering or to another member federation of the IOF.

[Harley]

What's to stop groups of people getting together to field a team and running?

All members of a team shall be members of the same club, which must be affiliated either to British Orienteering or to another member federation of the IOF.

As Fratello suggested they could still run - they'd just be non-comp.
However, please don't think me dim, it's just that usually I can never be bothered with rules and such, but is a guideline (as quoted above) the same as a rule? And where is this guideline from? Is it specifically about Harvester teams, or just Orienteering teams in general? If the latter, and it is a guideline rather than a rule, then I'd say bend it if it's best for the sport - which in my mind it would be.

[RJ]

Yes buses are a good idea, and they do work.... we use them to go to the CSCup.

But with JK, BOC, CSCup, British Schools, Peter Palmer, Yvette Baker, and now the four regional championship events, it is a major commitment to travel the length and breadth of the country to attend them. At some stage you say you have had enough for this year. It is not the travel on its own that is the problem, but the overall distance. This often requires an overnight stay, since trying to compete after a four or five hour journey is not conducive to a good performance.

Although the original suggestion about using the ranking list software to work out winners etc was 'off the wall' there is a need to try and solve this participation problem. Those living in the midlands perhaps don't feel the nature of the problem as do the peripheral regions.

My original question about 'ranking software' being able to work out winners from more than one competition, was directed at whether it was POSSIBLE and not so much as to whether we should adopt it.

Travel, and particularly the long travel distances, have a definite stiffling effect on the growth of the sport. For the marvellous event like the Harvester it sits down the pecking order behind the JK, BOC etc.

Is it really 'a no-no' to consider several Harvesters on the same day in different parts of the country, or for that matter, several CSCup finals, or several British Schools Finals?

[greywolf]

In addition to Siman's quote above, Guideline M says:

1.2.1 Geographically adjacent clubs are allowed to form combined teams (“Alliances”) for participation in the Men’s or Women’s Premier classes at the four UK Relay League
competitions (JK, British, Scottish, Harvester).

But with JK, BOC, CSCup, British Schools, Peter Palmer, Yvette Baker, and now the four regional championship event...

and you forgot the British Middle & Sprint Champs, both the Elite version and Age Class version, and the WOC selection races, all of which have to rank above the Regional Championships, which seem to me to be completely superfluous, especially if they're going to be like the most recent National event, which didn't exactly get glowing praise on this Board....

[EddieH]

Hold the Harvester on Harris I say. I'd go!

[King Penguin]

Hold the Harvester on Harris I say. I'd go!

Do you mean "the island of" or "relay format" ?

[EddieH]

The Island of course

[graeme]

What's to stop groups of people getting together to field a team and running, sure they might be non-comp

Or they might not. The harvester is (ahem) a UKRL elite competition which means that neighbouring club alliances are allowed. see..

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/d ... linesM.pdf

Graeme

[SeanC]

Greywolf wrote "1.2.1 Geographically adjacent clubs are allowed to form combined teams (“Alliances”) for participation in the Men’s or Women’s Premier classes at the four UK Relay League competitions (JK, British, Scottish, Harvester)."

Just to clarify, does this mean adjacent clubs can form combined teams on the Harvesters A course only and not the B course (for a handicap mixed team)?

[greywolf]

Greywolf wrote "1.2.1 Geographically adjacent clubs are allowed to form combined teams (“Alliances”) for participation in the Men’s or Women’s Premier classes at the four UK Relay League competitions (JK, British, Scottish, Harvester)."

Just to clarify, does this mean adjacent clubs can form combined teams on the Harvesters A course only and not the B course (for a handicap mixed team)?

That would be my understanding. But this is only relevant if you want to be competitive & score points in the UK Relay cup. If you don't care about being non-competitive or winning relay cup points then I expect you can enter whatever team you like and i'm sure the organisers will be happy to see you...

[JEP]

The Neighbouring Club Alliances rule is for UK Relay League (URL)purposes for the Elite Men and Women. To qualify a request has to be made tothe Elite Competitions Group by January 31st each year. One request was received this year and accepted. One other enquiry was made but not pursued.

The purpose of the rule is to improve the competitiveness of the URL. It has had that effect but only in a marginal way.

[SeanC]

ok, cross that option off the list.

My team (if we can make one) can't be described as "elite", but I doubt whether anyone in the team would be keen on being non-competitive. Uncompetitive yes, non-competitive, no. It might be vain, but slogging around a forest in the middle of the night to be rewarded with a non-competitive status is a bit deflating. It's better to have something to aim for (like not being last ).

Small clubs like mine are always going to struggle to field a team, even when the Harvesters is central (ish), it would be nice if the B course could include a (competitive) class for combined neighbouring clubs, aimed at helping those from small and/or faraway clubs who struggle to find enough runners.

[NeilC]

Small clubs like mine are always going to struggle to field a team

You only need 5 runners - non-handicap teams are always welcome on the B. Really very sad if any club feels that they can't raise so few for one of the best events of the year and so close to home.

[SeanC]

Neil, are you teasing me? I can hardly criticise fellow club members for not wanting to run the harvesters. It's in the middle of the night - perhaps they want to sleep!

Looking at the last time the Harvesters was in the south east (MV, 2004), 3 of the smaller south east clubs did not field a team. We were one of them, sadly we had only 4 runners. Looking briefly at other clubs at the 2004 event, a large club from a neighbouring region did not field a team.

Allowing neighbouring club alliances at the Harvesters would be good for the event (because there would be more teams) and good for clubs. The Harvesters is a great experience, all orienteers should have the opportunity to compete. Sadly, if orienteers from small clubs cannot compete in relay events, they may leave to join bigger clubs, which may not be in the best interests of club and sport development.

[RS]

Use SI instead of Emit and numbers might increase