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That is not totally correct the 7d's program from David Wride figures scores just as nationals rules in 10 minute intervals not 10 minute blocks as the masters program
There are at least 2 reasons to use some kind of interval. First, it prevents over-scoring of a hound which sometimes happens by accident (as in the case where 2 judges are too close together and don't realize they are scoring essentially the same crossing) and which sometimes happens due to cir***stances as in the case of a piece of game running tight circles near a judge or judges. Secondly, intervals prevent a hound from being able to rack up a ton of points during one particular period of the day and coast to a victory during the rest of the day. To do well in a hunt using intervals a hound will have to score some throughout the day and be more consistent from the 1st hour to the last hour.
Intervals do have unintended consequences which some of you guys have pointed out. An interval homogenizes the scores from the field. It will force the scores of all the hounds to be closer together and not let one hound get out in front of the rest in score even if he is a great hound. Like in NASCAR if Jimmy Johnson gets a big lead and is about to lap the rest of the field then you see the Caution flag come out to bring them all back together. Intervals do that. Since I'm on NASCAR analogies it is also like putting a restrictor plate on the fastest cars to make them closer to the slower cars in performance.
Some folks think a shorter interval helps the snatch and grabbers but shorter intervals actually help the track running hound that stays in the race. The snatch and grabber will be in and out and looking only for first place or nothing. In any given 10 minute interval he will probably get that one 1st place crossing he is looking for. Meanwhile the steady hound is running 1st, 2nd, 3rd, sometimes 4th or 5th or back in the pack but he is always there and keeps running the track in spite of the swinging going on ahead of him. Well the result of all that good running is he gets to keep only the single 1st place crossing just like the road runner got to keep. If the intervals had been 3 minutes long instead of 10 then perhaps the steady hound would be able to keep a 1st place and two 2nd place crossings, or maybe the first place crossing and 2 pack scores. He gets to keep more total points than the hound that cut in and only led the race past one judge during all that time.
My conclusion is that intervals are helpful but the shorter the better. 5 minutes is good but 3 minutes would be better.
The National way of applying the intervals is better at preventing over-scoring of a hound but the Masters way is a lot easier to do.
7D's program will do it the National way but can only handle so many scores in a short time period. Hopefully someday there will be a program that works flawlessly but we are not there yet.