When Tournament Directors Lose the Plot

 The last Ballarat Tournament had 32 players in 3 divisions:
Division A: 10 players with rating range 1255-1611
Division B: 12 Players with rating range 747-1211
Division C: 10 Players with rating range 500-861

 

Don’t ask why the lowest rating in division B is lower than the highest rating in division C. You would not get a satisfactory answer. It could be related to the weight, height or age of players.

 The serious matter is that the TD in her wisdom, or lack thereof, told the congregation that it was a round robin, where each group of more than 7 players would play 6 rounds. Pairing was done in advance using a secret recipe known only to the ingenious TD. What she missed was that 32 players was an ideal figure for a round robin of 7 games and 4 groups. She would have returned home in Mornington even faster than she aimed to achieve by her innovation of "partial round robins".