Test matches — Tournament Manager Help

What this section does

Scoring in a team event runs test by test. Each test match lists its rubbers; a rubber is scored game by game, and the test's tally, the block standings and the public page all update from those games. The same surface is available full screen at Open full screen ↗ (the /scoring address), where scorers and captains can work without the planner around it. On a league season the page uses league words: matches instead of tests, games instead of rubbers, rounds instead of sessions, and each game is entered as its hoop score (Hoops), with the game it gives (Games 1–0) shown beside it.

Click a rubber (a game, in a league) to open its score boxes. Save closes it and opens the next one with no score yet, in playing order, so a whole test is entered top to bottom without reaching for the next row.

Tests are grouped by block or knockout stage. Each group offers Tests (Matches on a league season) and Standings views. Someone who captains a side gets a second pair of buttons over the list: their team's name (both names when they captain two, My 3 teams past that) lists only the matches those teams play, and All teams lists every match. A captain opens on their own team's matches; a league or event manager opens on All teams. The standings table shows points, tests won/lost/drawn, matches (rubbers), games and hoops, with columns filling as results arrive — a test counts in the Tests columns only once it is decided, while its finished rubbers already count in Matches, Games and Hoops.

Game length, the table's rules and the team size limit are on Scoring settings on an event. On a league season they are on Format, under 3 · How games and the table are scored, below what one match is and who plays whom, so a season is set up on one tab.

Tied teams resolve by — either Head to head first (the WCF's two-stage rule on an event) or your own order, which is a list you can reorder, shorten or add to: games won, net games, net hoops, and what the tied teams did to each other. A club league's usual protocol — matches won, then games won, then net hoops, then the same two between the tied teams — is the 8 doubles, two rounds starting point's default.

Team size (Format → Standings & team sheets) caps how many players each team can have: the Players tab's picker stops offering players once a team is full, and a team already over the cap is flagged. 6 by default on a team event; the 8 doubles, two rounds starting point lifts it to 12 when it is still at the default. A league season has no team size here: a league team is everyone the captain picks from (the club's list on My Team ▸ Players, of whom those on the season's team are offered) — a team fielding eight a match may carry twenty, all of whom get the team's emails — and any limit is a Team rule, set once for the whole league in League settings ▸ Team rules, where team size, grade limits, partners and playing order all live. The season's Scoring settings shows those rules, with a link to change them.

Play-off places (Format → Standings & team sheets) — a number draws a dashed line under that many places on the public table, labelled with the text beside it (default "Play-off places"). 0 means the table decides the season.

What the format columns mean

The rows under What is one match? are the contests a match is made of. The ? beside the heading opens the same explanation in the planner.

Session groups the rows into rounds played one after another — four before lunch and four after is sessions 1 and 2. Leave everything in session 1 when it is all played together.
Type is singles or doubles, row by row, so one match can mix them.
Side A and Side B are positions, not people. D1 is the first doubles pair, S2 the second singles player. Each captain names who fills each position on their team sheet; a row with D1 on both sides puts one team's first pair against the other's, and different positions on the two sides cross them over.
Best of is how many games decide the row, and Game how long each one is.

Team sheets

Every test starts with a team sheet from each side: the singles order of merit (S1 strongest, downwards) and the doubles pairings in strength order. The sheet decides who plays which rubber — the format's positions (S1 v S1, D2 v D2 …) are filled from the two sheets.

Who submits — a team's captain (set on the Teams section) or the manager, with Enter sheet. Players are picked from the team's players.
Rounds — when the format has doubles in more than one session (the 8 doubles club match), the sheet asks for each round's pairings under a Round 1 / Round 2 heading. A player may not be in two pairings of the same round, but may play in both rounds; the pairings need not be the same.
Add players to the team — under the availability list, a captain can paste "Name, email" lines to add players to their own team without the manager. The manager has the same Add several players at once under each team on the Players tab.
Save draft — keeps the picks without submitting. The panel shows Draft. A draft is private to the captain and the manager: the rest of the team does not see it, and neither does the other side. Submit sheet replaces the draft; once a sheet is submitted, changes go through Edit and Submit sheet again.
Notify selected players — emails every player on the sheet ("You're playing on Friday", with the date and start time, the full lineup and their slot) and, from that moment, shows the lineup to the whole team on their availability page. The panel shows Team notified with the time. A captain can still change the sheet after notifying; Notify again sends the current lineup to everyone now on it. Replies go to the captain. A player on the sheet more than once, for example in both rounds, gets one email listing all their slots.
Print — on a team's sheet (and Print sheet beside each match in My Team ▸ Matches) opens that team's selection for the match on one page: the team, the opponent, date, time and home or away, then S1… and each round's D1… with the players' names, and lines for the captain and the time it was exchanged. It prints what is saved, draft or submitted; a position with nobody picked prints blank to write in, and with nothing saved the whole sheet prints blank. It is for the match where the other side is on paper: the sheets are swapped by hand at the lawn as before. Only the team's own captains and the league's managers see the link.
Printed team sheet (Format → Standings & team sheets, league seasons) — Team sheet (the default, as above) or Proposed pairings. With Proposed pairings, the printed sheet is headed Proposed pairings, reads "vs" before the opponent, has no captain or exchange lines, and ends with the time the sheet was submitted (or Draft, not yet submitted) and "The final pairings may change." Each team's sheet panel also gets Email to the squad: a subject (filled in with the teams and date), Your note for a covering message, the pairings as they will appear under the note, and a tick for each player (everyone with an email is ticked; Everyone and Nobody set them all). Send to N sends it from you, with replies coming back to you, and it appears under My Team ▸ Messages ▸ Sent. It is separate from Notify selected players, which sends the lineup to the players picked.
Hidden until both are in — a submitted sheet is not visible to the other side until both sides have submitted. A manager sees every sheet, except a manager who also captains one side of the match: for that match they see the other side's sheet only once both are in, the same as the other captain, and cannot enter or edit it. On a test season this does not apply: the manager sees and can enter every side's sheet, to try the league out by playing every club.
Fill from who can play — fills every empty place on the sheet from the team: players who said yes first, then maybe, then those who have not answered. Nobody who said no is picked, and places already filled are left alone. On a league season it follows the league's Team rules: the strongest at S1 and D1 when the league orders play by grade, and a later round that is empty takes round 1's pairs as they are — or round 1's players with new partners when the league allows a partnership only once.
Records while picking — once the team has results this season, each place shows the chosen player's record under it: games won–lost this season, against this match's opponent, and in that format (singles or doubles). A doubles pair shows its record together and, when it is level or losing, either player's best partner. Each dropdown entry carries the player's season record, and with one seat of a pair filled, the record with that partner. A game is one singles or doubles game within a match; games ruled shared are left out.
Who can play — under the places, everyone on the team with availability, dGrade and, once there are results, the same records and best partner. Add beside a player fills the next empty place (singles first, then doubles seats in order); a player already placed shows where.
Suggest a lineup — proposes a full lineup with a reason on every line and a sentence saying what it was based on. Only players who can play, yeses before maybes before those who have not answered, inside the division's grade range. Singles go by grade, with this season's form as a tie-break only between players within 100 points. Doubles pairs are scored on combined grade plus 40 points for each net win together this season and a little for having played together last match, and each round takes the set of pairs with the best total, so a pair that is winning stays together even when one of them is also a higher-graded partner for someone else. It follows the league's Team rules: the partner rule, playing order, and the lineup average (swapping the strongest or weakest for the next in line until the average fits). Use this fills the places; Dismiss leaves them as they were. A suggestion is never a submission.
Use last match's pairs — fills round 1 with the pairs this team played last time, keeping a pair only where neither player has said no to this match, and fills any gap from who can play.
Clear all — empties every place on the sheet to pick again. Nothing is saved until Save draft or Submit sheet.
Round 2: same pairs as round 1 (or round 1's players, new partners when partners may play together only once) — fills an empty later round from round 1. New partners means pairs 1 and 2 swap second players, and 3 and 4 likewise: with round 1 as Alfie Hoop & Bea Clip, Cormac Tice & Delia Flush, round 2 becomes Alfie Hoop & Delia Flush, Cormac Tice & Bea Clip.
Order checking — a sheet that places a player above someone whose dGrade is more than the competition's tolerance higher (or orders the doubles pairings against their combined dGrades) is flagged. A captain cannot submit past the flag; the manager can, and the acceptance is recorded on the sheet.
Lock & fill rubbers — once both sheets are in, the manager locks them. Locking writes every rubber's players from the sheets and the format. If the doubles selections make two rubbers repeat the same pairing (possible in the 7- and 9-match formats), the lock warns and the manager adjusts the affected rubbers by hand. Unlock reopens the sheets; captains can resubmit until the lock.

Scoring a rubber

Open a test, then a rubber. Enter each game's score; + Game adds the next game up to the rubber's best-of. A rubber is decided when one side has won a majority of its games — the row shows the games tally and the winner in green. Games always run to the winning total (first to 7 in a 13-point game); the entry refuses impossible scores.

Dead rubbers stay open for scoring after a test is decided — in WCF team events they are still played, and their games count in the standings columns.

Games are (Format → Standings & team sheets) — Played to the total (WCF events: a game is won at the winning total) or Timed (club leagues: every game runs on the clock, so whatever score is entered is final and the higher score wins). The 8 doubles, two rounds starting point sets Timed. On a played-to-the-total competition, saving a score below the winning total asks once whether the game ended early; OK records it as final at that score, Cancel leaves it in progress. No marker is shown either way.

Ruled a draw — for a postponed rubber that was never played. It counts as half a win and half a loss to each side, with no games or hoops; Undo draw ruling reverses it. On a league season the button reads Game not played (undo: Undo not played).

Forfeits (Format → Standings & team sheets, league seasons) — Off or On. Off by default. With it on, each game has a Forfeit tick. Ticking it asks which side did not show ([club] did not show); the forfeit score is typed in the boxes like any other score (for example 6–3) and Save records both. The game counts in the standings exactly like a played game at that score. The players of the side that did not show are shown as "Name (forfeit)" on the scoring page, the scoresheet and the event page, and the game's row reads forfeit. Unticking it and saving clears it.

Print scoresheet ↗ on a test opens a printable sheet for the lawn: host on the left, visitors on the right, one row per game with court, balls, both pairs, a WIN box each side and the two hoop scores, per-round hoops and games, then total hoops, net hoops (+16 / −16), total games and the winner. The court column uses the host club's lawn names when the club has named two lawns in its venue settings (Upper, Lower), and A and B otherwise. Lineups are filled in once the sheets are locked; scores already entered appear in the boxes. The sheet's Print button makes a one-page letter PDF and opens it to print or save, so it comes out the same on one page in every browser. If the sheet would run over, it is shrunk just enough to fit. The captain lines are blank to sign by hand, or carry the captains' signatures when the match was signed off on the scorer's device.

Captain sign-off

Captain sign-off (Format → Standings & team sheets) — Off or On. Off by default.

With it on, a match card shows a Captain sign-off section. Once every game has a score (or is ruled not played), a Sign for button appears for each side. The captain types their name and signs in the box with a finger; the result being signed (games won by each side) is shown above the box. Both captains can sign one after the other on the same phone or tablet, so only the person entering scores needs to be signed in.

The first signature locks the match: scores, game rulings, lineups and the Test result ruling can no longer be changed, by anyone, until the sign-off is removed.

Remove signature — while only one captain has signed, whoever is scoring can remove it, and the scores unlock.
Unlock — once both captains have signed, only a manager can unlock the match. Both signatures are removed and the captains sign again after any correction.

Each signature prints on the scoresheet on its captain's line, with the name and the time it was signed. Signatures are not shown on the public event page.

Concessions

Side A concedes / Side B concedes records an unfinished rubber the regulation way: completed games stand; every game still needed is recorded as lost by the winning total to nil and marked conceded (shown with a *). Conceded games count for the test and the standings but are not real played games — exports treat them accordingly. League seasons do not offer it: a league's own default score for a missing player, such as 6–3, is typed in as the game's score, which keeps the net hoops right.

Test scores

On a test season, league managers see a Test scores card at the top of the scoring page, with the number of matches still to play. It plays matches with made-up results so standings, records and emails can be tried without entering every game.

Score next round plays the next round's matches (the count is on the button). Fill all plays every match still to play.
For each match, a side with no submitted sheet gets one picked from its players: singles in grade order, doubles pairs drawn at random each round. Sheets already submitted are kept. The sheets are locked, which puts the players on every game, and each game with no result gets a random score; a timed competition gets timed scores below the winning total. Results already entered are kept.
A match is left as it is when a side has too few players for the format, and the card says which team. A match already signed off is left as it is.

Test result

A test is normally decided by its rubbers: a side that wins the majority has won, even with dead rubbers unplayed, and an even split records a draw (or goes to net hoops, if the competition is set that way). Test result lets the manager rule directly — a conceded tie, or a drawn tie settled by a play-off — and the ruling overrides the rubbers. Day and the date label where a test sits in the programme.

Availability

On a test's team-sheet panel, a captain or manager sees Availability for their side: how many of the team have said yes, no or maybe, and who has not answered. Open it to see each player and mark Yes, Maybe or No on their behalf, or press Email the team: can you play?. Every team member with an email on file receives one email for that match, giving its date and start time, with two buttons, I'm available and Not available; a tap records the answer with no sign-in, and a link on the email opens the player's own page listing every match of the season so they can answer several at once. Answers show in the team-sheet picker: available players first, then unanswered, then unavailable, each marked ✓, ? or ✗.

Invite a co-captain — under the same list, a captain (or the manager) can invite another person by email as a captain of the same team. When they accept the invitation they have the same powers: players, availability, team sheets and score entry for that team. League seasons only. The same invitation is on My Team ▸ Settings in League settings, and opening a player with an email on My Team ▸ Players shows Make co-captain. Settings also has Invite a club admin: a club admin has the same team powers, including emailing the team in their own name, but is never the captain of record, so the automatic emails go out in the captain's name and are not sent to them.

Your line in the email — under the availability list, a captain can save a line of their own (a meeting time, a note about the venue). It appears above the buttons in every availability email for that team until it is changed.

Send log — under the same list, each email already sent for the match is listed with its time, whether it was automatic, and how many players it reached.

Confirmation on tap — a player who taps a button in the email receives a short confirmation email saying what was recorded, with a link to change it.

Send reminder — once a lineup has been notified, the sheet panel offers Send reminder: the same lineup email to everyone on it, headed as a reminder, without changing the notified time.

Automatic emails

Each team sets its own. A captain opens My Team ▸ Settings ▸ Automatic emails in League settings, where each current season the team plays in has these settings, sent in the season's timezone (set on Details; UTC when blank):

Ask the team "can you play?" N days before each match. Sent from the team's captain, once per match per team. A match the captain has already emailed by hand is skipped.
Remind the selected players N days before, only for a side whose lineup the captain has notified; N can be 0 for the morning of the match.
Send at — the local time after which that day's sends go out; they leave within the hour.

Each captain can switch them off for their own team. On a league season's Teams tab, at the foot, Automatic emails lists what every team has chosen — for example Asks 7 days before · reminds 2 days before · 07:00, or Off — and whether the team has a captain. A team with no captain shows Set, and the manager sets its emails there. A team whose season had one shared setting before emails became each team's own keeps that setting, marked the season's earlier setting, until its captain changes it.

What things are called

A WCF team event plays test matches, each made of rubbers. A league says the same thing in North American words: a match is one club against another, and the individual contests inside it are games. League surfaces use the second set throughout — the schedule lists matches, a match card lists games, and the table counts games won and lost rather than rubbers.

Setting a season up

A league season asks three questions in order, on the Format tab:

What is one match? — the games one club plays another: how many, singles or doubles, in one round or two, and how long each game runs.
Who plays whom? — one division means everyone plays everyone. Add a second and each plays its own round robin, with its own table and its own schedule, which is how a Blue and a Red division run side by side.
How often, and when? — the weekdays, the cycle, the start time, and whether each pair meets once or twice.

Who plays, and where, belong to the league rather than the season: the clubs, their venues and their captains are set once and carry into every season.

The second season is a copy of the first. Creating a season when one already exists brings across its divisions, its match format and game length, its table rules and play-off places, and its weekly rhythm — everything except the dates, which are the point of a new season. Bring last season's teams across is offered too, on by default; players can be added and removed once it opens. So a league that runs the same way every year is a name and two dates.

Season schedule

On a league season's Format tab, Season schedule writes the whole season from a few settings:

First round — the date of round 1. It starts as the season's first day; change it to start later.
Played on — the weekdays rounds fall on. With none picked, the first round's weekday is used and shows as selected; pick others (Monday and Wednesday, say) to play twice a cycle.
Every … at … — the cycle (every week, other week, third, fourth) and the start time shown on the schedule, the scoresheet and players' emails.
Everyone plays everyone twice — the round robin runs a second time with the venues swapped, so each pair meets once at each. Turn it off for a single round robin.
Skip dates — dates no round is played on; the round moves to the next slot rather than being lost.

No fixed dates — post the matches without dates. Every pair still meets, and the two sides arrange their own time inside the season's window and enter the score. Club leagues where players make their own arrangements run this way.

Every pair meets once per half and one team sits out each round when the count is odd. Regenerating replaces the matches, and is refused once any game has a score.

Adjusting afterwards — the generated list is a starting point. Each round has its own date and time boxes beside its heading: change them to move that whole round. A single match is moved on its own card on the Scoring tab, which has a date and a time of its own, so one match can start earlier than the rest of its round.

Both are off until switched on and saved. Switching one on late sends for every match already inside its window.

The player's page also shows, per match, who on the team has answered and how, and — once the captain has pressed Notify selected players — the lineup, labelled Team picked. Until then the page says the captain hasn't announced the team. Names only: the page carries no emails or grades. The page and every email link to the event's public page (standings, matches, results) once the event has a public address.

Team

A group's Team view (beside Tests and Standings) is the captain's private record of their own players — the manager sees every team. For each player: how many matches they have said yes to out of those asked, how many times they have been picked, rubbers played, and their won–lost record with games. Nothing here is public.