Author: Alan Gartside

In April I published a retrospective set of hCOW results for 2019. Resulting from that I have made some changes to the calculation formulae, particularly around handicap resetting, and have applied those to the 2020 colour event results. The yearly event tables are in folders, and along with the definition of the scoring system can be found in “Resources/LVO Public Folders/Public/hCOW”. This year, instead of a place points system of scoring, the hCOW Champion will be decided on the basis of Green course results at the upcoming Donard event – the “hCOW2020 event 5.pdf” table shows all those who have Read More …

In yesterday’s post I failed to provide the link to the Colour Standards table. It can be found under “Resources>LVO Public Folders>Colour Standards”. Renewals are starting to roll in!

As well as showing your colour event performance the Colour Standards table also displays your membership status. With the opening of the BOF membership renewals system for 2021 this means that folk’s status moves on by one year. Thus the 2-year lapsed members (shown in yellow) have been deleted – it’s probably too late to get them back – the 1-year lapsed members (shown in pink) have been turned yellow – have a look down the list for those you know and remind them of the great sport that they’re missing out on – and the new (green) and current Read More …

The colour standards table has been updated with the results from Meelmore, Tollymore and Divis. Your colour achievement shown in the on-line event results doesn’t necessarily match the NI colour award criteria in that 1. there is no gender separation and 2. in club events the times of those who normally run Brown or Blue are ignored for the setting of the standard time. Thus you may have unexpectedly achieved the standard in some of those events; against that the paucity of events this year means that more results have dropped out of the one-year window than have entered it Read More …

Three years ago I posted a paper about the possibility of introducing regularity testing as a way of comparing folk of different orienteering speeds. That paper is still on the web site “Resources>LVO Public Folders> hCOW>hCOW concept.pdf”. My intention was to proceed with drawing up the definition of the calculation needed and to implement it in a spreadsheet. That intention was brought to an abrupt end, exactly three years ago yesterday, by a collision with a bluebell-covered rock in Hillsborough Forest which led to full thoracic surgery to scrape the gunge out of my damaged lung. However, isn’t lockdown wonderful! Read More …

BOF has closed down its lapsed members listing (perhaps it thinks that folk who have not yet rejoined are lost to the sport). However the lapsed LVO members names can be found highlighted in the Colour Standards list at “Resources>LVO Public Folders>Colour Standards>Colour Standards.pdf”. It shows 78 lapsed and only 9 new members – that makes a big hole in the size of the club. So have a look at the list to see if you can identify any of the pink names, give them a call and ask/plead/cajole/threaten them into rejoining for 2020, ready to run over forests, hills Read More …

Congratulations to those who braved Storm Jorge at Parkanaur, especially Planner Lyle Fleming and Controller Richard McCourt. Unfortunately a painful ankle stopped me being there as well. From the results the Colour Standards and Spring Cup tables have been updated and created respectively and can be found in the LVO Public Folders “Colour Standards” and “Club Colour Series” respectively. As Green was the top course on the day no-one could achieve better than Green as your current 2020 standard – you need to get to Castle Archdale next week to try to beat that. The relatively small turnout and the Read More …

I haven’t seen an announcement about the scoring for the Spring Cup series, so here’s how I intend to calculate the standings unless informed otherwise: Green – 4 classes – senior & junior men & women Orange – 4 classes – senior & junior men & women Yellow – 2 classes – junior men & women junior is taken to be age class 20 and younger Scoring is by place points amongst the LVO members taking part – for the slower amongst us this looks better than the NISeries which uses relative performance to assign points. Results from both events Read More …

With the upcoming NI Score and Night Champs as well as the starts of the NISeries and Spring Cup leagues you need to be aware that you won’t collect championship places, league points or colour standards if you are not a current member. You can check your membership status via the colour standards table (Resources>LVO Public Folders>Colour Standards>Colour Standards.pdf); if you are highlighted as green (New – welcome!) or clear you are ready to go; if you are pink or yellow your membership has lapsed and you don’t qualify. The table has been updated to show your best colour achieved Read More …

Happy New O-Year to all! In the Colour Standards folder (Resources>LVO Public Folders>Colour Standards) your 2019 colours have been transferred from the Colour Standards table to the Colour History table. The 2020 standards will start to appear whenever you achieve a standard time in a 2020 event and have 2 achievements in the preceding 12-month period. The colour events are listed in the Colour Standards table. The Colour Standards table also shows your membership status and there are still a lot of folk in the pink (you really are lapsed members now!). Please take a moment to get your membership Read More …