Horseshoe schedules

[kredwards]

I have been chosen to perform the secretary duties of the horseshoe league.  I would like some assistance on creating a schedule of play.  We have 21 teams and would like to create a schedule where every team plays each other once before we start the rotation over.  We don't need to end the season with every team playing each other an equal number of times, but as close as possible.  How do I go about creating a schedule?

Thanks

I forgot to mention that it is important that the teams rotate on the pits that they use for each game.  What I mean is that one team can't throw on the same court all the time.  Each court is a bit different from the next due to lighting, neighboring courts, wind, rain, etc. so we want to level the playing field as much as possible.

[Ian Wakeling]

Do you have 10 pits, so 20 teams can play simultaneously?  Also approximately how many days of play do you want to have in the season?

[kredwards]

Yes, we have 10 pits and 20 teams can play simultaneously.  We play one night a week, three games a night.  Play starts in May and ends in August.  If we have a round robin schedule, we would run through it as often as needed until the end of the season.  It is a fun league, so people really don't care if they play exactly the same number of games.  They just want to spread it out as much as reasonable.  Since it is a summer league, most teams will miss some games because of vacations and such. They have no problem forfeiting.

Thanks

[Ian Wakeling]

Thank you for giving the extra details.  With 21 rounds, or 7 weeks playing 3 games per night, you will be able to play a full round-robin where each team plays the other 20 teams exactly once.  Use the schedules link near the top of this page, and click on 22 items to show the cyclic plan.  Once you have removed the "Match 1" column, then you will be left with a schedule for 21 teams (numbered 2 to 22), where each team plays exactly twice in each of the 10 columns (pits) labelled Match 2 to Match 11.

If you need more rounds, then either start over with the same schedule, or use the Excel file here to generate different schedules with the same properties as above.

[kredwards]

Thank you for the help.  I have loaded the table into a spreadsheet for use.

Again,

Thanks