12 person doubles game 3 half hour sessions

[Johnmendez]

We have been trying, forever it seems, to work out a successful pairings situation for 12 players. We want to avoid husband a wives playing together in all sessions. Currently we draw for participant numbers separating the men and women,  but cannot get the rotation right. Does anyone have a solution? Thanks, John

[Ian Wakeling]

There are balanced schedules where all non-spouse pairs occur exactly once in partnership and once in opposition, for example see the links here.  So if you had 8, 16 or 18 players you could simply take 3 rounds from one of these schedules.  Unfortunately the 12 player, 5 round schedule does not exist and it may even be impossible to have 3 rounds with no repeats.  The best I have found is:


[(H6 W2):(H3 W4)] [(H2 W5):(H1 W6)] [(H5 W1):(H4 W3)]
[(H6 W3):(H4 W5)] [(H3 W1):(H2 W4)] [(H5 W6):(H1 W2)]
[(H3 W6):(H5 W4)] [(H6 W5):(H2 W1)] [(H4 W2):(H1 W3)]

but the pairs (H3 & W4) and (H4 & W3) always play in the same match, so it's not good.

Ian.

[Johnmendez]

Thanks for looking at this Ian, much appreciated. Maybe we will expand our group. Best wishes, John