EAST OF SCOTLAND
ORIENTEERING ASSOCIATION

 

SOUTH OF SCOTLAND
ORIENTEERING
LEAGUE

 

Notes for Planners and Organisers

 

2005-2006

Please read these notes carefully and destroy earlier versions.




Any enquiries should be made to
Robin Strain
39 Bankpark Grove
Tranent
EH33 1AU
Telephone 01875 611014
Mobile 07811 244552
E-mail rstrain@ndirect.co.uk

Version 5.3 12/9/05

The South of Scotland O League (SOSOL) is a set of colour coded events which follow a standard pattern. There should be eight courses from white to brown and also a string or similar course. Electronic punching should be used unless the area is unsuitable (too great a risk of theft or vandalism.) The results are converted to points and league positions calculated from the best scores in each class. 

These notes concentrate on those aspects where some standardisation is required. There are some suggestions on running a colour coded event but it is assumed that the organiser and planner have been involved with a small club event before and that they are requiring just the additional information which is concerned with a more prestigious colour coded event. Alternatively these notes will remind anyone who has been through a 6 day or national event that things are not always so terrifying. There should be something for everyone.

It is expected that the planner and organiser will have a copy of the BOF Rules, and that they will be familiar with all the relevant sections especially Event Guideline A.




EVENT REGISTRATION It is likely that the date of your event has been notified to the SOA fixture secretary, but is the club's responsibility to register it formally, on a form ER1, in time for publicity to appear in the BOF, SOA, Compass Sport and Score fixture lists. It is recommended that the controller should be from a different club from the organising club and the SOA handbook has a list of potential contacts. The earlier this is done, the more help the controller can give. 


PUBLICITY A handout should be given out at least at the previous SOSOL. This could include the following details.
Club, SOSOL no, Venue, Grid Reference, Date, Time for registration, Time of starts, Walks from car park to registration/starts, Travel directions, Charges, Scale of map, Organiser, planner and controller, Contact phone number.


COURSES There should be 8 Courses. These should, if possible, range from White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Light Green, Green, Blue to Brown. 

Some of our areas are not really sufficiently large or technical to give the full range. In the past we have used the terms Blue, Brown etc for courses which were not hard enough, and this has meant that when some runners go to more technical areas, they have over-stretched themselves. The event information should make it very clear when any course deviates from the correct standard.

There should be some course for children too young for White. This has generally been a string course, although variations have included off-string and små troll. It is recommended that the planner of these courses liases with, but is not the same as, the event planner.


REGISTRATION  (this section predates electronic punching)Care taken at registration in collecting the information from competitors can make the results stage much easier.

Having one person for each course and one selling all the maps seems to work best. If working from cars try to use at least four cars for registration.

We are following the BOF guidelines and are using first names in the results.

In White or Yellow any Junior pair which comprises competitors in the same or adjacent age groups (eg M12/M14) should be regarded as competitive and should be included in the points. Both names will be entered, individually, in the overall league and so full details will be required. If unavoidable a group of three can also count, but six juniors should be encouraged to compete as three pairs, not two threes.

There is often confusion in the junior classes as to whether or not the named runner was helped round by an adult. The finish team should try to ask whether the junior did (almost all of) the orienteering, and should receive points.

MASTER MAPS White and Yellow master maps should be available at registration (and at start - just in case). This enables parents and teachers to ensure that no gross mistakes are made in copying and to discuss the courses.

It is likely that the norm will be for maps to be copied before the start. Ensure that the boards are big enough to lay a map beside the master map. There should be at least two copies of each, and more if copying might take more than two minutes. There should be a copy of the control descriptions on each master map board. It should be possible to copy maps dry so covers might be needed.

If there are map corrections, there should be a prominent notice saying so. Try to distinguish which corrections are needed by different courses.



START TIMES We should like to standardise start times. However this is difficult due to club strengths and distance from start to registration etc. As a guide they should cover two hours so that it is possible for two average parents to have split times. They should always include the period 11 to 12.30.
For example, registration 10 to 12, starts from 10.30 to 12.30, or all 30 minutes later.
Course close time should be not less than two hours after the last start.

NUMBERS It is very difficult to predict the numbers at a SOSOL. The publicity, the weather, the distance, the venue, the date relative to other events etc all affect the numbers.
As a guide, here are the numbers for some of the ESOL events in 2002/03. Series 2004/5 had higher numbers.

Date

Venue

White

Yellow

Orange

Lt Grn

Green

Blue

Brown

Total

Sept

Mill of Fortune

16 10 10 25 38 41 40 180

Oct

Dumyat 3 15 14 19 16 26 18 111

Nov

Benarty 3 9 6 15 27 24 10 94

Nov

Glenearn&Berryknowe 6 13 9 22 35 49 20 154
Dec Saltoun 4 11 14 19 29 33 12 122

Jan

Corstorphine 13 16 24 22 29 42 29 175

Feb

Gullane 9 12 8 11 35 39 23 137

Mar

Bowhill 4 11 11 13 26 37 9 111
Other years' results can be inspected at www.eastofscotlandorienteering.org

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS Written descriptions are the norm, and are issued at registration. Pictorial descriptions could be offered as alternatives.


RESULTS ENVELOPES Results envelopes should be available at registration. Forty pence will cover 1st class postage and an A5 envelope and leave something for results, although their production should be covered by the main budget.
It should be clear to novices, particularly, what they should do to get results. This may encourage them to come to more events.


NOTICES There are several notices which should be displayed.
These include:
Course lengths and standards
What to do
Directions and time to start
Clothing transfer yes/no
Layout of master maps (at start)
Club publicity
Results from previous event *
Cumulative results table *
* These will be brought to the event by the coordinator


CHARGES It is not the function of the ESOA committee to fix the charges which could vary according to the cost of the map, etc.. However we should like to recommend strongly that the string course is free and all doing White and Yellow pay £2.50. On other courses M/W10-M/W20 and students pay £2.50, and we recommend that seniors are charged £5.00. At these prices, juniors will pay enough to cover the cost of their map and the levy, and seniors will cover the additional costs of putting on the event.


TIMING Care should be taken that all clocks and watches used at start and finish are synchronised. Errors also occur when the start time is one or two minutes out. The time on the competitors card should be the time when they cross the start line, not the time for call up. It makes calculations easier if all times are in race time (minutes after eg 10am) and clock time is used only as advice to the competitor.


LEVY As well as the BOF and SOA levies , each event is asked to contribute £5 to ESOA to cover the administration cost of the ESOL and the production of cumulative results. The ESOA treasurer (currently Janet Clark ESOC) will send you a request unless you pay first.


DISQUALIFICATIONS While not allowing flagrant breaches of the rules, leniency should be shown. Seniors who have obviously gone round together should be made N/C rather than being disqualified. Where second master maps are used, a thirty second penalty can be given to anyone who does not punch at the changeover control.

POINTS The system that will be used in 2003-4 is the same as used at the 6 day. Although more complicated to use and to explain than 
previous systems, it is definitely fairer.
The formula used is 
points = 100 -20 * (mean time - runner's time)/spread

The spread is standard deviation (Excel's stdev function) unless there are five or less runners in which case the spread is the mean time/6.
Anyone who takes more than three times the winner's time is not included in the calculation of mean or sdev, although they will still get points if the calculation results in a positive number.
If there is only one runner (unlikely) they get 120 points.

I will calculate the points if required

The points are used to produce league tables. The number of scores to count will depend on the number of events but in 2003/4 the best 4 from 9 will be used

The tables are published on the web on the ESOA site and are displayed at each event. 

RESULTS The production of results should be included in the jobs allocated for the event and should not necessarily be the responsibility of the organiser. The aim is to have the results posted on the internet on the evening of the event and paper copies received by competitors within one week.
The main stages in the processing of results are
a) After the event you process the results of your event, including calculation of SOA colour badge times.
b) You send me a copy of the results by email
c) If you can publish them on the web, send the URL to Roger Coombs, BOF and to me. I will publish the results if there would be a delay in your doing it.
d) I produce the cumulative totals and send them back to you
e) You duplicate the event results that you have produced and the cumulative results that I have produced and send them out.

RESULTS BOOKLET. Obviously this should include the actual results of the seven courses, but there are several other items which should be included. These include event details, course details, planners, controllers and organisers comments with acknowledgements and thanks.

SOA colour badge standards should be marked onto the results. The standard is either top half of competitors or those within one and a half times the winners time; which ever gives most. (For white - all finishers qualify.)

The booklet should also include the leading places in the cumulative results table which I will send you.

It could also include details of the next event in the series.


CERTIFICATES. Although it has strictly little to do with the running of a single event, it seems appropriate to included here a note on how it is decided who should receive certificates at the end of the season.

In each course, note is made of how many W10 -W20, W21+, M10-M20, M21+ (i.e. four categories) can be considered to have competed in each league i.e. competed in at least three events.
For each category, the number of certificates awarded is approximately one for every three competitive runners. Adjustments are made to remove anomalies, usually by awarding more certificates that strictly allocated. The final allocation is agreed by the ESOA committee, and the certificates bear the signature of the chairman.


BADGES. The SOA colour coded badge scheme is being promoted.


INTER CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP.
The East Area has an interclub competition which has been competed for at the final event of the series

There will be the normal 8 courses
Only runners from the 8 clubs in ESOA are competitive and included in points calculations.
The best two scores for each club for each colour are totalled.
Points are calculated as for a Compass Sport Cub tie, i.e. the leader gets 16 points.


SCORE EVENT
There has often been one score event in the series.
It is hoped that a separate set of guidelines will be issued to the organising club.
There should not be a mass start, but start should be similar to any normal WOSOL.
White and Yellow could do a standard event or choose their course from a very restricted set of controls. The WOSOL points are obtained from the score points by scaling the range to a range similar to that for a standard event.