HAVOC League 2024/25 2024/25 season - winners announced

19th Jul 24

The end of April marks the end of the season for our HAVOC leagues.  These are aimed to increase our visibility on the national orienteering scene and increase our competitiveness in team events (Participation League) and test club members across all orienteering disciplines across the whole year as an alternative to the one-shot club championships (HAVOC league).

In the participation league we had people running in CROESO, the JK, numerous UKOL events, and of course our local team events, the Compass Sport Cup, the EAL, SEL and GLOSS.  Thirty club members ran in at least one of the participation league events, and overall as a club we logged 308 runs over 35 events (out of 61).  The league was close all year – Mike Muggeridge and Colin Jackson matching each other event for event.  There were some differences, but they equaled out, and it wasn’t until the SARUM UKOL event at Chicklade in early March that Colin broke one event clear, a lead he was to keep until the end of the season, to retain his title he won last year as well.

We have 18 events scheduled in the HAVOC league, from June to April, covering all different types of orienteering – lengths, terrains, scoring formats and night v day.  But, to make sure this event selection is kept fair, any other event that attracts six or more HAVOC runners is also added.  So, this season for example, we had 52 events in total.  So as not to dilute the requirement to cover all orienteering disciplines too much, members can transfer runs from one section (team events, traditional forest, other) to another but subject to a 25% penalty.  This year, all three categories (men, women, juniors) were really close.  The lead changed hands multiple times for all three.  In the end it came down to the final month, and even the final day, with the Norsey Wood race attracting 12 HAVOC runners, to be added to the list.

Amelie Maule-Lidbury led sibling Charlie for a while, but in the final month Charlie eased away with a set of runs from earlier in the year.

It was a similar story in the women’s competition.  Jenny Gebka and Chloe Fowler had swapped leadership a few times, but in the end Jenny came out on top, by 45 points, defending her title.

The closest race was at the top of the table though.  Defending champ, Paul Beckett led for much of the year, but he was chased all the way by Mike Muggeridge and Guy Lidbury.  As the season ended though, it became really close, and any of them could have won.  With Mike just falling short by a couple of points, the urban run at Great Notley proved critical.  Guy, ran, and despite missing a control, scored well enough to raise his overall league total.  Paul missed the event, so Guy took the lead.  It then came down to last night, at Norsey Wood.  A good time by Chris Prince saw him take the top points, and push Guy and Paul down in the scoring a little, so their scores didn’t make their top 14.  This left the table as was, and so Guy comes out on top by 11 points.

Congratulations to our winners for this year:

The HAVOC league is an annual individual competition for HAVOC members and is based on events during the summer to spring seasons. The scoring algorithm for the competition is given below.

There is also a Participation League where club members can score points for attending a range of events from the EA League and SE League calendars plus UKOL (UK orienteering league), and other local events including GLOSS (Greater London orienteering summer series).

The latest standings from both leagues can be found in the Spreadsheet attached to each month's newsletter, the latest version of which is here.

The current league fixtures are:

Historic winners

THE HAVOC Orienteering League

Aims

• To increase club entries in some of the premier team fixtures of the local calendar
• To give a competition that is separate to the club champs that takes into account a wide range of different orienteering disciplines, and is spread across the year, where missing one event doesn’t adversely affect the member

Scoring

• Best 14 of 18 events to count, so that members don’t have to enter all events over the season
• Aligned to the EA League and SE League scoring algorithms, so that members when entering the HAVOC league will also benefit the club in scoring for these club based competitions
• At each event the highest scoring runner will have their score rebased to 110 points, with other runners scoring in proportion
• Three categories of events (Traditional - Team, Traditional-Non Team, Non Traditional).  Max number of events (6,4,4).  Transfers can be made from other category at 75% of points scored

Event selection

Main criteria

• Three categories of events - Team events, Traditional Line events, and other events (Score, Sprint, Urban, Night)
• Maximum number of events in each category (6,4,4)
• If an individual doesn't have eough runs in a particular category, but surplus runs in another, the points are transferred, subject to a penalty of 25%
• In this way all orienteering disciplines are covered, as well as the main leagues that HAVOC are affiliated to (EAL, SEL, GLOSS)
• Include the Compass Sport Cup Preliminary (and final if relevant)
• Cover the premier team events in the season (SE Night, SE Score, SE Relay, EA Equivalents if take place) As SE events are not ratified for EA memebers, this is not an automatic criteria for these events
• Spread throughout the year, but ideally finishing before the club dinner (May – Apr)
• Ideally avoid weekend with other SWELL, HAVOC, SE League or EA League events, or Premier UK events
• Avoid the Club Champs event, and that weekend
• Coverage should ideally be at least 2 from each of our most local clubs (SOS, CHIG, DFOK, LOK) and at least 1 each from our next nearest (HH, SUFFOC, WAOC, SAX, SLOW).
• Local (EAOA and SEOA) events attracting more than five club runners will be added into the league if not already included.  The maximum number of events taken into account for the league scoring will not change

So that gives us:

• Compass Sport Cup Qualifier
• 2 EA League (from SOS, SUFFOC, WAOC)
• 2 SE League (from CHIG, DFOK, HH, SLOW, LOK, SAX)
• 2 SWELL (from SOS, CHIG)
• 2 GLOSS
• 2 Urban, 2 night, 2 score, 1 sprint (replace with traditional forest if not possible) (cover from local clubs, not already covered above)
• 2 Additional traditional forest
   

Scoring

Where an event does not offer the target course shown above, the next course down will be the target. e.g. Sh Blue -> Green