All play All
I have a couple of All-play-All, two session events coming up. Numbers are not yet fully determined and I want to be ready for all possibilities. I know the basic principle (Mitchell followed by 2 Howells), but I wondered if anyone can point me to a resource for the most suitable bridge movements for each number of tables.
Comments
What approximate numbers do you expect? And how many boards do you intend to play?
I played in a 22 All V All on Sunday - Jannerson interwoven for 11 rounds then a standard Mitchell missing the first round, last round arrowswitched.
With an odd number of tables, it is a mild 'imperfection' to run a Mitchell missing the first round, in that players do not play all the boards available.
An alternative (e.g. for 11 tables) is to play a 12-round Hesitation followed by a 9-round double Howell. In the latter, the 10 original stationary pairs play in a 5-table Howell, and the 12 moving pairs in a 6-table 3/4 Howell. One round of the 3/4 needs to be slightly amended to avoid pairs meeting twice over the two sessions.
It's more complicated, so you might prefer the easier solution, which was was good enough for John Manning!
Manning goes through the simple options of Mitchell + Double (interwoven) Howell. For even numbers of tables, he also lists some double Howell alternatives to the Mitchell. pp 102-123 in the 1992 edition - don't know pp for the new edition.
I have 25 pairs, aiming at 2 sessions and around 48 boards.
A quick look at EBUScore shows it has the movements for 13 table all play all already in it - a switched Mitchell and a double Howell.
Further investigation shows similar movements for certain numbers of tables (12, 14) but not others (16). Also it's not always obvious which movements are designed for use in two session all play all events. Honing in on anything that says "double" is a good start.
Thanks. I think we have a Manning - I will check it out.
13 tables (25/26 pairs) is about the limit for an all-play-all event!
If you get 14 tables, do you want to play 54 boards?
For a stand-alone county pairs final you can be more flexible on session lengths, so 13 tables should play 13-round interwoven howell in the second half (not a reduced 12-round interwoven howel). For 16 tables, the relaxed approach is two 8-table sections playing 3-board rounds, in both sessions. For 17 tables, you can have two sections playing 9x 3-board ronds, with a hesitation mitchell in the 8-table section. But 16 can also be a web mitchell and then two 8-table howells.
Thanks @Robin_BarkerTD