Pairings Needed - Pickleball Fundraiser

[bryanfaz]

I'm trying to generate the round robin pairings for 20 players on 4 courts, 5 players per court, playing doubles, where each player partners with the other players 1 time. With 5 players to a court, each player will sit out 1 match per round. I would like for the groups to stay together in groups of 5 until they've played with the other 4 players, then rotate and repeat. If I'm not mistaken, this will translate into 19 total matches.

This is a pickleball fundraiser we're attempting to build. We have 8 total courts and could have over 100 players for a 1-day event. If anyone has a format they've used I would love to hear about it. We do have lights...and can play into the evening. I was thinking about regular scoring but to 9, win by 1, to speed the games up and reduce the time on court to a manageable level. 

All thoughts are appreciated!

[Ian Wakeling]

I would not recommend going with 20 players on 4 courts as you have outlined above. The balance you want is not achievable, and in the best possible schedule there will be dozens of pairs of players who partner and oppose more than once, and dozens more pairs who never play together.  The only way I see it working is if there are 25 players on 5 courts, and a total of 30 rounds, which I can look into if you wish.

To me 100 players seems too many as only 32 of them can play at the same time.  Could you split them into groups of 25 perhaps?

[bryanfaz]

Ian that is very kind of you to offer. I am too impressed with your site. Very powerful tool.

I'm sure you've heard of the Pickleball Q program? 16 players in a round robin on 4 courts...playing with the other players once, etc., etc. To attempt to run as many players through in one day, I've modified the scoring by playing to 7, win by 1. I could retain the scoring, playing to 11 by 2.  I will need to maintain a strict 30 minute maximum playing time per (3-game) round. It takes 5 rounds to complete play (which translates into 15 matches). Five 30-minute rounds equals 2.5 hours of total playing time per Q...plus a find round robin of the top 4 players

I've got a minimum of 8 courts to work with. I'm going to offer 4 divisions for men and women. If I fill all 8 divisions, that's 128 players.  Running two Qs at the same time, on 8 courts should wrap up around dark (around 8:00 p.m.). I'm planning a lunch and a few breaks built it. 

Let me know what if you think this will work...or if I've lost my mind.

Thanks!
Bryan

[Ian Wakeling]

Hi Bryan,

I know very little about pickleball, so I am not the one to ask when it comes to the practicalities of running competitions, but I can help with the mathematical aspects.  I have never heard of the Q program (can you provide a link?), but I am familiar with the math of "16,4", in fact what I had in mind when I mentioned the 25 players is very similar.  Have a look at the schedule here for 25 players labelled A to Y.  This becomes your court allocation schedule, and each week in the schedule becomes a period of your competition. For example in period 2 you allocate the 5 players (C H M R W) to court 3 and there they play the mini doubles tournament:

(1 2) vs (3 5)
(2 3) vs (4 1)
(3 4) vs (5 2)
(4 5) vs (1 3)
(5 1) vs (2 4)

where 1=C, 2=H, 3=M, 4=R, 5=W.  Just follow the same pattern for all 6 periods and 5 courts and you will have a schedule where all pairs of players partner once and oppose twice.  If you can't manage 6 periods then you could cut it short and you would still have optimal mixing within the constraints of your send-5-to-a-court format.  Hope that helps.

Ian