BMBO have approved the 9 dates for next year and just waiting for FC approval for the forestry events. The online survey suggests that 3 hours is the preferred length but it is too long for some riders and too short for others so we are considering the feasibilty of running 2 leagues next year with time limits of 3-5 hours (Long) and 2 hours (Short) available at all events. There would still be 30 controls available for both courses but 15 of these would be within 5k of the event centre. You could ride in either league with your best 5 scores counting and a minimum of 3 rides to be competitive.
There would also be a 15k non-competitive route for novices
Please comment on this post. Thanks. Steve Willis
12-Nov Update: The Events page is now updated (click here) and the flyer is NYMBO League 2012
nymbo : north yorkshire mountain bike orienteers 
Steve, a few comments for you.
With the generation class in mind, the 2 hr events seem very short but great for evenings and winter months, whilst the 4hr events begin to get very long for the younger 12/13year olds. 3 hours has seemed spot on for the main league and we even did a Peak event yesterday in 3hrs of rare Nov sunshine.
Also if NYMBO try to run two leagues for the season, perhaps this will leave some classes very short of numbers? Perhaps a league of 3 hour events for classes like generation would be best for all the youngsters?
Would a selection of 3 and 4 hr not be a suitable compromise for all? Also 3 hours seems to fit with the other clubs events if anyone is planning on doing a national event selection I think?
I appreciate we are new to the club and events but I don’t want the younger ones to be put off if everything moves to 4 hrs or 2hrs which seems too short given the area the events are spread over plus they all like a meaningful league.
Martin
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate that 2 hours may be too short for fit youngsters and 4 hours may be too far but as the majority of the riders are in the 40/50/60 categories the length needs to suit them. However, none of them have given a strong opinion. I still think it is a good idea to have 2 leagues based on different lengths so what about a mixture of 3,4,5 hours for the long course like the last few years and a 2 hour competitive option at all 9 events as well? There won’t be as many riders doing the Short course but it is a good transition betwen non-competitive and the longer time limits.
Steve
Purely from a personal point of view I prefer 4 hours with maybe a couple of 5 hour events to mix things up a bit. Thought Swaledale 5 hour earlier this year was superb.
Graham
Steve
I think your later suggestion sounds a good idea as it blends the preferred length of 3 hours with some longer rides which whilst i found them a challenge ( and the results show that ) they were rewarding and it was surprising how quick they went by. Provided there were five 3 hour rides it would allow the younger riders to do these and perhaps try the longer rides as they get fitter and faster (than the veterans).
Would the short course winner get 100% and all other short course riders scores be based on this or would it be based on the overall winner? I think the short course would be a good way of introducing new riders to the sport.
Tim/Graham
Thanks for your comments. I agree that the mixture of 3/4/5 hours for the long course is a good compromise. Younger/older/less fit riders who to opt for the longer course can finish when they have had enough. I haven’t decided how to award points for the Short course. Either base it on the Short course winner or a percentage of the Long course winner? Any views please.
PS FC have given outline approval for all of our dates so the events have been registered with BMBO and will soon appear on their calendar and here
Hi Steve,
Personally I don’t see a need for any changes to the length of events. I enjoy the variation between 2 and 5 hours and quite strongly feel a lot of the sense of competition and personal achievement would disappear should there be two leagues with the same time limit for every event.
Could you not just keep the non-competitive time limit but make it competitive for those who don’t like long events and leave the current league format unchanged?
I like the variation of lengths as you have to approach each slightly differently, obviously you could not set off at the same speed for a 5hr event as you would a 2hr. I think the idea of shorter events is good but surely that is what the non competitive was for, why not just give the option of competitive or not for the 2hr events? I think scores would be best as a percentage of each league so the ones in the short league would not be affected by the Andy Conn’s etc or if it was a National event then no one would travel a long way to do the shorter one therefore keeping it between ‘locals’ for the short league honours. One other point on the longer events, Dalby this year was great as Andy cleared up but lots of others did well which makes everyone have a more enjoyable event as you get to more controls, 2hrs was ok, 3 was spot on, 4 or 5 would mean going out of the forest on some events which I think would detract from them. This is not a problem on the events like the Dales where we could ride all day but Cropton or Boltby. I don’t think would be the same.
Agree with the above. The best part of this sport by a long way is the variation which it offers. In no other sport can you get such a variation in the approach you need to take. The mixture of time limits makes the league exciting and interesting. I fear that, should the time be set to being always 2 hours or always 4 hours, the best feature of the whole sport would be lost.
– 2 hour competitive route at all events for those who don’t want to ride for long (essentially just the non-comp format in place already but with scores to count).
– Standard/unchanged format for the rest of the league with the same mix of 2/3/4/5 hour events.
Cheers.
Hi again, I totally agree with you guys regarding the mixture of 3,4,5 and the various merits. My only other concern would be that the class numbers could be quite small for one league of the other if there is 2nd competitive options, especially in the smaller classes if we only have 5 or 6 and they split 50:50.
Scoring doesn’t really make a great difference if they are calculated relative to class winner or overall winner. You still get the same rankings in the end but some of us lower scoring riders will end up with more pleasing % scores !
I did see talk of all event scores counting for a national league so then surely the scoring would be done the same in all events or would the national scores be calculated again if the criteria was different? Perhaps that’s a whole new question best left for those going to the AGM?
Steve – is the June 2012 event listed on BMBO site date incorrect ? 20th June is a Weds?
I think it should say the 2nd June 2012 not the 20th. The final list will be published on here over the weekend. Dave.
The Ingleton event is definitely on June 2nd. My mistake and I have asked BMBO to change the date on their calendar. I am still waiting for final permission for 2 events before I can publish the NYMBO league in full.
However the NEMBOS league has been finalised and posted.
Thanks for your comments on the event lengths. I want to make the Short course a stepping stone for novice riders who want to be competitive. There would only be lesser prizes and perhaps only 4 categories – Men, Women, Mixed, Generation. The main competiton would still be the long course and I fully agree it should be a mixture of 3,4 and 5 hours with the shorter events in the forests and the longer ones on the Moors/Dales.
I will be raising the possibility of having all events counting in a National League at the AGM next Saturday. Don’t forget to put forward any other items for discussion if you can’t make it – and also think about putting your names forward for the vacant committee positions. BMBO needs some new blood!!!