John Taylor's Workbooks

Here are 39 Microsoft Excel workbooks which John Taylor used to plan and run croquet tournaments. John made them available to others in hope of simplifying the tasks and standardizing the documents used to manage tournaments. The workbooks are automated to help you create your tournament and draw the documents for you.

John made these workbooks available as "shareware" which you can download and evaluate for no charge. Send a donation to the Croquet Foundation if you find them useful and want to keep using them. The instructions for downloading the shareware files and making a donation are located at the end of this page.

Please understand these are Microsoft Excel workbooks, not self running programs. You must own and understand how to use Microsoft Excel.

LADDERS WORKBOOK

The Ladders workbook creates ladders for SINGLE LIFE, DOUBLE LIFE, or DRAW & PROCESS, formats. You simply enter the players names and choose a ladder format and the ladder is drawn for you. The seeding and byes, where applicable, are automatically entered by the computer.

Ladders.xls

A workbook to draw ladder formats for you.

BLOCK WORKBOOKS

The Block workbooks are for singles or doubles block play where each player, or team, plays everyone else in their block. (Internationally this format is refered to as American event or "all play all" format.)

In the Block workbooks you enter the players' names and the computer creates all the game assignments and draws the block diagram. You enter a time and location for each game and a scoresheet and schedule handouts are automatically drawn by the computer.

A personalized schedule sheet is created for each player showing the unique schedule of just their games with an area for them to keep track of their results.

When you enter the game results from the scoresheet the order of finish for the players in the block is displayed and the USCA handicap adjustment points for all the players' block games are automatically computed. (International users can simply skip, or delete, the handicap tracking page.)

03Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 10 blocks of 3 players.
04Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 10 blocks of 4 players.
05Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 9 blocks of 5 players.
06Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 9 blocks of 6 players.
07Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 7 blocks of 7 players.
08Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 6 blocks of 8 players.
09Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 4 blocks of 9 players.
10Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 4 blocks of 10 players.
11Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 4 blocks of 11 players.
12Player.xls		Adjustable for 1 to 4 blocks of 12 players.

WATERFORD DOUBLES WORKBOOKS

This format has been called Progressive Doubles, Scrambled Doubles, and Waterford Doubles when used in different areas.

When all rounds are played, each person will have had every other player as an partner one time only and as a opponent twice. Obviously with a lot of players this requires a lot of games. The programs are flexible and allow you to reduce the number of games.

Odd numbers of players are accommodated by including a bye in each round of play so the 5, 9 and 13 player blocks must play all rounds if everyone is to have an equal number of games. Whenever you attempt "doubles" without multiples of four players some type of compromise (Byes, 3 way doubles, stand-in players, etc) must be used.

Many players enjoy this type of doubles as it allows you to play with many different partners. The results (wins, net and gross points) are maintained for each individual player and the final rankings are shown as if you had played singles.

The Waterford doubles format should not be confused with "Hi/Lo" doubles or "Equal Strength" teams. Hi/Lo is difficult to maintain with rotating partners. You should use the regular blocks or ladders for "Hi/Lo" doubles. An "equal stength" teams format is very limited in the number of possible games.

These workbooks create the entire document package including handout sheets for the players showing the schedule, score sheets to record the results and a sheet with the final standings.

WFord04.xls		A group of four players. A maximum of 3 games per player for a total of 3 games.
WFord05.xls		A group of five players with 1 Bye each round of play. A maximum of 4 games per player for a total of 5 games.
WFord08.xls		A group of eight players. A maximum of 7 games per player for a total of 14 games.
WFord09.xls		A group of nine players with 1 Bye each round of play. A maximum of 8 games per player for a total of 18 games.
WFord12.xls		A group of twelve players. A maximum of 11 games per player for a total of 33 games.
WFord13.xls		A group of thirteen players with 1 Bye each round of play. A maximum of 12 games per player for a total of 39 games.
WFord16.xls		A group of sixteen players. A maximum of 15 games per player for a total of 60 games.

MISCELLANEOUS WORKBOOKS

TOOLS.xls		This workbook is a collection of notes and tools I use when putting tournaments together. It includes suggestions for planning the tournament, various sample ladders, block rounds of play, and calculations to determine match start/end times and the number of games and players that a given time and quantity of courts can accommodate for different tournament formats or the number of courts and required time for a given number of players.
HNDCAPS.xls		A very simple workbook to compute the USCA handicap adjustment points for a tournament. The workbook generates a printed form for submission to the USCA. These computations are included in the block workbooks but have been reproduced here for use as a standalone workbook. This has been revised to the new tracking point system (November 2004) and is available as a shareware file.

DOWNLOADING and DONATING

These files are shareware. Shareware means there is no charge to download and evaluate the files. After you are satisfied that the files work and, if you decide to use them in a tournament, send a donation to the Croquet Foundation of America (Suggested one-time donation of $10 for each individual workbook you use). The CFA address is:

Tournament Workbooks
Croquet Foundation of America
700 Florida Mango Road
West Palm Beach, FL 34406, USA

Make checks payable to the "CFA". If you have currency conversion problems sending your donation to the CFA then donate to the croquet association in your own country or the World Croquet Federation.

The shareware files are Basic Set, Expanded Set, Waterford Set, Handicaps and Ladders. You will find the Basic Set will be sufficent for most tournament formats.

The workbooks are stored in Microsoft Excel rev 2000 format. The workbooks are write protected to prevent you from overwriting your masters. Open the workbooks as read-only, and save your copies with a new name of our choice. The instructions are on the first page of each workbook.