How To Run A Tournament

First - Decide what type of tournament it is going to be

Entrants:

• Club (i.e. an event just for your Club members)

• Restricted invitation (i.e. you are inviting only one or two other clubs, or a particular group of people)

• Restricted Open (anyone can enter, subject to certain criteria e.g. must be PNZ members)

• Open (anyone can enter)

Level of competition:

• Purely social (but remembering that even at this level, everyone still wants to win!) e.g club fun or open day; corporate social event.

• More 'serious', where results really do matter e.g. Club championships, interclub trophy.

• High level competitive e.g. regional or national championships.

Format:

• Singles, doubles or triples?

Try to make sure your chosen date doesn’t clash with another event that will either compete directly with yours, e.g. another petanque tournament, or that may prevent you getting a good level of entries, e.g. major events in your area such as a big rugby match, festival, or horse racing carnival.

Tournaments can be run for just a few hours, for a whole day, or over two (or more) days. Deciding factors will be – whether it is a social or competitive tournament, hours of daylight available, or if you have artificial lighting. As a rough rule of thumb, singles games tend to take around 30 - 45 minutes; doubles 1 hour, and triples up to one and a half hours.

If only a short time is available or desired, options are:

• Play to a time limit e.g. 30 minute games, with the finish signalled by buzzer, whistle etc. In this case, you need to make it clear what happens if players are in the middle of an end – whether they are allowed to finish that end or not. With time-bound games, it is possible for teams to 'draw' i.e. have the same number of points at the designated end of play. If the format requires a clear result, you will have to allow for an extra end to be played.

• Play only to 11 points rather than 13.

If it is a full day(s) tournament, are you going to have a designated lunch break (this can have a big effect on how long the tournament takes), or play through and have players lunch 'on the run' e.g. if they have to wait for someone else to finish before they can start their next game.

How many entrants do you want? This will be influenced by the number of pistes available (taking into account minimum size requirements – see Rules).

If you are restricting numbers, you need to make this clear on the entry forms, and state on what basis entries will be accepted e.g. first come first served, or preference given to club members etc.

Entry Forms:

Apart from club events (for club members only) most tournaments will require an Entry Form. The Entry Form should include the following details:

• Name of tournament

• Tournament date(s)

• Tournament venue

• Date when entries close

• Entry fee

• Player(s) details required:

  • Name(s)

  • Contact phone number and/or email address

• Address to return Entry Form and Fee

• Tournament rules, conditions and format

• Name of tournament organiser and contact details

Example: Entry Form (MS Word)

Officials:

• Have you got an umpire? i.e. someone who knows the rules and can settle disputes/ answer questions during play, and measure points during games. Preferably this should be someone who is not playing in the tournament (contact PNZ to find out what’s involved in being an umpire, and how your club members can become qualified umpires)

• Designated organiser – to keep things running smoothly on the day, someone who players can ask if they have any queries about the day’s events (e.g. where’s the nearest shop? where do I go to report a lost item?)

• Score table attendants – to make sure the results are entered correctly on the score sheets.

Players briefing:

• You need to have a 'players briefing' before the start of the tournament, so you can tell all the  players what the rules and conditions for the day are. For example, who the umpire/s is/are; what the boundaries of the terrain are, what the arrangements for lunch are, where the score table is, other necessary information – tea coffee, toilet facilities.

• Remind them of the main rules as appropriate e.g.  '1 minute' rule, no smoking on the terrain.

• If you haven’t got a loud voice, a loudhailer or microphone might be useful.

Allocation and numbering of terrains:

• Terrains can be allocated strictly on a per game basis i.e. 'this game is to be played on this terrain'; or more loosely e.g. Pool A games are to be played on terrains 1 - 4, Pool B on 5 - 8 etc, and the teams decide which particular terrain they will play on (usually on a 'first in' basis).

• Again, this will be  influenced by the number of teams entered, and the size of the available terrain – with a relatively small number of entrants and a lot of pistes, allocation isn’t as important.

• Numbering can be simply done with a can of spray paint – easy to change, and remove when no longer needed.

• Tournament Format Selection Chart

   

• Single Elimination

   

• Double Elimination

   

• Round Robin

   

• Barrage

   

• Random Draw

   

• Melee

  This is most commonly used for social tournaments. Everyone enters as individuals and the organisers assign entrants to teams. 'Pairings' can be structured, for example male/female, young/old, new/experienced, club member/member of the public; or totally random. Team composition can remain constant over the length of the tournament, or be changed from round to round (so that people have different partners in each game).

The most important principle of seeding is to ensure that the top two teams or players should meet in the final game (assuming of course they play to their seeding position).

Seeding is important for Elimination, Round Robin and Barrage Formats particularly if they are being used for tournaments such as championships.

If an Elimination or Barrage Format is being used after a Round Robin or Random Draw round then it is very important that the seeded teams or players are placed correctly in the Elimination or Barrage Format.

If the tournament is a club melee or social event then seeding is not particularly important.

Elimination Seeding Chart (MS Word)

Round Robin and Barrage Seeding Chart (MS Word)