Types of Club Play
Club play when listed in the schedule will involve one of the following playing formats. Details on court and partner assignments, game format, scoring, etc., will be provided before play starts by the Court Scheduler.
Below is a “general” description of the playing format. Court Scheduler reserves the right to change things up.
Level Play (aka Kings/Queens/Top Court)
Meant for more competitive play. At the start of the session, the Top Court is designated. Players are assigned with partners and their starting court. Assignments can be any, but not limited to, of the following, random, self-select or seeded.
Play determined by the court scheduler can be timed play, play to 11, or 15, rally points or regular scoring. If you win, you and your partner move up one court towards the Top Court. If you lose, you and your partner move down one court. Top court the wining players don’t move and bottom court the losing players don’t move.
After moving to your next court, all players split so that you play with a new partner (if possible). The 2 moving up players each pick a different side to play on. Of the two move down players one puts their paddle behind their back and then in 1 hand. The other player guesses which hand the paddle is in. A wrong guess goes to the Back Side. A correct guess goes to the Entrance Side.
Uneven (not a multiple of 4) number of players will create “byes”. The Court Scheduler will sort out the byes. A Bye will indicate what court they want to play, excluding the Top and Bottom courts. One of the players that has just come “down” to the court will be switched out and will re-enter that court on the next round. No player shall have more than 1 bye. This may mean a switch out with a player that has come “up” to that court. The Court Scheduler will sort out the byes.
Round Robin Play
A “Round Robin” is a structured form of play organized by skill levels. In the time allocated to each Round Robin session you will play up to six games, each with a different partner and against a different pair of opponents.
Round Robin uses a list of players gathered from SignUpGenius. Each player is given a number on the list. There is a Round Robin schedule page consisting of game number and court assignment for groups of 4 player numbers. Players with a Bye in each game are listed at the bottom.
Play is Rally scoring, first to 15. Switch at 8.
The Court Scheduler must do some advance preparation to get things rolling. It is important that players arrive AT LEAST 15 minutes before the Round Robin is scheduled to start. Late arrivals may be replaced or simply not allowed to play.
Paddle Play – Chicken-Dinner/No-Dinner sides
A format for playing when there are more people than courts. There will be a sign that reads “CHICKEN-DINNER”, one that reads “NO-DINNER” and one that reads “NEXT”. When you finish your game and you were a “winner-winner” then put your paddle on the “CHICKEN-DINNER” side. Joining a group of paddles to make 4 or starting a new group of 4. Groups of 4 from left to right. Not-a-winner do the same on the “NO-DINNER" side. When a court is free the side with the “NEXT” sign gets their paddles and moves the “NEXT” sign to the other “side”.
Ladder League
The format of play is designed so that players play mostly with others of similar skill levels. Your ranking on a ladder is based upon your winning percentage (the ratio of points won to total points possible). Players will move up or down the ladder based upon their winning percentage.
Each week, players will be placed in groups of 4 on each court in order of their rankings on the ladder for match play. Each court gets a scorecard with players ranked 1 to 4(5) for the assigned court. Since it is difficult to get just the right number of players to show-up to have 4 on each court, when necessary, 5 players will be assigned to a court starting at the lower courts. The courts with 4 players will play a round robin format, so that everyone on the court has been paired with everyone else after the three games. Games will be played to 15 points in the First Round of play. The court with 5 players will also play a round robin but one player will be assigned a bye for each game. Courts with 5 players will play to 11 points each game and will play a total of 4 games each round. The total points scored for each player are recorded on the scorecard after each game and totaled at the end of the round. The player with the most points will move up a court, and the player with the least points moves down a court. For a tie, based on the ranking on the first-round scorecard, the higher ranked player moves up and the lower ranked player moves down. When everyone has completed the First Round, the Second Round of play begins with the new player on each court. On Court #1, players only move down, and on the last court, players only move up.
The total points scored from both rounds for each player are recorded on the scorecard then given to the Court Scheduler to be totaled for the day and for the entire league session. Additional fractional points are awarded for games won on different courts. In other words, wins on Court 1 are valued slightly higher than wins on lower courts. Each player’s points and additional points are totaled and accumulated over weeks of play to form a Ranking of players from top to bottom. Each week the Rankings determine which courts players play only with the top ranked players on Court 1 down to the lowest ranked on the last court.