Assigning courts
The planner only schedules on courts you have released. This page covers recording venues and courts, saying when they are open, and tying them to a tournament.
From an empty hall to a full playing schedule
Court allocation has three layers. A venue and its courts belong to your sports club and outlive the tournament; a booking is what one tournament may use of them; a court rule is what one category, phase or pool may use inside that booking. So you enter your hall once and only pick from it afterwards.
- 1
Create the venue
Go to Organisation, Venues and add the hall, the park or the room, with its address. A venue stays with your club, so you do this once per place you play.
- 2
Hang the courts under it
Per venue, add what can be played on: courts, pitches, tables, boards, lanes or mats. Give them the names that are really painted on them, because those names end up on the match slips.
- 3
Open the playing hours
Per day, say when the venue is open. A closure works the same way in reverse: the hall is shut on Friday between twelve and two, or court 3 has a lesson that morning. A closure always beats an opening.
- 4
Book the courts for this tournament
On the event, tick the courts you may use. Only those are scheduled on. The order counts: the planner fills them in the order they are listed, so put the show court at the bottom if that is the one to use last.
- 5
Say which category plays where
This is optional. You can tie a category to a few courts, and after the draw a phase, a pool or a round as well. Leave it empty and PlayTour picks from the booked courts itself.
- 6
Make the playing schedule
The planner spreads every match over the booked courts and the playing days. Whatever does not fit gets no time and is listed separately, with the reason beside it.
From booked courts to a schedule per court
The two screens where court allocation happens: what you release, and what the planner does with it.
You release what may be used
At the top you tick which courts this tournament may use. Below that you tie a category, a stage or a round to a subset of them. Leave such a rule empty and the planner picks from the booked courts itself.
- Which courts are in play for this tournament
- A court choice per category, stage or round
- No rule is a choice as well: then it may go anywhere
Per court and per time slot, all day long
Once scheduled, every match has a court and a time, along with whether it has been played, is in progress or is ready to start. This is the overview that stays open at the desk the moment the day starts running late.
- Every court with its own row of matches
- Played, in progress or ready, per match
- The time each match is set for
What you record where
Four screens, and what you settle on each of them.
Venues and courts, on your club
- A venue has a name and an address, and exists independently of your tournaments.
- Under a venue hang the courts, pitches, tables or boards.
- What a court actually is, is only a word on the screen. The planner treats them all alike.
- One court holds one match at a time. That is the whole of what the planner knows about it.
- A court that has had matches on it cannot be removed, not even from a tournament long finished.
Playing hours and closures
- Per day, give one or more blocks during which play is possible.
- A block without a court speaks for the whole venue; a block naming one speaks only for that court.
- A closure always overrides an opening it falls across.
- Times are the clock in the hall. Nine o’clock means nine there, even with a clock change in between.
- You replace the whole calendar in one go, so you never have to delete it row by row.
Booked for this tournament
- With no courts booked PlayTour schedules nothing, and you see that straight away.
- That is deliberate. Otherwise one tournament spreads itself over every court the club owns, including the four somebody else has that afternoon.
- You may book courts from several venues in one tournament.
- The order of the list is the order the planner fills them in.
- A court with a match already standing on it cannot be released. Move that match first.
Court rules inside the draw
- The whole category plays on these courts: the broadest rule, and the only one you can set before the draw.
- A whole phase, for example the pool phase only.
- One pool, for example pool 1 always on board 1.
- One round, for example the winners round on courts 1 to 3.
- The narrowest rule wins, so a broad rule for the category with one pool lifted out of it behaves as you expect.
- Emptying a rule lifts the restriction, and that part may go anywhere again.
A changed court rule applies from the next time you schedule. What is already placed does not shift on its own.
Questions about courts
Several venues
Can one tournament run in two halls?+
Yes. You pick a main venue, and that address goes on the announcement. Beside it you tick the courts of your other venues. The planner uses all of them.
Does the planner allow for travel between two halls?+
No. It does keep rest between two matches of the same competitor, and you set that rest yourself per category. If your venues are far apart, make it generous.
The second hall is only available for one day+
Give that venue playing hours on that day only. Without an open block on a day the planner places nothing there, even if the courts are booked.
Can another club use my hall?+
No. Venues and courts belong to one organisation, and a tournament can only book courts from its own.
Do competitors see which hall they are playing in?+
Yes. The playing schedule names the venue beside every match, along with the time and the court. The tournament page carries the address of the main venue, because that is the address search uses.
When the planner cannot place a match
What does a match without a time mean?+
That the planner found nowhere to put it. Those matches are listed under Still without a time, each with its reason. You can place one yourself, or schedule again once you have made more room.
No free slot was left+
Every remaining opening was too short, already taken, or ruled out by somebody’s unavailability. Another court or longer playing hours fixes this.
The courts this part is tied to have no time+
This match is restricted to courts that are not booked, or to courts with no open hours. An extra court elsewhere will not help: change the court rule, or book exactly those courts.
The match that feeds this one has no time either+
A semi-final cannot stand if the quarter-final that feeds it stands nowhere. Fix that earlier match and this warning disappears on its own.
Nothing was scheduled at all+
Usually the venue’s playing hours are closed on these days, or not a single court is booked. Check those two and schedule again.
Read on
Creating an event
Club, volunteers, dates, main venue, entry window and publishing.
Setting up categories
Price, places, who may enter, the format and the scoring.
The draw and the schedule
Match length, changeover, rest, unavailability and the playing schedule itself.
Help with running a tournament
How to run a tournament from start to finish, with the questions that come up most.
Record your hall once
Every tournament after that picks from the list, and the planner knows exactly how much room you have.