Performance Event 6: SOC 11/12/11: PPS Scores

Hi again everybody. After last Sunday’s SOC event, the last Performance Event of our Autumn season, I have only now been able to calculate the PPS scores, as SOC were unusually slow in forwarding the results to the BO Ranking System. However, I now have the calculations. We had a very small turnout of only 11 members, and the whole event seemed much smaller than most SOC events. I suspect most people were put off by an unfavourable weather forecast, but it did in fact stay dry most of the morning.

The terrain was not the usual New Forest high standard, being mainly open with small patches of runnable forest. I did not envy the planner his job on this one. Most of the legs seemed more TD3 than TD4, but he did the best he could. I lost a bit of focus on one of the legs, drifted into the wrong patch of forest, and lost a chunk of time sorting myself out. I normally think that with fast events like this, ranking points should be high, as everyone finishes closer together, but that does not seem to be the case here.

So, the HOT Rod Awards for this event go to:

Another husband and wife partnership have gained the glory this time, following the success of the Wilkes family at the Club Championship. Well done to both Colin and Gill, who are now competing regularly, and definitely improving. It was also a very fast performance from David to come so close to his high ranking average.

This event also caused the final positions for the Autumn League to be settled. Here are the top 10 finishers in this competition:

These results have proved to be very close, so the PPS system appears to be working well on a League basis. Congratulations to Clive Jenkins on his excellent victory, and to Simon and David for their high average despite having high rankings to match each time. For completeness, I’ll just mention again that the Performance Cup was won earlier in the season by Annika Hermik, so well done to Annika also.

All the results for the complete season, including a separate tabbed spreadsheet for the final League rankings for the season, can be found here.

So we have now completed our first trial season with the PPS system, and have also used it for the Club Championship. It seems to be the most objective and flexible way of comparing performances on a regular basis, and allows everyone to run whatever course they wish. I’ll be administering a new League and Cup competition for next ‘season’ from January to May. However, I intend to spend some time reviewing the details of the scores achieved so far, and see if we should consider normalising the high scores being achieved by newer members to the scheme to more closely match the likely maximum scores of the more experienced competitors, which would create a closer comparison at each event. Any comments on the scheme are welcome. I’ll be in touch on the set-up and events proposed for the Spring League sometime in the New Year. In the meantime, I wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a successful New O year.