Orienteering in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire

Saturday Series Handicap League 2011/2012

Mark Thompson

To make it more interesting and give all a chance to win we have decided to adopt a handicap system and we are testing this out on the Light Green and Green (or short green if applicable) courses this season. We may include other courses next time around - your feedback will be invited.

The handicap system follows that used for Frolics (many thanks to LOK for their permission to adopt the Frolics system here). Total handicap in minutes will be subtracted from your time taken to complete the course. The overall winner allowing for handicap is the runner with the lowest corrected time. We will maintain a league system for the 2011/2012 season based on the best 5 out of a possible 10 events.

Handicap adjustments in minutes are made for 3 categories:

  • Age - based on an M21 or W21 receiving no handicap increasing with relative age away from the base line. E.g. a M14 or W14 will get an 8 minute handicap: an M50/W50 will get 4 minutes and an M75/W75 will get 14 minutes.
  • Gender - men 0 minutes, women 7 minutes.
  • Experience - an experienced orienteer that would finish in the top third at a level B event (in the long course) would get 0 minutes; an experienced orienteer likely to finish in the middle third would get 4 minutes; an experienced orienteer likely to finish in the bottom third 7 minutes; a beginner 10 minutes.

Thus a W50 who would be expected to finish in the bottom third at a level B event would receive a total handicap of 18 minutes, whilst a leading M21 would receive none. A top W14 would get 15 minutes.

Ask Mark or Alun if you want more details. The LOK details which we have adopted can be found at http://www.londonorienteering.co.uk/frolics/frolic-handicap-rules.pdf

Don't worry about what handicap you think you should have. We will decide what feels right, but feel free to complain to Alun if you feel he has misjudged your abilities!

The orienteer with the lowest overall time corrected for handicap will score 100 points, next 99 etc.

Latest results of the Handicap League. Results from previous years can be found on the Saturday series archive page.

Mark Thompson (Series Coordinator)
Alun Jones (spreadsheet design)

Saturday Series events page

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