hockey tournament with only 2 pitches

[robnunes]

We run a relaxed hockey tournament where we have 2 pitches, we would like a round robin system that can be adapted as we can have between 12 and 20 teams and we don't know until people arrive.
We would also like to minimise the amount of time spent between playing and would like no team to play 2 games in a row.

Any help would be much appreciated
Rob

[wbport]

You shouldn't have any problems.  The first three rounds from a standard Berger pairing table from a 12 team round robin illustrate this.  For each round play the first two columns, then the middle two, and then the last two.  There will be a minimum of one game out for each team although the average will be two.

Code: [Select]

1:    1-12  7-6  11-2   8-5  10-3   9-4
 2:   12-7   2-1   6-8   3-11  5-9   4-10
 3:    2-12  8-7   1-3   9-6  11-4  10-5 If you have 14 or 18 teams you can play the last game of one round at the same you have the first game of the next round and there will be even more time between each team plays.

HTH

[robnunes]

cheers but im still confused on how I would change that for say 15 teams

[robnunes]

oh and also the teams can end up playing 5 or 6 games so how would I sort out the next set of rounds

[wbport]

cheers but im still confused on how I would change that for say 15 teams

You would use the table for 16 and ignore the 1st column--the team paired against 16 has a bye for that round.

My table generator is here.  Choose "Porter" and "Board Order" to create the table I quoted earlier.  For each row left to right pick two pairings at a time.  When you finish one line go to the next one.  If you have an odd number of teams, ignore the pairing in the 1st column.

HTH

[wbport]

oh and also the teams can end up playing 5 or 6 games so how would I sort out the next set of rounds

If the teams can only play 5 or 6 games, a round robin wouldn't work at all.  Try a swiss system or knockout.