Fixture Management – this allows the administrator to create and edit the fixtures for the division for the season according to the parameters in Division Set Up. 

There are three ways to add fixtures for a division:

1. The first is one by one via the Admin>Day to Day>Fixtures section; this could take a long time for anything but the smallest of divisions. 

2. The second is via the Admin>Uploads>Fixtures>Upload Fixtures, which requires some technical expertise. 

You need to get the division and team IDs, and use them in the pre-formatted spreadsheet that must be downloaded from the site. It is best suited to very large numbers of fixtures, and to situations where the fixtures may already be automatically generated externally, either directly into a spreadsheet or to a file that can be converted into one.  

Note that the download of IDs must be carried out each season since the division IDs change.

An update to the system in November 2016 has allowed Play-Cricket users to submit their own templates to the Helpdesk for uploading to the system for use by other administrators. Refer to the topics Fixture Generation & Templates and Shared Grounds for more information.

3. The third is via Fixture Management:

If fixtures need to be generated, the Generate Fixtures button will be ‘clickable’.

Click the Generate Fixtures button to see a page that shows, for each team in the division, a list of all their possible home games for the season, alphabetically by opponent, and a box for a date below each one. 

There is an option to Auto-Generate Fixtures. This function will insert the start dates into the fixtures if required. Select Auto-Generate Fixtures to do this. 

If you only want to populate times and set up your own dates then still hit auto generate set up the time and then generate the fixtures, once generated press cancel for the date to be removed but the time retained you then can set up your own dates.

If you click on the calendar to the right of the fixture’s start date you can select a date alternatively you can type the date into the date box. The proceedings may be saved at any time. When you have chosen all the dates required, click on the 'Publish Fixtures' link at the top left of the page. The system then presents you with a full fixtures list for the division, week by week, and highlights any problems or mistakes that there might be (two games for the same team on the same day, a team playing another twice at home/away). 

From there you can sort out those issues using the ‘Edit’ link.

When you are ready to publish the fixtures, use the ‘Select All’ button to tick all the Publish check boxes, then click the Publish button to display them on the clubs' sites. 

Division Table – allows the administrator to view the current table for this division. Where two or more teams are equal on all the ranking factors defined, their position in the table may be adjusted.

Tips

Fixtures          

A very quick way of getting the fixtures into the system is to get your own spreadsheet in the format Home team/Away team/date, and then sort it alphabetically by home team and then away team, so that it mirrors the way the fixture manager asks for the data. 

Another useful tip - the fixture manager also allows you to insert the ground on which the game is to be played. If possible, get the clubs to set up their home grounds (Admin>Site Management>About Us>Playing facilities) and then link their teams to these (Admin>Teams>Edit team>Usual Home Ground). That information will be displayed and linked in automatically, so that anyone viewing the fixture will have the venue displayed, and can click through to directions to and information about the ground that the club has set up. 

Also, if most of your games start at a given time, by putting this in Admin>Set Up>Competitions>Divisions>Division Set Up, in 24-hour clock format, then this will be automatically inserted. You can edit this for games that do not start at that time.

Use the Fixtures link in the Admin home page to make changes after the fixtures have been generated.

Attached is a brief presentation highlighting the Science and art behind generating fixtures.