The Club Galoppen is basically a light-hearted club-orientated competition for all members. The cutting edge of competition is well covered by various national ranking lists. The season runs from September to September. The events used for scoring can be small local events, regional and national events where there is a significant Sarum presence. When there are several accessible events on the same day all are taken into account.
Historically in the 1980s and 1990s the rules were very complex and needed tweaking every time the BOF format for courses and age classes changed. The simplified logistics for today’s calculations is to compare your time to the best in your age class (obviously extrapolating for course lengths). In a few very small events, it may only be possible to compare with the winner of your chosen course.
Similarly, if you are in an under-represented age class I may use the closest age class to compare eg. I am sometimes the only W80 and need to compare my time with the best W75. At major national events where you compete against national and international elite the scores are enhanced by ten percent.
Although well attended by Sarum members, the Wednesday Army events are not included as they are not available to members in fulltime employment or education. The only time I include a score event is where there is a substantial entry and it is the only course on offer eg. WIM Boxing Day Canter. In this case I have to compare scores rather than times but can still use age classes.
Members competing in at least 25% of qualifying events are ranked in the final galoppen list. A popular rule still retained is that for 6 events run you may drop the lowest score eg. running 18 events allows you the luxury of 3 bad days – mis-punches and retirals score zero!
The trophy for the season’s winner was renamed The Ron Ley Trophy after it had been won for many years by possibly our best orienteer ever. However there have been many worthy winners since those days in all age classes.
Recent winners are shown in the table below, along with full results for each year. For earlier winners, please see our ‘Hall of Fame‘.
Joan Hambleton
| Season | Winner | Full Results |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Rob Ashton | Results 2024-25 |
| 2023-24 | Rob Ashton | Results 2023-24 |
| 2022-23 | Michael Cooke | Results 2022-23 |
| 2021-22 | Daniel Robertson | Results 2021-22 |
| 2020-21 | Rob Ashton | Results 2020-21 |
| 2019-20 | Rob Ashton | Results 2019-20 |
| 2018-19 | Ian Peirce | Results 2018-19 |
| 2017-18 | Lucy Butt | Results 2017-18 |