Sydenham Tennis Club (Squash & Tennis)
Lawrie Park Road • Sydenham, London • SE26 6ET
Tel: 020 8778 4217
I. This notice is to set out the possible arrangements for the 2018 racketball tournament. As usual the tournament will start with a round robin, which will determine who is eligible for the knock out stage. Depending on the numbers of players who wish to enter, we will have either a single competition, as last year, or a two division competition, as has sometime been done in the past. So that you can decide whether to enter, the arrangements for these two possibilities are set out below. NB please make your decision on whether to enter or not as soon as possible, and let me know if you do not want to enter so that we will all know the final arrangements before the tournament starts on 1 January. Further details on enrolment are at the end of this notice.
II A two division tournament. We will have two divisions if all or a large majority the 21 players in the current league enter the tournament. This is because, as Paul Shade and Onone Okatone, who are not in the current league, are going to enter, if there was a single round robin, each player would have up to 22 matches to complete. To have the finals before the start of Easter, they have to be held by, at latest 24 March and the round robin has to end a week before then. Based on past experience, I don’t think that it is practicable to expect competitors to complete 22 matches in 11 weeks. So, in that case, we will have an A and a B tournament. Assuming a total entry of 23 players but now split into two divisions, each player will have, at most 11 matches to play. This should easily be possible in 10 weeks, so the finals can be well before the Easter period, on 17 March with the round robin ending on 10 March.
Players will be assigned to the A or B division mainly on the basis of their current handicaps. So everyone with a handicap of -6 or better will be in the A division. This will include Paul Shade, who will be joining with a handicap of -12. The remainder of division A will consist of the best of the current -3 players as determined by the results in the current league.
The finals will be held on the model used in this year’s squash tournament i.e. they will consist of two sets of semi finals and two sets of finals (one set of finals for the winners in the semi finals and the other for the semi-finals losers), with all the matches played in a single afternoon. The players eligible for the finals will be the top four in each division. If some of the top four are not available for the finals, their places will be offered to players below them in the round robin.
III A one division tournament. If several players from the current league decide not to enter the tournament, then we will have a single tournament, as last year. In that case, the round robin will end on 17 March and the finals will be on 24 March. The finals will consist of quarter finals, semi-finals and finals, all played in a single afternoon. The top eight players from the round robin will be eligible for the finals.
IV Handicaps. Generally speaking handicaps are meant to indicate “class” rather than” form”, so those of established players rarely change until they reach rather advanced years (like me!). But newer players take some time before their “class” is fully revealed, so I keep these under review and may change some of them in the light of their recent performance.
V. Enrolment. I will, by default, enter into the tournament all the players in the current league apart from anyone who lets me know that they do not want to enter. I may, however, contact anyone who hasn’t played many matches in this league by the end of next week to ask them to confirm that they intend to play a full part in the tournament, because the tournament works best if everyone who enters intends to play all their matches.
As a guide, there will only be a single division tournament if the number of entries are such that the most matches anyone has to play can be achieved if they play, on average, about three games per fortnight.
Finally, please do not be deterred from entering if you already know that you will not be available on the finals days. In that case, if you do well enough in the round robin to be eligible for the finals, your place will be offered to someone below you. But your position in the round robin will still count, because it will be used to help decide which box you go into in the league that will start after the tournament is over.
David Roberts
08/12/2017
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