Junior League

The 2023 Junior League has now concluded. View details of the 2023 age class winners. View information and full results from the 2023 Junior League.

The 2024 Thames Valley Junior Orienteering League (the Junior League) is running in conjunction with TVOC’s Saturday Series during 2024. Through the year, Saturday Series events will take place in different locations across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The Junior League is for anyone who is aged 18 or under. You might be a junior newcomer trying out orienteering on the Yellow course, or you may be working your way up the courses in increasing length and difficulty through Orange, Red, Light Green and then Green courses.

You can read more about eligibility and scoring in the relevant sections below.

The fourth 2024 Junior League event will be held in conjunction with the TVOC Saturday Series event on 11 May at Cutteslowe Park, Oxford (TBC).

View information about other future events.

Overall 2024 Junior League Standings

The Junior League standings after each event can be seen below:

See lower down the page for detailed results from each event in 2024, once they have taken place.

Eligibility

Any junior who enters a TVOC Saturday Series event as an individual and who successfully completes a course on their own (or in a junior pair on the Yellow course only*, or who is shadowed by a parent/carer on the Yellow or Orange courses only#) will be automatically included in the Junior League, unless the League Organiser is specifically notified that an individual should not be included. Juniors of all ages (up to and including M/W18s), whether TVOC members or not, will be included. The Junior League will be run on Yellow, Orange, Red, Light Green and Green courses (when offered for each particular Saturday Series event).

*Any junior who competes as a pair with another junior on the Yellow course will be scored based on the age class of the eldest of the pair – when entering an event, please ensure both names and ages are registered individually.

#Parents/carers are encouraged to accompany young juniors on the course – in orienteering this is called “shadowing”. Anyone who shadows a junior should avoid doing everything themselves, with the child simply following, in an attempt to get a fast time. This achieves nothing, as the junior gets no sense of achievement and learns very little. Instead, any parent/carer who shadows should allow the junior to do all the navigation themselves, and only help out where a mistake has been made or the child asks for help.

Please note that any junior who enters and participates in an event as part of a family group, or other group, will not be eligible for the Junior League.

Event Scoring

The Junior League points awarded to each participant are calculated against the clock, not their position relative to other juniors. For each age class on each course, there is a target time per km (straight line distance); and then each participant receives league points based on their individual time to correctly complete the course. Therefore, they would receive 100 league points for achieving the target time, and earn 1 point more per 3% quicker than the target time, or 1 point fewer per 3% slower than the target time.

Each Saturday Series area/location is classified on a scale of 1 to 5 for the complexity of the area (based on terrain, path network etc) – 5 being the most complex – and then the relevant ‘complexity coefficient’ will be included in the target time calculation, so as not to disadvantage the points available from more difficult areas.

If a participant completes a second course at an event, they will only gain league points for their first course. Subsequent runs will be non-competitive and not included in the calculation of any league points.

Overall League Scoring

The Junior League runs for a calendar year, so that juniors keep the same age class throughout. For 2024 this means: M/W10 (born in 2014 or after), M/W12 (born in 2012 or 2013), M/W14 (born in 2010 or 2011), M/W16 (born in 2008 or 2009) and M/W18 (born in 2006 or 2007).

A participant’s best points from half of all the annual events (rounded up if there are an odd number of events) will count towards their overall Junior League standing. Male and Female juniors with the highest overall standing in each age class will be the winners at the end of the year (as long as they have successfully completed at least two events).

The league points scored at each event will be shown below, along with the on-going league standings throughout the year shown at the top of this page.

2024 Junior League Event Results

Results from Event 1 (Brill Common) can be found below:

Results from Event 2 (Wendover Woods) can be found below:

Results from Event 3 (Shotover and Brasenose Woods) can be found below:

For any questions or clarifications, please contact the League Organiser by email.

We encourage junior members of TVOC to get involved in the TVOC Junior Squad.