Author: Alan Gartside

The hCOW tables have now been updated with the Rostrevor results – “Resources>OneDrive Public>hCOW>hCOW2021”. Despite the precipitous climbs and descents all but 2 of the 37 scorers were under handicap, presumably due to the legs everyone had on the open mountainside. This is reinforced by the fact that courses 1 & 2 (Brown and Blue) had smaller improvements than 3 & 4 (the Greens) due to the fact that they included a section of very physical forest. The Series Table shows the current place points standings. The asterisks indicate those who have achieved the necessary 4 results, the exclamation marks Read More …

The colour standards table has been updated with the results from Rostrevor. The list is returning to something like pre-pandemic levels as more Brown and Blue courses become available to allow folk to reach their true potential. The colour standard achievement shown on the results uses different criteria from the NIOA standards so , although you may have shown up as missing your standard you might find a pleasant surprise in the table at “Resources>OneDrive Public>Colour Standards”. Today also marks the opening of membership renewals for 2022 so the table has been adjusted to turn the current membership into a Read More …

The tables have been updated following the mountaineering event at Kilbroney. They have been sent to NIOA for official publication but a copy is available at “Resources>OneDrive Public>NI Series”. A number of folk have switched colour so you need to be careful; to be considered at any colour you need four counting results at least so with two events to go check which course would be best for you.

Whilst working with the hCOW spreadsheet to produce a series table, I realised that I hadn’t updated the Colour Standards table with Autumn Event results. That omission has now been reversed and the updated table is now available to view. On the Green course many of you who fell into the Baxter black hole of Hillsborough (I’ve looked at Routegadget!) may have felt that you will have missed a Green standard. However, because there was no Brown or Blue course available the standard time is not that of the winner; I use my skill and judgement to decide (i.e. guess!) Read More …

A look at Winsplits and Routegadget shows how many folk suffered on Sunday from the “Bermuda Triangle” syndrome that is Hillsborough Forest, myself included. This is backed up by the hCOW results showing an enormous variation in folks’ variance with only 6 (me again!) out of the 32 finishers having a positive variance i.e. going slower than handicap. The negative event variance of 2mins11secs shows that some of you struck lucky among the bombholes and had a relatively clean run. In my last post I said that the series would be calculated on your best 4 results from the 7 Read More …

With another 3, possibly 4, colour events in the fixture list it will be possible to have both a series (best 4 results to count) and a championship (last colour event of the year, hopefully FermO’s NISeries6 event). Don’t forget that hCOW is about consistency, not speed, so everyone has a chance to shine.

The NISeries event at Portrush has triggered updates to 3 tables. Get to them via “Resources>OneDrive Public” then: “NI Series>NISeries2021.pdf” That’s 3 down – you need 4 results to count at the end of year. On the Men’s Green course Wilbert Hollinger was running down to pot-hunt for the club M70 champion title (and he succeeded, congrats Wilbert!) so his time was not used for calculating NISeries points thus Nigel Foley-Fisher set the benchmark. The official table is on the NIOA web site – this is just a copy for your convenience. “hCOW>hCOW2021>Event3.pdf” What surprised me was how little (8 Read More …

The hCOW tables have been updated following the last WEE of the summer. The usual table, WEE12, is there to allow you to compare your performance with previous events. The WEE handicap movement table has been updated to show you how your handicap has varied throughout the series. The final WEE21hcow champion table has been added to show your performance in the final event; congratulations to Mark Pruzina and Gary Baine on achieving champion status. Don’t forget that hCOW measures regularity, not speed, so Mark and Gary are champions at making the same good decisions (or bad mistakes) at each Read More …

The hCOW tables for WEE10 and 11 are now available. They show the effect of terrain on event times, with the urban scamper of Craigavon producing a fast event (negative event variance) while the more traditional terrain of Stormont had speeds going the other way. The calculations of hCOW are intended to iron out those differences before resetting handicaps. As this week’s event is the last WEE of the season it will be used to find the series hCOW champion (totally unofficial, you understand), that is the person (or persons) who run nearest to handicap (as amended by terrain) on Read More …

The WEE hCOW table has been updated from the Bangor Castle results. Resources/OneDrive Public/hCOW/hCOW2021 They show a large variance in performance against handicap, from Anne Bell having hers cut by 1:06 mins/km to Fred Hamond having his raised by 0:55 mins/km. Despite propping up the race results (by a long way!) I demonstrated the hCOW concept of regularity by having my handicap increase by a mere 5 secs/km. I can easily account for those by my headless chicken act in trying to follow the indistinct tracks in the woodland!