New club member finishes top in 2015 Club Championship series!

More than 50 club members compete in revived club league

The moment you've been waiting for - final positions at the end of the Club Championship series! Big congratulations to Amber Gillies, one of our newer members, who has triumphed and finishes top of the table. Top marks too to promising junior Finn Duguid, whilst one of our senior members comes in in sixth place.

Thanks to all 53 club members who entered at least one event and helped to create a sense of competition. For the future it's worth remembering that you only have to complete (or help at) an event to get points so it’s not just the very best that can achieve success. We’re all winners by continuing to turn up!

The final results were calculated following last Friday's Halloween Score event and can be downloaded here https://www.taysideorienteers.org.uk/documents/GP011115_5.xlsx If you spot a mistake, please let us asap so that it can be corrected! NB: The results have changed slightly compared to the results circulated to club members at the weekend owing to a member having been included under two different names. It does not change the results at the top.

By way of background, the club has previously awarded points based on the results of local events but the scheme fell into disuse. For 2015 club member John Lewis kindly offered to trial a new arrangement based on a handicapping system.

John Lewis explains how the championship points were allocated

The purpose of the points table is to encourage club members to attend local events and to compete against other members in a meaningful way. I have tried to avoid the trap of automatically awarding prizes to any M21 members who are capable of amazing the other club members with their abilities. We’re all worthy of great praise whenever we show up and compete or help out at a club event, that’s what club membership is all about. So, how to achieve these worthy aims? I have set up the points structure so that:-

All courses are treated equally. A winner of a yellow event is given the same score as the winner of a blue event. They should be competing at a level which they are just comfortable with but which represents a challenge. Sometimes injury makes someone compete at a level lower than normal and this is ok. Newcomers to the sport have every chance of performing well despite their lack of experience.
Competitors receive points allocated as 10 for 1st, 9 for 2nd and so on until 6th place which receives 5 points. Everyone after that receives 5 points also so attendance is rewarded.
Helpers and organisers receive 5 points if they have given up the chance of a run.
Female competitors receive 2 bonus points for every event.
Age bands are handicapped so that Juniors receive 1 bonus point, over 40’s receive 1 bonus point and over 60’s receive 2 bonus points. These are awarded for each event.
The last event of the year was a score event in the dark which some club members would normally avoid as being too stressful. To encourage more to attend, the score values were doubled and bonus awards were retained. Helpers received 10 points as they missed the fun of the golf course although they did participate in the social gathering afterwards.

Hopefully the aims of the points table have been achieved although if there are any improvements or fine tuning that can be applied, suggestions would be very welcome. It’s your club and your championship points table!

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