Club cross discipline championship

[Chris Bentley]

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

[Philip Barnes]

Thanks for this Chris. See you there!

[BARRY BLYTH]

it's in the diary.

Barry

[STEVE LOMAS]

David Larkin has, just in the past 24 hours, applied to become a member of the forum. He goes away on holiday tomorrow. He has not, as yet, been formally registered on the forum and so won't be able to add comments under his own name before this Monday's meeting. Therefore, I have added his thoughts as follows;

"I was wondering if we might like to call it the 'Cross Discipline Challenge' instead. I know it sounds pedantic but I was just thinking that it sounds a bit more inclusive. Whereas I think that some people (rightly or wrongly) might get put off getting involved in a championship when they don't expect to challenge for the top places, a challenge can be an enticing gauntlet that the club throws down to it's members: 'Can you compete in this range of races in 12/6 months?'

Definitely a T-Shirt/Mug/Medal/Prize/Kudos to all those who complete the challenge. Also, champions and spot prizes for PB's / exceptional performaces / triumph in adversity / improvement / etc.

I would suggest about 12 races to count from say 30 race to choose from (based on 12 months). Alternatively could set a challenge in terms of miles raced, say 50.

I think that all disciplines should be included but perhaps put the emphasis on those races that already get a degree of 'cross' discipline support. Eg trail races like the Forest 5 and Goyt Valley 10K.

That's about it, hope the meeting goes well!

Dave

[BARRY BLYTH]

I like the sound of "cross discipline challenge" and the idea of recognising the completion there-off not just the winning.

Might be worthwhile having a chairman to facilitate the meeting. I'd propose Chris B; Steve L or Phil B.

Simplistically we could take the current separate champs for x cntry; road and fell and to qualify need to do a minimum of 12 (?)of which minimum of 3 from each catagory.

I wouldn't advocate the inclusion of T&F.

Barry

[Chris Bentley]

I agree. I was speaking to Steve at Great Warford this morning and it looks like there will be quite a few of us at Sutton Hall tomorrow evening.

I'm happy to chair the meeting, and will hope to post an agenda in advance of the meeting.

Chris

[Chris Bentley]

Agenda for tonight's meeting. To reiterate, the focus is to agree the principles and a general struture and NOT on details of which races or points system etc.

1) Agreement of the purpose of a cross discipline championship / challenge. (ie focus on partcipation v competition, bringing sections together, social aspects development of the club etc)

2) How it will sit with the existing championships

3) What do members want it to include (ie fell/road/trail/xc/track and field)

4) Structure

- Summer and winter or annual
- Number of races (rough estimate!)
- Minimum number of races required to post a "full score" and minimums in each discipline

5) Prizes etc

Note:
On point 2, I sense there is a consensus that existing championships should continue and there must remain a place in the club for specialist athletes (anyone disagree?). The challenge then is how to bring in this new championship / challenge without spreading the club's active athletes too thinly.

On point 5, I'm aware of a number of suggestions that have been banded about. These have included a T-shirt, mug etc (club funds) to those who successfully complete the minimum number of races, awards for most improved, a half day with a professional coach etc as well as a winner's trophy.