MORAVIAN Saturday League 2017 – RULES & GUIDELINES
1. The competitive League will run for the entire calendar year and will generally (but not necessarily always) be held on Saturday mornings. The League competition is open to registered members of Moravian Orienteering Club only, but anyone can take part in any event. The League runs in parallel with the Moray Schools’ Leagues, details of which are published separately, and in which any school pupil can score points.
2. A counting Moravian Saturday league event will consist of a minimum of two, or sometimes three or more courses.
a. Novice courses. There will always be a course at technical difficulty (TD) 2 standard (Yellow) and sometimes a very simple one at TD 1 (White). These are aimed at younger juniors and adult complete novices.These will be used for the junior league.
b. Courses for more experienced orienteers. There will always be a course at TD3-4 (Light Green) and sometimes an additional course at TD3 (Orange). When there is an orange course, the harder course may be at a harder technical standard. These courses are aimed at developing juniors and experienced adults and will be used for the senior leagues (Senior Men/Women and Senior Boys/Girls)
Runners will be advised at registration of the technical standard and distance of all courses.
3. Competiton Categories Between the two leagues there will be six competitive categories; the winner of each category will be awarded a trophy. The competitive criteria are as follows:
Senior league - Male senior age 17 and over (all ages as at 31 Dec 17)
Female senior age 17 and over
Senior Boy up to age 16
Senior Girl up to age 16
Very experienced juniors of any age may elect to run in the adult category
Junior league – Boys (any age)
Girls (any age)
The junior league is aimed at novice competitors and younger juniors. Members are encouraged to move up to the longer course as soon as they feel confident enough.
To score points in the league all competitors must register as an individual.
Junior League competitors will still score if they are shadowed but not if they are escorted. Definitions of these terms are below. Parents doing all the navigation for them should declare their child non-competitive at registration.
Shadowed – for safety reasons and major navigational errors only, the person shadowing should remain discretely at distance from the competitor! No assistance should be given on the course to assist with competitive performance unless a mistake has been made and the child shows no signs of correcting it.
Escorted – the competitor receives navigational instructions and competitive assistance from another person in their close company.
In the spirit of orienteering and fair competition the above practices require your absolute honesty.
4. Scoring. The runner finishing in first place within their category will score 100 points, 2nd scores 99, 3rd scores 98 etc. Where there is an additional "senior" course, the winner of the easier course in each category scores one fewer point than the last-placed “clear round” on the harder course. All runners who mispunch or who fail to complete the course will be given joint last place, and score 70 for senior leagues and 60 for junior leagues. Runners who do not score because they fall outside the league entry criteria will still appear in the timed results for that particular event and course, but will not be awarded any points. Only the placings of Moravian members will count.The same criteria applies whenever there is a yellow (short) and white (very short) course - white competitors will be scored after all yellow clear rounds.
5. Scores will accumulate throughout the year. The League positions will be determined by adding together each competitor’s six highest scores if there are 10 or fewer events during the year. If there are 11 or more events, the number of counting events will be from 60% of the total number of events (rounded down to a whole number). In other words, if there are 12 events during the year, the best 7 results will count. If there are 15 or 16 races, the best 9 results will count etc. Competitors who have taken part in less than 60% of the events will still qualify for the final league table but will obviously be at a bit of a disadvantage. In the event of a tie at the end of the season, medal placings will be determined by which tied competitor has beaten the other more times when running head to head.
6. In the event of a control being wrongly placed at an event, the organiser will decide whether to remove the legs either side of the affected control when the results are computed. This is subject to discussion with any affected competitors taking into account the spirit of the overall competition. Formal protests and such like are very much discouraged.
7. Only Moravian members will score points and appear in the league table. Other clubs and non-members may participate and their timed results will appear in the event and course results as per normal, but their results will be ignored when calculating points.
8. The organiser/planner of any Saturday League event in the competition, and any member who is prevented from running due to organisational responsibilities, will be awarded a score of 97 points or the equivalent of his/her highest points score in any league race during that year – whichever is the highest. Any junior planning the junior course supervised by a parent will also score similar points for whichever course he or she normally competes on. A maximum of 3 points scores as a result of officiating will be allowed – in other words your overall points score must be at least half derived from running. Note that anyone officiating but choosing not to run (eg due to injury or lack of willpower) will not score any points.
9. These rules may be further developed as the competition progresses at the discretion of the League Organiser and the Moravian Committee, but the scoring system will remain fixed for the whole year.
Karen Fraser
League table compiler Updated 22 Jan 2018