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London
Orienteering Klubb |
All
About Frolics
Frolics is a summer
series of 5 orienteering races run by the clubs in and around London. It runs from late
June to the end of July and is a club competition (ie clubs compete to win the trophy)
– but it operates a handicap system which strongly favours those with less experience
(or none!) and who are younger or older – very often those contributing most to their
club’s score are relative newcomers. So if you are a recently started orienteer, or
even if you have never tried it, you will be welcome.
The
2010 Series - SLOW take the honours!
Round 5 commentary - One of the lower turnout races of the series (holiday season underway already?) - but the key protagonists all ensured they fielded a full complement of runners to fight for the title. In the event, SLOW won the round emphatically thus making sure of a clear series win, snatching the title back from 2009 champions Mole Valley. HH put up a decent score on the day, but it was not enough for them to come back from some poor early series scores to overhaul LOK, so the 2008 champions (LOK) secured 3rd place. Some Series Statistics:
That's it for another year - the 2011 series will be along before we all know it! A list of all runners and their frolic contribution is here.
16 July - R1 scores have been slightly amended as a runner was attributed to the wrong club. The change did not affect club positions 21 July - R2 scores have been amended as an error was discovered in the calculation. SAX and TVOC switched position which means SAX are up to jt 4th with 1 race to go. Round 4 commentary - An interesting race at Ashtead Park - a new winner on the day - SAX - but unfortunately their late run has come too late for a realistic challenge for the much-coveted title of FROLICS CHAMPIONS 2010. SAX edged Mole Valley into 2nd place on the day, who in turn, with another scoring performance from 'Series most valuable runner' Graham Sutton (M60) just kept out a hard charging SLOW. LOK despite having the 2nd most valuable runner in the series in Greg Birdseye (M65) could manage only a 4th place, putting them on the back foot for the final push. With the series rules requiring each club to drop their poorest result, MV have been penalised for their consistent, but not winning run. Although leading at the end of the 4 rounds, they drop to 2nd going into the last race. So now it looks like a 2-horse race, with 3rd horse LOK having an outside chance, but only if the leading pair have very poor outings. Here's what they all have to do to win outright (ed: it's a bit like the last group rounds in the World Cup eh!):
Round 3 commentary - A maximum score from SLOW on home territory pushed them up into joint lead along with Mole Valley, who scored just 17 points more than LOK on the day to squeeze LOK off the joint top down into 3rd spot. HH recover from a poor outing last week to take a solid 4th place - who knows, perhaps their strategy was always to drop the 2nd round. With two rounds left, of which the last race has to count, the top of the table is very close so results will be closely watched. Mole Valley with their home leg next are looking formidable but don't have a poor score to drop yet - all will be revealed soon! Round 2 commentary - A change in the order already with MV pushing up into joint top spot with LOK after the Addington event. A disappointing day for HH (albeit a long way from home) who dropped from 2nd down to 6th but with the final result being best 4 of 5, this is not necessarily a killer blow. All still to play for ! Round 1 commentary - Frolics is off to a flying start with a good turnout in roasting conditions at Gunpowder Park. 104 runners took part from many clubs as well as some independents as well. Defending champions MV only fielded 6 runners (so no scope for mistakes) and held onto a respectable 3rd place, squeezing ahead of the hosts CHIG, but were comfortably beaten into 2nd by Happy Herts who brought no fewer than 23 runners to fight for the points. LOK brought 13 runners - but it turned out lucky and with 6 good performances scored a convincing victory to take the first leg in the series.
Previous
Series Results
2009 series winners
were Mole Valley – finally making it to top spot after coming fourth in 2004, third
in 2005 and 2006, and second in 2007 and 2008! A full blow by blow account of the 2009
series is available here. The
Handicapping System
The handicap applied
is based on the 3 criteria below. For each of these you are granted a number of Minutes.
The sum of Minutes you are given is your handicap level – which is deducted from the
time you actually took to complete the course to arrive at your
‘Frolics-adjusted’ time. [Detailed
rules PDF]
The
Club Scoring System
After all runners
have been listed in order of their ‘Frolics-Adjusted’ time, the winner is given
100 points, the next runner 99 and so on down the list – but only the first 6 runners
from each club score. The club score for the event is the sum of those of its best 6
runners (tough luck if there are fewer than 6 entrants). The clubs are placed in order of
their scores for the event and the winning club receives 20 trophy points, the next 19
trophy points and so on down the list. The club trophy is determined as ‘Best 4 out
of 5’ – ie as a club you ‘drop’ your worst score (except that you are
not allowed to drop the last race) – and the club with the highest number of trophy
points wins the series – and the magnificent Frolics Bus trophy. |
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| Last Update on 29 July 2010 |
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