Tournaments

Number of People: 2

Budget: $0

The Tournaments are an excellent vehicle for opening doors to and encouraging friendships at Star. They are held Monday through Friday. Consider submitting a brief and welcoming description of what occurs through the Dockside Post so all, especially our numerous New Shoalers, will be aware and encouraged to join in the fun. The organizers should be vaguely familiar with the games and sports involved, should make up sign-up sheets for those interested, and schedule the tournament times for the more competitive events like bridge or tennis. In the past several years tournaments have included chess, Scrabble, backgammon, Trivial Pursuit, salt & pepper bocce, ping pong, horseshoes, as well as rubber bridge, duplicate bridge, tennis, and jacks. Some equipment such as horseshoes and salt and pepper shakers are available from the hotel. Check at the front desk as to what games are available. But the interested parties import most games from the mainland. You may want to write post cards to people reminding them to bring decks of cards, Scrabble, backgammon, chess, etc.

Before coming to the Island, you may want to contact the previous tournament master to see what games were played and with what success (Bill and Allison Cryer in 2012-2017). You can feel free to offer a different slate of tournaments – just make sure that each game can be finished in a reasonable amount of time so they can be finished in time for Friday lunch.

The tournament organizer should prepare sign up sheets (three poster boards?) on the mainland so they can be posted on the porch wall immediately upon arrival. Please announce at breakfast and/or lunch on Sunday that persons wishing to participate need to sign up by dinnertime on Sunday, as the events begin Monday morning.

  • Signup sheets posted Saturday afternoon at 3:00

  • Signups completed by Sunday at dinner.

  • Who plays whom and when, posted before Monday’s Breakfast.

If you can arrange such prompt sign-ups, it will give more time to get all the tournaments completed by Friday breakfast, so you can hand out awards at lunch.

Tennis and bridge work most successfully on a round-robin basis. Elimination is best for the other games, in order to complete them. Be sure to schedule tennis for 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 and 3:15 - 4:15 p.m. time slots. Announcements urging people to show up at their scheduled game should NOT be made at meals. There are too many announcements as it is. You may adopt a default policy as an incentive for players to meet commitments.

Tournaments are mainly for the adults and older children (mid teens and up), although there is traditionally a hotly contested junior division in salt & pepper bocce. You may want to think about creating age ranges for different tournaments. Winners will be announced at Friday lunch (quickly, ask to hold applause until all are read out -- get two runners to help you deliver the certificates, so you don't have to run to the winners yourself). Be sure you understand how to run a round robin.

Equipment needed:

  • 25-30 Certificates (preprinted before coming to Star so that just the name of winners and tournament title need to be put in)

  • Pens such as a sharpie

  • Poster board on which to put the tournament schedules

  • Lists for signing up contestants for each event

Last reviewed by Kathy West - June 2018