Several people have indicated their support for a new cross discipline club championship, which hopefully will have the effect of encouraging competition and also bring the various sections of the club closer together.
A few of us decided after the Forest Five last night (that giddy combination of a race and a beer in the St Dunstan afterwards) to get together to agree on a concept or prototype championship to be agreed by the committee, which would come into being as soon as possible.
We're meeting at Sutton Hall at 8:00 on Monday 15th August and anyone who would like to contribute is welcome. Conscious we're now into the main holiday season so people are likely to be away - if you are, and would like to add something that is not already on the forum, please post. The meeting is deliberately a few weeks ahead to give people who are away time to make their views known.
At the moment we want to focus on what club members want a cross discipline championship to look like and not on specific details. Take it as a given that there will be male and female and veteran champions, but let's leave aside scoring methods, age corrections, particular favourite races, prizes etc for now.
A few big questions which spring to mind are:
- What should the championship include? (ie road / fell / trail / cross country / track and field)
- Should any particular events be excluded? (As above, but also for example events more than a certain distance away, events requiring specific equipment, events requiring pre-entry months in advance, marathons etc)
- Should it be an annual championship, or should there be a winter and a summer championship? An annual championship may need to run March-February or November-October to avoid splitting the cross country season)
- How many races should be in the championship?
- How many races in each category should be required?
- How do we make the championship accessible, ie we want it to be as keenly contested as possible?
- What do other clubs do, and what can we learn from them (perhaps not one to be shared on the forum!!!)
- Anything else relevant
Thanks
Chris