West Cross-Country League - What is it and why we need you

For those new to the club or who have not participated in the West XC League before here are a few pointers as to why it is important to have you participate for your club, Calderglen Harriers.

Unlike any other race we do, the two races in the West XC League are team events only. There are no individual awards or positions. The winners are the clubs.

For the few years that the league has been in place, we have done well, especially given the relatively small size of our club. We have done well not because we have super fast, elite runners but because we were represented by many Harriers across the different male, female, age group and combined categories.

What do we need to do for Calderglen Harriers to place highly?

1. we need to have at least the maximum number of counters in each team in each category to avoid accumulating penalty points for incomplete teams. Senior teams have 4 counters per team; all other age groups have 3 counters per team. Scores are awarded by adding up the finishing positions of each member of a team (4 or 3 to count) and adding on any penalty points as explained in point 2. The lowest score wins.

2. we need to have more than the maximum counters per team running. Every extra person we have above the maximum counters for a team puts a penalty point onto the score of each team for each person they are missing from a complete team. So if Calderglen have a senior ladies team with 6 running, then we have 2 extra runners in our team and, lets say Dunrunning Harriers have a Senior ladies team with only one runner, then they pick up 6 penalty points courtesy of Calderglen due to having 3 runners missing from their team (a complete team needs 4 senior ladies) and getting 2 penalty points per missing runner.

3. we need to have good attendance in both league match 1 in Strathaven and league match 2 in Balloch as the competition is a 2-race league.

4. for the reasons above (and as it is only 2 races this year), both races are in the Calderglen Grand Prix (see the newsletter sent out last week).

So, looking to see as many as possible of you in Strathaven on Saturday!

Alan