Who plays next: rotation systems for club nights

Every turn-up club night runs on one question: who plays next. Get it right and the evening runs itself. Get it wrong and the same people play every game, a newcomer sits for forty minutes, and the organiser spends the night refereeing instead of playing.

The good news is that this is a solved problem. Clubs in every racket sport have found the same handful of systems, and each one suits a different kind of night. Pick the right one for your numbers and write the rules down.

Five ways to run the rotation#

System	How it works	Suits	Goes wrong when
Peg board	Pegs go on a board in order of arrival, and the front four go on when a court comes free	Turn-up nights with people coming and going	One court runs long and the board stalls
Paddle stack	The same, with each player’s racket or paddle in a rack by the court	Pickleball and padel, where the courts are close together	People stack for a friend’s court instead of the next free one
Four on, four off	A fixed group of eight on one court: four play, four wait, then swap	One court and a regular group	Numbers are not a multiple of four
Winners stay	The winning pair stays on and takes on the next pair in the queue	Keen groups who want to compete	The strongest pair plays all night
Dealt rounds	Everybody plays at once, and partners are dealt for each round	A fixed group with a start time	People drift in late or leave early

Most clubs use one system for the core of the night and bend it for the start and the end. Pick the system that fits the night you have, not the one somebody used at their last club.

The peg board#

The peg board is the most common system for a reason: once it is running, nobody has to organise it.

1. On arrivalPeg on the end of the boardIn the order people arrive, whoever they are.
2. A court comes freeThe front four go onOr the front peg picks three from the next six or seven.
3. The game endsPegs back on the endWinners and losers alike, so nobody stays on.
4. Every gameThe board turns overEveryone waits about as long as everyone else.

Each player has a peg or a tag with their name. When they arrive, they put it on the end of the board. When a court comes free, the four pegs at the front go on. When their game ends, they come off and put their pegs back on the end, winners and losers alike.

Two variations are worth knowing. In the first, the player at the front chooses the other three from the next six or seven pegs. It lets people mix and match standards, at the price of some people never being chosen. In the second, the board has two rows, one for the stronger players and one for everyone else, and each court takes from one row.

The thing that breaks a peg board is uneven game lengths. If one court plays a tight set that lasts forty minutes while the others play twelve-minute games, the board stalls behind it. Give every game the same length, and the board turns over evenly.

Paddle stacking#

Pickleball clubs often run the same idea with the paddles themselves. Each player puts their paddle in a rack or a row by the courts. Four paddles go on together when a court is free. Some clubs keep a “challenge” rack beside the open one, where a full four can wait for the winners of one particular court.

The rule that needs writing down is that the next four take the next free court, not the court they would like. Without it, people wait for a friend’s court and the rotation stops being a queue.

Four on, four off#

With exactly eight people and one court, the simplest system is a fixed swap: four play, four wait, then the waiting four go on. Change partners every game, and over an evening everyone partners and plays against everyone.

It stops working the moment a ninth person arrives. Then you need either a queue or a deal.

Winners stay#

The winning pair stays on court, and the next pair in the queue takes them on. Some clubs cap it, so a pair that wins three in a row comes off anyway. It makes for competitive games and it keeps the best players happy.

It is also the system most likely to leave a beginner sitting all night, or playing once and losing. Use it for one court of a multi-court night, not for the whole evening.

Dealt rounds#

When the group is fixed and everyone starts together, the organiser can deal every round in advance. Everybody plays every round, partners change each time, and the sitting out goes round the room evenly. It is how an americano works, and the tennis round robin formats for 4 to 16 players post has schedules for the commonest numbers.

Dealt rounds are the fairest system there is. They are also the least forgiving of somebody who turns up half an hour late, unless whoever is dealing can add them at the next round.

How long each game should be#

The game length decides how long people wait, so set it for the busiest part of the night, not the quietest.

Sport	A game that suits a club night
Tennis	One set of six games, a FAST4 set, or fifteen to twenty minutes on a clock
Padel	A set to six, or a game to a fixed number of points, such as 16 or 24
Badminton	One game to 21
Pickleball	One game to 11
Squash	One game, or ten minutes on court

A timed game, with a whistle or a phone alarm, is the one system that keeps every court on the same rhythm. When it goes, everybody comes off, whatever the score.

Sitting out, arriving late and leaving early#

Three rules settle most of the arguments a club night ever has:

1. Everyone waits about as long as everyone else. Whatever the system, nobody sits out twice before everybody has sat out once.
2. Late arrivals join the end of the queue. In a dealt system, they join at the next round. Nobody is slotted in ahead of people already waiting.
3. Say when you are leaving. A player who leaves mid-rotation leaves a court one short. Ask people to say so before their last game, so the next four can be called.

Mixing standards without losing your strongest players#

The most common complaint at any club night is about standards. The strong players are fed up playing beginners, and the beginners feel like a burden. Both sides are right, and both drift away if nothing changes.

Four things help:

• Mixed first, then by standard. The first hour is open to all, the second has a court or two set aside for the stronger games.
• A strong court. One court where the best four can play each other, rotating as normal.
• The front peg chooses. It lets people mix as they like, and they tend to mix more than you expect.
• A beginners’ session before the main night. Half an hour of coached or organised play gives new players the confidence to join the main rotation.

Say which you use in the rules on the wall. A newcomer is far more relaxed about a strong court when they know it exists and how it works.

Get the rotation right and the evening runs itself.

Club night rules for the noticeboard#

Change the brackets for your club and put this up by the courts, or pin it in the group chat:

When the numbers are fixed#

If your club night has a fixed list of players and a start time, you can do better than a queue. Deal every round, keep the points, and finish with a table. That is what a social night in Clayside does. You enter whoever has turned up, and it deals each round as an americano, a mexicano or fixed pairs. It spreads the sitting out round the room and keeps the table as the scores go in.