We expect the size of the red section to grow on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, as an increasing number of players graduate from the green section.
Members will remember discussions among interested members have occurred over the last three months to work out the best ways of dealing with the need to progress experienced players from the green section and how to manage the impacts on other sections in the best way for our club's members.
The green section's primary goal is to provide a suitable environment for supervised session and beginner players looking to play in a regular duplicate for the first time. It accommodates a slower rate of play and allows growing familiarisation with duplicate session play, laws and etiquette.
Many green section members ready to move on have found it difficult, principally because the red section is often full well before session start. We have now decided to remove any cap on the size of the red or red-equivalent sections on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons to allow these "experienced" green section players to move.
Of course an increase in size in the red section needs good management to maximise the interests of all affected players. To ensure we do this well we will trial three different approaches over the next few months including surveying affected players as to their preferences. We know from discussions to date that some players will have strong opinions, but want to ensure that we canvas a wide range of affected players to help us make the best decisions for the club's members.
The three different approaches we will trial are:
- Playing 2 board rounds - This will cope with sections with most sizes up to 15 tables
- Playing 3 board rounds - This allows everyone to play the same boards, but will require some director training and in most cases an additional board set or two
- Playing 4 board rounds - This will require splitting the large section into two sections, will sometimes necessitate a 4 board sit-out and will require an additional board set
During the trial the director will choose the approach on the day, partly taking into account the precise number of tables (to try to avoid 4 board sit-outs).
If you want to catch up on all the written contributions on this topic, the summaries before and after the brainstorming session held in January and the implementation plans, please go to this folder. If you want to comment apart from the survey on experience with the different approaches mentioned above, please speak to or email David Farmer.
