Author: Alan Gartside

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!

Would August’s event planners please note that LVO Map Printing Services will be unavailable from 10th until 23rd August so please get your printing requirements submitted asap? As soon as you are content that the map will be unchanging submit the OCAD file as there are things to be done to it even before the CONDES course overlay is applied.

Ballyclare and Tollymore have produced lots of table updates, to be found in various folders under “Resources>OneDrive Public”. In “Colour Standards” there’s the colour standards table updated with the performances at Crossmurrin and Tollymore. The lack of colour events through the autumn meant that many folk lost their colour standard (needs 3 results within a year) but the 2 NISeries events, combined with the August restart events have got things going again. In “NISeries” the NISeries table is available (it’s a copy of the official posting on the NIOA website). At the moment the target is for your best 4 Read More …

The no loitering protocol meant that I got to consult with very few people over the colour balance table samples. There were 2 points raised. The first concerned the white shadowing on the course overprint which, especially in the complex fencing and hedging around the leisure centre created doubts about the existence of gaps in line features, a concern with which I agreed. This week’s map will not have shadowing but I shall bring along a shadowed version of the long course map for comparison. The second point was about the intensity of full yellow areas (open land) and how Read More …