Contents...

• Updating the Draw with A Result
  • How News Items are Processed
• Creating or Updating a Draw
  • News Item Settings
  • Important Notes
  • Getting Started - Examples
    • Worked Example

The draws for the National Inter-Club competitions are created and maintained by submitting news items.

Anyone with permission to create news items can also create and update the draws by following the procedures outlined below.

Updating the Draw with A Result

(To create or update the initial draw, see the next section).

Draws are updated automatically from news items once they are made public. However, this only works if the headline follows the correct format, with the home team always first:

Or

Ensure the team names exactly match those in the draw.

Additional words may only be inserted between the second team name and the score, for example

Walkovers should use 'w/o' for the score:

The venue is used to determine home advantage in subsequent clashes between the same teams. Please include the venue in reports of matches not played at the home club, for example:

Only news items dated within the draw's year are used when updating the draw.

If the final is played in the subsequent year, an administrator will need to set the Entry Date to the relevant year (use 31 December). The Entry Date is an internal system field and is separate from the Date of News Item, which is a free-text field that any news editor may update.

News items that cannot be interpreted as match results are listed as news but do not prevent the draw from being updated. The Director may use these to issue instructions or guidance to the teams.

How News Items are Processed

• When a news item related to a competition is first saved as a draft, it is tentatively checked against the draw.
  • Any errors or warnings are shown at this stage.
• When the item is saved as public, the system updates the draw using all valid news items.
  • At this stage, earlier warnings are ignored.
• The draw is updated only when the news item is made public (i.e. after editing is completed).
• If errors are detected when submitting as public:
  • The draw is not updated.
  • The user is alerted to the errors.
  • The news item is still saved.

To complete the update after errors are reported, edit the news item to correct the issue and resubmit it as public in the normal way.

Creating or Updating a Draw

To create a fresh draw (or to amend the initial draw of an existing competition), follow the steps below.

Important: A draw is initialised using only the first round. Any teams with byes must be shown in the first round and paired with "bye".

1. Start a new news item.
2. In the Details field, list all first-round teams on one line, using ~ (the tilde character) as the separator.
   • You may include spaces around the ~ for readability - the system ignores them.
   • Use "bye" as a team name where required, even if two byes appear together.
3. Insert a double opening brace at the beginning {{
4. Add a second line containing a double closing brace }}
5. If round headings are required, place them immediately after the closing braces.
   • Use the ~ separator between headings, but not before and after the set.

News Item Settings

1. Complete the news item as follows:
   • Headline: The single word Draw
   • Classification: Select the competition whose draw you are creating or updating.
   • Details: The draw formatted exactly as described above (in two lines).
   • Date of News Item: Free-text field - use a date in the relevant year.
2. Click Save as Draft.
3. Review the draft carefully and edit if necessary.
4. When satisfied, save the news item as Public, which will:
   • Delete any existing draw for the set year.
   • Insert the new draw you have entered.
   • Automatically apply any valid match results already recorded in news reports in the corresponding year.

You can update headings or restructure the draw at any point, even late in the competition.

Important Notes

• Text in parentheses appears in the display but is ignored by the system when matching names.
  • For example, it is common to indicate which team won last year with (Holders).
  • This may cause issues if parentheses form part of an official team name.
    • Avoid teams named, for example, "Nottingham (A)" and "Nottingham (B)"
• Use \ wherever you want a line break.
  • Any text after \ is ignored when matching team names.
• The draw date is taken from the date the news item is first saved.
  • If a different year is required, for example, if you are publishing a draw before the calendar year starts, you'll need an administrator to set the Entry Date field.

Getting Started - Examples

To get you started, you can use any of the following existing draws, but remember to delete all but the first and last lines:

• The Inter-Club Championship (Association Croquet)
• The Golf Croquet Inter-Club Championship (Golf Croquet)
• The Mary Rose Inter-Club Trophy (Association Croquet)
• The Golf Croquet Inter-Club Shield (The Murphy Shield) (Golf Croquet)
• The Longman Club Team Cup (Association Croquet)
• The Secretary's Shield (Association Croquet)

Worked Example

Note that the text shown below may wrap (or be formatted) to fit your screen, or you may need to scroll horizontally to view it in full. However, each right-hand table cell represents a single continuous line, and you must not insert line breaks (by pressing Return/Enter) within the line in the news item.

Also note that the headings in the example (e.g. Line 1) are for guidance only and must not be included in the text you submit.

Produces the following draw: