Some of you have expressed dissatisfaction with the format this year. For some years a clause has been included in the Supplementary Regulations allowing for the combination of the two fields should the entries in one or other fall below that required for a viable Swiss movement. Last year, fortuitously, there were equal (though unviable) numbers in each and a different format altogether was used satisfactorily and to general acclaim. This is the first year that a combined field has been used.

Here is an opportunity to make constructive suggestions as to alternative formats. The following should be taken into consideration:

• Boards are pre-dealt, hand records duplicated, and score books produced some weeks prior to the start of the event
• Advertising should ideally include the format and session times months prior to the event
• A Swiss movement is only considered viable if there are least twice the number of entries as rounds
• The number of entries in each event may not be known until quite close to the event

In recent years the number of Women’s and Seniors’ teams have been:

The inclusion of a house team to an event is not ideal. Apart from the difficulty of obtaining players willing to give up their time, it can add another uncertainty factor as its composition and therefore the strength of the house team can vary considerably from match to match.

Please talk amongst yourselves over the next weeks and then email your ideas to sn@abf.com.au.

Marcia Scudder
Tournament Organiser
28 October 2015