In the third week of June Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon red section players responded to a survey about the possible movements trialled in response to the larger red sections since April. Thank you to those who responded.
The larger red sections at these sessions arose from the successful graduation of many green section players who no longer need that section's particular attributes.
Since April we have tried different movements to respond to these often larger table numbers, with these simply categorised as:
- Two board rounds,
- Three board rounds, and
- Splitting the red section into two, allowing four board rounds.
The results (with 91 responses) were fairly clear:
- Players did not like the two board round movement - 70.6% disliked or strongly disliked the movement compared with 7.7% who liked or strongly liked it.
- Players liked the three board round movement - 81.3% liked or strongly liked this movement compared with 0% who disliked or strongly disliked it.
- Players liked the split section/four board round movement when there was not a four board round sit-out - 76.9% liked or strongly liked it compared with 12.1% who disliked or strongly disliked it, but respondents were less favourable to the split section/four board round movement without the certainty of avoiding a four board round sit-out - 40.7% disliked or strongly disliked this option compared with 35.2% who liked or strongly liked it.
The committee has decided to support directors of these sessions to pick up the necessary skills to run three board round movements for these large sections and to use these, or four board round movements with two split sections (when a four board round sit-out can be avoided). It may take several weeks for directors to be able to respond and adapt - so please bear with us.
