Set-Up - Competitions

This section allows you to create and manage different divisions and cup competitions. 

There are three possible formats – divisions, cups and tournaments. The first two are self-explanatory; however, some explanation is required for tournaments. The Tournament is simply a container for other things. It doesn't have any functionality other than to categorise the stats from all games in the components placed in it as Cup stats. This allows multi-format competitions e.g. a phase of round-robin groups, which are league matches as they generate points for a table, followed by a knock-out phase, to be placed together as a single entity. All the stats from those games are treated as Cup stats rather than a mixture of League and Cup.

You should not create new competitions every year. If the number of teams, the points system, or other details change then you should use the functionality described below to update them for the new season’s entry. This will keep your statistics much clearer as there will be only one entry for each competition with the stats for that underneath season by season, rather than entries for many divisions, effectively the same but with a single season underneath each one.

You may add a brand-new competition of the relevant type by clicking on the ‘add new’ button at the top of the page; this will produce a page or pop-up that allows you to choose an existing competition of the same type as a template, give it a new name and put it in the required season. (The Play-Cricket season runs from April 1^st to March 31^st; this is to avoid winter indoor competitions, which can run across the year boundary, being split across two seasons).

League Members       

This function allows leagues to maintain a central list of clubs entering teams into their divisions and cups. Clubs playing in your divisions must be present in the League Members list before that can be added to a division. A separate document, on this topic is available from the Help Guides section.

Bonus Points 

Use this section to create schedules to calculate bonus points automatically. There is a Help Guide for this area. Search for ‘Bonus Points’.

Divisions         

By each active division in the list, there are several links. Working from right to left, these are:

Delete – deletes the division and any associated fixtures and results. This function should only be used for items set up as tests or in error. If the division or cup competition is part of a tournament, it needs to be removed from the tournament before it can be deleted. You cannot delete divisions that have fixtures or results associated with them – you must delete those first.

New Season – archives the existing season and generates a new season in one action. It brings forward the entire division setup – general definitions, results, league table layout and teams. It also allows you, via the number of relegation and promotion places defined in the setup, to replace the relegated and promoted teams in this division with those from other divisions. The default divisions for these moves are those immediately above and below in the list of divisions, so you need to consider that sequence – but they can be over-ridden if required. You can also choose not to use the offered options entirely and update the team list manually.

As can be seen, the New Season option can save a lot of time in setting up divisions for a new season – particularly if you have sequenced your divisions correctly and there are few or no variations to the promotions and relegations defined in the setup. It is highly recommended that you use this option when creating competitions for a new season.

Archive – archives this entry for the division and season so that it no longer appears in the active list.

Edit – allows the administrator to define and maintain the division and related items; see below.

Season – this shows the current league table for the division. All fields are displayed, not just those defined in the division setup (see below).

Order – you can set the order in which the entries in each list of competitions are displayed on your site by setting these in the desired sequence and then clicking the ‘Save Order’ button.         

Division Management 

 The ‘Edit’ function takes you to eight Division Management tabs.