2024 Greater Geelong Pickleball Spring League

Ladder League Format Details

• Bring yourself, play doubles: The competition is designed so you don't need to organise a playing partner; just book yourself in - we organise your double games for the night.
• Flexible Attendance: The spring league is played on 12 consecutive Fridays from 6pm to 9pm. You play when you can; your overall score isn't affected if you miss a week or two of play.
• General Playing format: Each week you will be assigned to one court where you will play round robin doubles; there will be anywhere between 4 and 6 players assigned to one court and the number of players decides the playing format:
  • 6 players per court: Play to 12 (Not win by 2)
    Each player plays with every other player once; so everyone gets 5 games to 12, the maximum score is 60.
  • 5 players per court: Play to 15 (Not win by 2)
    Each player plays with every other player once; so everyone gets 4 games to 15, the maximum score is 60.
  • 4 players per court: Play to 10 (Not win by 2)
    Each player plays with every other player once, two rounds are played; so everyone gets 6 games to 10, the maximum score is 60.
  The reason we don't play win by 2 is because that ensures everyone has the same maximum number of points they can achieve, which is part of the scoring.
• Play at your level: The format of play is designed so that players play mostly with others of similar skill levels. Firstly, play will take place in two divisions: Division 1 is for players that are already club graded Intermediate 3 or Advanced. If you select to play in Division 1 and don't have that grading you may initially be placed in Division 2 at the discretion of the league organisers. Division 2 is designated for players that don't have a club grading yet or have an Intermediate 2 grading.
  Secondly, at every game day, you will be placed in a group with players according to your current position on the league ladder. If you don't have a position on the ladder yet (i.e. on the very first game day), players will be assigned to a court by the league organisers. As an example: If we have 12 players in the league and they all turn up, then the top 4 will play each other on court 1, the middle 4 will play each other on court 2, and the bottom 4 play each other on court 3.
  Depending on the number of players booking in to a gameday, the ideal situation is for all courts to have the same number of players. If that's not possible, extra players will be added to lower courts first.
• Scoring: Your score is recorded as a percentage score, dividing the number of points you got by the maximum number of points possible.
  Example: If you play on a court with 5 players, the maximum score you can get in each game is 15. So if your scores were 15:10, 15:7, 9:15, 10:15, then your total number of points for the night were 15+15+9+10 = 49, the maximum score was 60, so your percentage score for that gameday would be 49 / 60 = 81.6%, which is recorded as 816
  Every gameday you play your score is updated, averaging your 6 most recent percentage scores (less if you played less, and with less weight given to older scores); there's also a weight applied to your score for the day based on the court you were playing on - so that if you win every game on the lowest court it doesn't propel you straight to the top of the ladder)
  After each game day the ladders for each division are updated and published on the club's website.
• Moving between divisions: If you play in the higher division and your score falls below 60% for your last 3 played game days you may be moved to the lower division where you will then start on the top court with a clean score. Similarly if you play in the lower division and your score is 90% or more for your last 3 played game days then you will be moved to the higher division where you will start on the lowest court with a clean score. Depending on the number of players we get we may also split the competition into 3 divisions.
• Awards: The top 3 players in each division will be awarded a medal after our last game day and the top player will be named the 2024 Greater Geelong Spring League Champion in their division. In order to qualify for an award you will need to have played in at least 5 of the 12 sessions.
• Cost: There is a one off registration fee of $25 for the league (10% off for our Happy Picklers, 20% off for our Totally Pickled members); you then pay your session fee of $15 ($12 if you're a Happy Pickler) when you book into each gameday.
  If you register for the league it may be worthwhile upgrading your membership before you do so to take advantage of the session discounts and early gameday booking benefits available to the paid membership types.