The West Midlands Relays are held annually and organised by each West Midlands club in turn. The Relays are both a competition and a social event and should be organised as such.

To ensure the quality of competition these events must have a Controller from outside the organising club.

Teams:

Teams of 3 runners from the same West Midlands club compete in classes A to M.

Teams of 3 runners from the same or different West Midlands clubs may compete in class N.

The organising club may invite clubs from other regions to take part, but they are not eligible for the trophies.

Pairs may run in the Mini-Relay.

Classes:

Relay Course	Class Title	BOF Age Classes	Combined Ages	Technical Difficulty	Approx Course Length
A	Mini-Relay	M/W12-		TD1	1.0 to 1.5 km
B	Junior Women		W42-	TD3	2.0 to 2.5 km
C	Intermediate Women		W54-	TD5	3.0 to 3.5 km
D	Open Women	Any W		TD5	4.0 to 4.5 km
E	Senior Women		W130+	TD5	3.5 to 4.0 km
F	Veteran Women		W165+	TD5	3.0 to 3.5 km
G	Super Veteran Women		W200+	TD5	2.5 to 3.0 km
H	Junior Men		M42-	TD3	2.0 to 2.5 km
I	Intermediate Men		M54-	TD5	3.5 to 4.0 km
J	Open Men	Any		TD5	5.0 to 5.5 km
K	Senior Men		M130+	TD5	4.0 to 4.5 km
L	Veteran Men		M165+	TD5	3.5 to 4.0 km
M	Super Veteran Men		M200+	TD5	3.0 to 3.5 km
N	Mixed Ad Hoc				One lap from each of B, C, D

For relay classes where the total combined ages of the runners is used then it is the total of the British Orienteering age classes (not the actual ages) of the runners that counts. Added together these must be equal to or less than (classes B, C, H, I), or equal to or more than (classes E, F, G, K, L, M) the number stated for the class.

For Junior Relay classes B, C, H and I, all competitors must be M/W20 or below.

For the senior classes E, F, G, K, L and M, any junior will be counted as though they were ‘running up’ as an M/W21.

For class N, Mixed Ad Hoc, the lap lengths will be jumbled up. For this class, the running order will be shown on the Team Declaration Form so that team members will be able to select the lap appropriate to them.

Planning:

Classes can use the same course when they are the same length and technical difficulty so only the following are needed:

Technical Difficulty	Approximate Course Length	Relay Classes
TD1	1.0 to 1.5 km	A
TD3	2.0 to 2.5 km	B, H, (N)
TD5	2.5 to 3.0 km	G
TD5	3.0 to 3.5 km	C, F, M, (N)
TD5	3.5 to 4.0 km	E, I, L
TD5	4.0 to 4.5 km	D, K, (N)
TD5	5.0 to 5.5 km	J

The course lengths are given as guidelines and will vary according to the physical and technical difficulty of the area. As a guide the fastest times on course J, Open Men, should be around 30 minutes.

The number of variants of a particular course, and how to use gaffling, is a decision to be made by the Planner. However it must be remembered that whatever method of gaffling is employed, in order for the race to be fair it is essential that by the end of the race each team must have run precisely the same legs. It is not sufficient that they have just visited the same controls.

Organisation:

In order to increase the number of people racing together all classes except the mini relay should start at the same time. The mini relay should start five minutes after that.

Trophies and Certificates:

There are West Midlands Relays Championship trophies for the winners of each class, and certificates for the first three teams in each of the Mini, Junior and Intermediate classes (A, B, C, H, I).

Henry Morgan (contact details on this page) can supply a customised certificate. Alternatively, a word template with text boxes is available for customisation here and a word template with background image only is here.