Playing tonight!
Take the headcount, build the courts, and tap the winners as you go.
How the Big Dills works
One night a week at Garst Mill Park. Whoever shows up plays, and every game counts toward a rating.
There is no season, no fixture list and no fee. You are not letting anyone down by missing a week, and you are not starting over when you come back. Show up when you can, play whoever is there that night, and the ladder keeps track of the rest.
How a night runs
- 1Turn up. Courts are ours from 5:30 if you want to warm up, and games start at 6:00 PM. No RSVP and no roll call. If you make it, you play.
- 2We take a headcount and the site builds that night's games. Nobody has to work out pairings on the fly.
- 3Play your games and tap the winning side after each one. It takes a second and everyone's rating updates on the spot.
Courts are ranked
Once there are enough of us for more than one court, Court 1 is the top rated group, Court 2 the next, and so on down. You play the people closest to your own level, which makes for better games than a random draw.
The courts get rebuilt from current ratings every single night. Win a few and you move up. Have a rough couple of weeks and you slide down, then climb back. Nobody is stuck anywhere, and nobody has to ask to be moved.
What each court plays
Courts hold three to five, so twelve of us becomes three courts of four, and nine becomes a five and a four.
The rating
Everyone has a club rating on the same scale as DUPR, so the number already means something to you. If you gave a DUPR when you signed up, that is where you started. If you did not, you started level with the middle of this group, and the first few nights sort you out from there.
It is deliberately not a win count, because a win count just rewards whoever turns up the most. Each game weighs your side's average rating against the other side's, so beating stronger players moves you more, and winning by a lot moves you more than scraping out 11-9. Your first five games count double while the system works out where you belong.
Because it is a rating and not a tally, you can miss two weeks and come back exactly where you left off.
This is our own number for our own league. It is not your official DUPR and nothing we do here changes it. If a rule turns out to be annoying, we change it.
Members only, sort of
The roster, the photos and the standings are behind a gate so they are not sitting out on the open web.
If you have signed in here before, this is the easy way. The link signs you in and keeps you signed in, so there is nothing to remember.
Or use the passphrase
William has it, and it is the same one for everybody. Use this the first time, then claim your spot so you never need it again.
The Dills
Loading the roster...
When we start
Repeats every week. The file works with Apple Calendar and Outlook.
We settled on Wednesdays. Now we just need a first one. Tick every date you could make, and the one most of us can do wins.
How the dates are landing
Which night won
Settled from everyone's availability when we signed up.
Rules sheet
The one page to pull up at the courts. The headcount table comes from the same code that builds the games, so what it says is what the app will do.
Games go to 15, win by 1. Courts are ranked by rating and rebuilt every night. Show up, get counted, play what the app gives you.
How many showed up?
| Here | Courts | What each court plays | Games each |
|---|
Courts hold three to five. Court 1 is the highest rated group, then it steps down. Untick "Court 1 = top rated" on Tonight's Games to mix everyone instead.
The formats
Recording a game
- 1Doubles and singles: type the score, then tap the side that won. It saves on the spot and every phone sees it inside a minute.
- 2Cutthroat: type all three finishing scores and tap Record. The rating uses all three, so a 15-13-11 and a 15-2-1 are different nights.
- 3Made a mistake? Standings tab, find the game, tap Undo. Ratings roll back exactly and the card opens up again.
- 4Someone leaves or arrives mid-night? Tap "Start over" on Tonight's Games and rebuild with the new headcount. Games already recorded keep counting.
- 5App down? Play from this sheet, write the scores on a phone note, and the commissioner enters them the next day.
How the rating moves
Every game moves points from the losing side to the winning side. Beating a stronger team moves more than beating a weaker one, a blowout moves more than a squeaker, and your first five games count almost double so the system finds your level fast. It is a rating, not a win count: you can miss two weeks and come back exactly where you left off.
It is our own number. It sits on the DUPR scale so it feels familiar, but nothing here touches anyone's real DUPR.
League settings
Locks in the first night and replaces the vote with the date.
Untick it and the join form disappears from The Dills page and the server refuses new signups. Tick it again whenever someone wants in.
Passphrases
Changing either one signs people out until you share the new one. Six characters minimum for the commissioner one.
Roster
Fix a name, correct a DUPR, or remove someone. Changing a DUPR only re-seeds their rating if they have not played yet, so nobody loses earned rating to a typo fix. Tick guest for a one-night sub: they play and get scored, everyone's rating moves normally, but they stay off the season ladder.
Standings
| # | Player | Club rating | Trend | W-L | Games | Last played |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading... | ||||||
This is our club rating, not your real DUPR. It uses the same scale so the numbers mean something to you, but nothing here touches your official rating and nothing here starts from it: everybody begins on the same number and the games do the rest. It moves more when you beat someone rated above you, and more again when you win by a lot. Your first five games count double while it sorts out where you belong, which is what "provisional" means. The small arrow under each place shows how far you moved on the last night played.
Recent games
Play tonight
Tap everyone who showed up, and this builds the round robin for that number. It is saved for the group, so anyone can then tap the winning side of their own court's games.
On by default. Courts are re-sorted from current ratings every night, so people move between them as the season goes. Untick it to mix everyone together instead. Tick the second one on an odd night when the group wants the three-player court up top; it puts the smallest court first and the rest follow in size order.
