mixed doubles round robin night

[colmegan]

Hi Can anybody help?
I have 6 courts available and want to organise a mixed doubles round robin tournament on a friday night where every male gets to play with every female at some stage during the night. we dont know how many will turn up but maybe between 12 and 36 mixed. is there a formula I can use so that when different numbers turn up I will be able to work it out please?
colm

[Ian Wakeling]

Hi,

I think you will need to look for some software to do this for you as I doubt there is an easy formula to solve this.  Try an internet search for doubles tennis software - I can see some options but I don't have any experience of using them.  Clearly if different numbers of men and women turn up, then this creates problems as the men will have to play more often than the women, or vice versa.   There a few mixed double schedules on this message board but they are for very balanced scenarios that you are unlikely to have.  See here for example.

[colmegan]

Hi

Thanks so much for the reply.
I dont mind about the number of men v women as I always will even them out by playing a woman as a man etc but if there was a table with formulas for 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 mixed players ( half men half women) that would be great - thanks again  colm

[Ian Wakeling]

Although these schedules have a 'spouse avoiding' property you can always play an extra round (for example see the 16 player schedule) after which your criterion that all men partner once with all women will be met.  Follow the red  links below to find the schedules.

Hope that helps.

8 players
12 players - no balanced schedule exists.
16 players
18 players
20 players - no balanced schedule exists but see here
24 players see below
32 players You would need to rearrange the play to fit on 6 courts rather than 8.

(H1 W9  v H10 W7 ) (H2 W11 v H5  W1 ) (H3 W10 v H8  W4 ) (H4 W12 v H11 W6 ) (H6 W3  v H9  W5 ) (H7  W2  v H12 W8 )
(H1 W12 v H6  W2 ) (H2 W10 v H9  W8 ) (H3 W11 v H12 W5 ) (H4 W9  v H7  W3 ) (H5 W4  v H10 W6 ) (H8  W1  v H11 W7 )
(H1 W11 v H7  W8 ) (H2 W1  v H12 W6 ) (H3 W4  v H9  W7 ) (H4 W10 v H6  W5 ) (H5 W3  v H11 W12) (H8  W2  v H10 W9 )
(H1 W2  v H11 W5 ) (H2 W12 v H8  W7 ) (H3 W9  v H5  W6 ) (H4 W3  v H10 W8 ) (H6 W4  v H12 W11) (H7  W1  v H9 W10 )
(H1 W4  v H8  W12) (H2 W3  v H7  W11) (H3 W2  v H6  W10) (H4 W1  v H5  W9 ) (H9 W6  v H12 W7 ) (H10 W5  v H11 W8 )
(H1 W7  v H5  W10) (H2 W8  v H6  W9 ) (H3 W5  v H7  W12) (H4 W6  v H8  W11) (H9 W4  v H11 W2 ) (H10 W3  v H12 W1 )
(H1 W10 v H4  W11) (H2 W9  v H3  W12) (H5 W8  v H12 W4 ) (H6 W7  v H11 W3 ) (H7 W6  v H10 W2 ) (H8  W5  v H9  W1 )
(H1 W8  v H3  W6 ) (H2 W7  v H4  W5 ) (H5 W11 v H9  W2 ) (H6 W12 v H10 W1 ) (H7 W9  v H11 W4 ) (H8  W10 v H12 W3 )
(H1 W5  v H12 W9 ) (H2 W6  v H11 W10) (H3 W7  v H10 W11) (H4 W8  v H9  W12) (H5 W2  v H8  W3 ) (H6  W1  v H7  W4 )
(H1 W6  v H9  W3 ) (H2 W5  v H10 W4 ) (H3 W8  v H11 W1 ) (H4 W7  v H12 W2 ) (H5 W12 v H7  W10) (H6  W11 v H8  W9 )
(H1 W3  v H2  W4 ) (H3 W1  v H4  W2 ) (H5 W7  v H6  W8 ) (H7 W5  v H8  W6 ) (H9 W11 v H10 W12) (H11 W9  v H12 W10)

[colmegan]

Hi Ian

Thanks a million for all your help it was invaluable!

Kind regards

Colm