THE DRAW – IT’S NOT “PARTY TIME”

By Charles E. Vasoll

It says so right in the pamphlet entitled “How To Conduct a Tournament Draw”. It states on page 2 “The draw should not be conducted in a “party” atmosphere”. The copy that I have from the APTA shows a revised date of November 2001. I don’t know if any additional changes have been made since that date, but for purposes of this article, I’ll be referring to this publication. (I doubt that this recommendation would be changed in any event.)

I have attended and participated in the preparation of a number of draws through the years including several for the Men’s and Women’s National Championships. For the most part, the committee members take their responsibility seriously. There are occasionally a few wise remarks to break the tension but that does not disrupt the business at hand.

I decided to say a few words about this often forgotten part of conducting a tournament as the result of a remark made to me by a competitor at the National 50+, 60+ and 70+ Men’s Championship last month. It was held at the “Birthplace of Platform Tennis”, the Fox Meadow Tennis Club, in Scarsdale, New York. The draw committee was composed of individuals who have conducted more platform tennis tournaments than anyone else on earth. My following remarks are in no way to criticize the committee that conducted that event, but to point out the difficulty that even experienced and knowledgeable persons have in getting the details right. Here’s what happened.

When I asked one of the players how his team was doing, he volunteered that they were still playing although they had lost their first match. He said that was a shame because “we play against them regularly” and we could have saved the entry fee and the travel expense. He was only kidding about the fee but he was honest about the opposition in the opening match. Unfortunately, the draw committee had not realized that the two teams were from the same area. The instruction in the pamphlet reads this way:

“ The draw committee may, during this drawing of the remaining teams, exercise discretion in “by-passing” a team drawn, should the location of that team mean that two teams including players of the same family, club, city, or even region in the case of national championships, will meet each other in their first match.”

This provision certainly is important to forming a draw which is fair to the competitors, but sometimes the draw committee needs not only knowledge of the strength of the teams, but a good deal of geographical information. I believe that is what happened in this tournament. The players involved all resided on Long Island; but, because of the many villages, towns and cities, one not familiar with the locale would not expect that four players from entirely different resident locations were actually friends playing at the same location.

We are about to hold a Women’s Senior 50+ Championship for our local organization. One of the entries was aware that another team with whom they play regularly was entering also. On the entry this fact was noted and the request made that they be placed in opposite sides of the draw. Once again, because of the geographical locations of the residences of the players, a draw committee, even one, which knows the teams, may not have been aware that they played together regularly.

Thus my tip to players is to help the draw committee by indicating the club or organization with which you play, and, my tip to those staffing a draw committee, is to bring maps of the areas where your entries reside and play to avoid conflicts, at least in the first round.

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