Jerry Newcombe  20/10/2008 - 19:34  Array  

Introduction

The main reason for establishing the SCOA League was to encourage people to attend more events. It is debatable how well this is actually being achieved in practice. The table below shows the number events run by SCOA members on each course during the 2007/8 season. Some competitors entered more than one course over the season, so are included in the totals for 2 or more courses, but the overall pattern is clear. Only a small minority took sufficient notice of their performance in the SCOA League to make the effort to run the same course in at least 6 events during a season. The large majority entered a specific colour-coded course at less than 4 events, out of a possible 9.

Course	W	Y	Or	R	LG	Gr	Bl	Br	All
Total Number of Runners	29	53	61	18	74	121	124	87	567
Only entered 1 event	23	37	45	12	50	79	61	46	353
Entered at least 4 events	1	1	4	1	6	12	17	9	51
Entered 6 or more events	0	0	1	0	2	4	5	5	17

Many competitors appear to have only entered 1 District event in the SCOA area during the whole of the last season. For most courses it is also the case that there were a number of runners who won the single event that they did enter, and who might therefore have been expected to do very well in the League had they run more often. Even for Green, Blue and Brown courses, the number of runners entering 6 or more events is less than 5% of the total. The main reason that there are more than 3 runners who ran these courses at 6 or more events is that these are the largest classes.

Current SCOA League Format

The current method of scoring is a time-based system with 100 points for the fastest, and 1 point deducted for each minute (or part thereof) behind them. There is no handicap or pre-registration, and runners are free to enter any course they choose. The best 6 scores for each runner on each course are added to produce a final points total. This means that at present there are in effect 8 separate SCOA Leagues, one for each colour coded course. If individuals run on more than one course during a season, they get separate scores for each course. There is currently no inter-club element to the League.

Advantages

• Simple and easy to understand
• Allows people to choose whichever course they feel able to tackle
• Gives a large points reward for a fast time

Disadvantages

• Encourages competitors to ‘run down’, ie enter an easy course for their age class. For instance, the Red course in the 2007/8 League was won by an M21 runner, who gained 100 points from each of the 5 events he entered. This could be felt to disadvantage those in other age classes for whom that course might be deemed to be more appropriate.
• One fast competitor on a course can considerably reduce everyone else’s score, which can be discouraging.
• There is no great advantage in turning up to an event that might be expected, because of location or weather, to be thinly attended. Even if there is only one runner much faster than yourself you will still not get a great score.
• If you run different colour coded courses during a season, your results will be split across them.

Possible Changes

• Adopt a position-based system, ie 1^st=100 points, 2^nd=99 points, etc. This could potentially make the competition much closer, since the winner of each event would only get 1 more point than the second, regardless of whether they won by 30 seconds or 30 minutes. This doesn’t reward performance so highly, but is simple and might encourage people to turn out to more events.
• Introduce a Promotion/Relegation system based on a ‘target’ course for each age class (see below). Initially competitors would be free to run at any level, however, anyone running below their ‘target’ level who was in the top three for that course would be promoted to the next course up for the following year. This would then be the minimum level at which their results would be counted for the League. They could be ‘relegated’ by coming in the bottom three for the year, or if they moved up an age class (or changed sex!).

• Ignore results for competitors ‘running down’, eg M50s running anything less than Blue (see below) would not be counted for the SCOA League. This would dramatically reduce the number of runners scoring in the League.
• Add/subtract a number of points to an event score according to the course/age class. For instance, if the ‘appropriate’ course for an M50 competitor is deemed to be Blue, an M50 running a Brown course could get 5 points added, running Green could lose 5 points, running Light Green could lose 10 points etc.
• Modify the time-based system to have a ‘par time’ for each course/age class, eg M50/Brown – 8mins/km, M50/Blue – 7m30s/km, M50/Green – 7:00mins/km, etc. Achieving par time would score 100 points, with more or less for going faster or slower. This would make it relatively easy to combine the scores from different courses. One feature of this would be that final scores would be unaffected by how many runners there were on each course. It would not be possible to get 100 points by just being the fastest (or only) runner to complete the course, however slowly.
• Amalgamate the results from different courses, perhaps into a ‘Junior League’ (W/Y/O/R) and a ‘Senior League’(LtG/G/Bl/Br), or a Junior (W/Y/O), Intermediate(R/LtG/G) and Senior(Bl/Br). Within these Leagues, use either a ‘par time’ based system with different par times for each age class/course combination, or a position-based system with handicaps for those running up or down, to get equivalent points scores for each course. Amalgamating the results from several courses would give 2 or 3 good sized Leagues rather than 8 little ones. It would allow people to run different courses at different events and get a single score, but the rules would be quite complex.
• Introduce some form of inter-club element to the League.

Target Courses

If any handicap system is to be adopted, then there needs to be a ‘target course’ for each age class. A proposed set of these (based on the CompassSport Cup and Yvette Baker trophy rules) is shown below. To judge from past results, a good many adults ‘run down’ compared to these suggestions.

Age Class		Colour
Men	Women
<10	<10	White
10 - 12	10 - 12	Yellow
12 - 14	12 – 14, 75 +	Orange
14 – 16, 75 +	14 – 16, 70 – 75	Red
16 – 18, 70 – 75	16 – 18, 60 - 70	Light Green
18 - 20, 60 – 70	18 – 21, 45 - 60	Green
20 – 21, 45 - 60	21-45	Blue
21 - 45		Brown

No competitor would be barred from ‘running up’ (ie entering an event above that suggested for their age), and depending upon the handicap system adopted, they might receive extra points for doing so.

If you have any observations on these suggestions, or any other ideas on what can be done to increase participation in the SCOA League, please feel free to pass them on to me.

Ken Ricketts

SCOA League Organiser