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Cheltenham Festival Competition Notice

Discussion in 'Horse Racing' started by Ron, Feb 18, 2020.

  1. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Our annual competition with The Fatjockey forum draws near. As some of you may be aware, I have been having some problems with laptop and internet access and this continues. I also have a lot on my plate at present, with our business and my daughter's business. Consequently you will have noticed that recently I have not been so quick to process entries for other competitions. To compound the problem, I seem to be getting too many headaches lately, which doesn't help

    I therefore have concerns as to whether I will be able to manage a competition of this duration at present and think it only fair that I should make you aware now

    It would be shame not to keep this annual competition going, so this is a plea for help. If, nearer the time, I feel I can commit, I will of course do so. Meanwhile if anyone else could volunteer to run it this year I would be very grateful

    Thanks,
    Ron
     
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  2. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    PS. Not to mention the painfully slow response times I'm having to put up with <steam>
     
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  3. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Temporarily "stuck"
     
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  4. redcgull

    redcgull Well-Known Member

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    Ron, if I think I will have the time to do it then I will give it a go. Like you say, it would be a shame if we don't have our usual NOT606 v Fatjockey Cheltenham comp...

    I'll message you closer to the day... Ok...<ok>
     
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  5. Reebok

    Reebok YTS Mod
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    If it was just an ordinary comp, Ron, I'd volunteer, but I'm not sure how it works with the FJ lads. I don't have MS Access, which is what I believe you use, so I would only have an Excel spreadsheet. These work well enough as a rule, but can't of course be set up to search a database, and import data from other sources. If you could shed some light on how you manage this comp, I may be able to help out <ok>
     
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  6. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    The messiest part is importing the runners but that isn't too bad. Not being a tech wizzo like Joe (Benoit Blanc/Boris/Eddie) who has some clever way of doing it, I select the runners from the SL website the evening before racing and copy and paste them into Word; it pastes them in Table format which enables me to simply delete the columns I don't want. Then I use the Convert Table to Text with a delimiter of # to create a text file SL Runners. Everything thing else is done from the Access system ie Record the Race Date, Import Runners and add them to the Runners in Contest. I have a Table of the not606 and FJ members with an indicator to say they are entered in the comp. with a facility to add new members. For each entry I select the member and it gives me a drop down of all the horses entered today; entering the first character of a horse's name will provide me with a list of horses starting with that letter and I scroll and select (sometimes it is quicker to enter the first 2 chars). If a horse is entered in more than one race, select the one required. There is a default stake which can be overridden and an option for win/ew (default is win). The next thing is to Enter Results. Only horses selected appear (and appear only once) and you just select the placing and enter the SP. At any stage you can select Calculate Returns and it produces an up to date Table. Various other reports are available with no further input (eg the team tables, missing entries, who selected this horse, who has entries in race x, etc)

    That's a brief run down. I'll post the screens later. If anyone wants a copy of the system I will happily provide it

    Obviously, if anyone does use the system I will be available to help with any queries/problems (by phone may be the easiest)
     
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  7. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    PS, Unfortunately, it is only possible to process entries for the races imported from the overnight declarations. To help those who can't post entries daily there is provision to record advance bets in a separate file and these can be picked up manually to enter on the day.
     
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  8. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Only 10 days to go. If anyone wants to use my system to run the comp please let me know by Tuesday. Could be a nightmare to run the comp without it (well it would be for me). I will need to let FJ know if we aren't running it
     
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  9. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Only 10 days to go. If anyone wants to use my system to run the comp please let me know by Tuesday. Could be a nightmare to run the comp without it (well it would be for me). I will need to let FJ know if we aren't running it
     
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  10. Reebok

    Reebok YTS Mod
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    I thought I'd replied saying it was too complex for me, but saying it now/again! I'm happy to do a comp just for us, but the importing/exporting of data is beyond my pay grade :)
     
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  11. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Yes you did Reebs. There is no exporting and the importing is just the runners. The only reason I import the runners is so I can select them rather than have to type/copy and paste them. Also, if (say) 10 people select the same horse I only have to record where it finished once. If you are happy to run it, it would of course be entirely up to you how you run it. Last year there were 110 entered. 68 from FJ and 42 from not606. If you just do not606 that wouldn't be too bad. But if you can't do FJ, some may come over to enter which would push up the numbers. I would have no idea how to run it with Excel

    How is it looking red?
     
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  12. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Just popped over to fatjockey and it looks like they are running their own comp this year so that would reduce the workload significantly if the comp is just for not606. I messaged Kev (Kevloaf) on here but he hasn't picked up the message. I'll message him on FJ, if I can remember my password
     
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  13. kevloaf

    kevloaf Active Member

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    Apologies, I hadn't seen.
    We'd love the competition again, it's different in format to the ones we're running and I will ensure we're game a good take-up!

    If there is anything we can do to help let me know?
     
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  14. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Cheers Kev. I've messaged you on FJ
     
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  15. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    If it helps, I could send a text file the evening before racing and all you would have to (if you use my system) is save it to your desktop, click a button and it's ready to start entries.
     
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  16. Ron

    Ron Well-Known Member
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    Not looking too hopeful. I'll just have to leave it at that and hope someone can run something. My last post on this. Sorry folks
     
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  17. Steveo

    Steveo Well-Known Member

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    sorry Ron but I'm always pretty busy at work this time of the year - I will be able to run a comp for the Grand National meeting though if you would like.
     
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  18. Reebok

    Reebok YTS Mod
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    Ok …. final offer!

    I've spent most of the afternoon tinkering with spreadsheets and I'm happy enough to do a chelt comp here. And equally happy if the Fat Lads want to join in, but they'd need to log in here, I won't be going to their place! I'd want all players to identify themselves as FAT or NOT (just the once) and I can do the rest of the work by spreadsheet. I can keep team totals as well as individual I think I can make this work. Obviously this may impact on my own selections, as the likely winner of this, with less study time available, my choices will be compromised, but I'll take one for the team <laugh>

    Competition conditions: 6 races = 6 selections per day, £10 win is the default, £5 ew if specified, places to a maximum of 4 if more than 16 runners any race - first 3 only, less than 16 runners. Non-runners are just that, unless they are substituted before the race.

    If this is acceptable, I'll take it on - let's hear your comments! :)
     
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  19. NDS

    NDS Well-Known Member

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    Well Done Reebs, its no mean feet doing this sort of gig.
     
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  20. redcgull

    redcgull Well-Known Member

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    Sorry chaps, I've just had no time what so ever recently to put any time looking at running it. If Reebs is stepping up then I doff my cap to you fine sir...:emoticon-0139-bow:
     
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