Just received from BMGA HQ...
Hello Club Captains.
With just over a week to go until the final event of the year I can now confirm for format for the 2013 Club Championship.
The teams confirmed for the event are as follows:
Kent
Kent
Kent
Kent
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
London
Hastings
Midlands
Midlands
This years Club Championships will be quite different from previous years. With 10 teams entered, making the traditional league format work becomes quite difficult. One league of 10 would not work (too many matches) and splitting into 2 separate leagues also leaves you with the problem you have with any odd numbered league (the fact that one team sits out each round). This makes the league format too lengthy and when you throw in the knockout section, too long to fit into a day.
So with all of this in mind, I have come up with a novel approach to ensure we have what I believe could well be the best format and event in the history of the CC’s.
There will be overall seeding for the first time in the event and this will be worked out as follows:
There will be an initial strokeplay section of the event - this will entail a minimum of 18 holes (twice around the course) and a maximum of 27 holes (the final decision will be confirmed on Sunday morning before we tee off). The strokeplay section will start at 9am (rolling start) and will finish approx 11.45am.
Players will go out in groups of 3 or 4 as per any normal event but the difference being that all player 1's will be grouped together, all player 2's together and so on. Realistically this will see 2 groups of 3 and 1 group of 4 (presuming all teams have 4 players). There will be one draw taking place on the Saturday afternoon to decide the team playing order for the first 9 holes. For example the first 3 teams drawn will decide the playing order of the first group, the next 3 will decide the playing order of the second group and the final 4 deciding the playing order of the third group. The second 9 holes will see a rotation in the playing order.
Each team will have their 3 best overall scores (not per hole) added up to give a final team total. The teams will then be seeded from 1 (the lowest score) to 10 (the highest). If teams are tied then the team with the lowest individual score will be ranked higher in the event.
This seeding then dictates the knockout stages (played out with normal Club championship matchplay scoring – i.e best 3 scores per hole count. At the time of writing this email, I am looking at all of these KO matches being full 18 hole matches)
With 10 teams, the top 6 seeds automatically get a bye thru to the quarter finals.
The bottom 4 play each other in the first matchplay ties of the day (7th v 10th and 8th v 9th).
Winners then make up the final 2 quarter final berths (as the teams seeded 7th and 8th respectively). The first knock out matches will commence after midday.
We then run normal Knockout matches (4 matches) in the quarters, 2 semi finals and the final (the knocked out teams will still play alongside in each round for position as always - again precise details need to be worked out regarding what will happen to the teams getting KO’d at the prelim phase - but all of this will be confirmed on the Sunday morning).
So the quarter finals will see the following matches:
Match 1: Seed 1 v Seed 8
Match 2: Seed 2 v Seed 7
Match 3: Seed 3 v Seed 6
Match 4: Seed 4 v Seed 5
The semi finals will see the following matches:
Winner of Match 1 v Winner of Match 4
Winner of Match 2 v Winner of Match 3
Winners of these 2 matches contest the final for the Club Championship.
This should all make for a rather lively event (and makes it a lot smoother / quicker in terms of running time).
It also leaves the door open to additional late entry teams (such as one from the course). If for example we end up with 11 teams then the top 5 after the strokeplay section qualify for the quarter finals and the bottom 6 play each other head to head to decide the final 3 slots in the quarters.
To help prepare the tournament I need the names of each of your players ASAP (and any specific team names - as well as which, if any of your teams are actually just 3 player teams). I do not need specific team breakdowns but will need confirmed line-ups and initial player order for each team by the Saturday afternoon (day before the CC’s) to enable me to work out the groups for the strokeplay phase of the competition.
Tee off positions will be the same as last years event (photos of which can be found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13680867@N02/sets/72157631944370159/)Entry fee for the Club Championships is again £10 per player (unchanged from the last few years) with a day rate of £5 available at the course in advance.
Can you please ensure you communicate the details to all of your teams – the information will soon be published on the events page on our website as well as via our Facebook and Twitter feeds,
If you have any questions then please just drop me a line and I look forward to seeing you all at Basingstoke for a great finale to the season.
Kind regards,
Sean.
Sean Homer - BMGA Chairman.
Official website:
www.minigolf.org.uk 
