Notes on Running a Competition

This article deals with the mechanics of running a small fencing competiton. Small competitions are usually run manually using pen and paper. Although there are computer programmes available, these tend to be too cumbersome to be of benefit until the competition is of a moderate size (say a minimum of twenty-four fencers).

Typically the following events occur:

1. The fencers ranked according to their ability.
2. The fencers are divided into pools of equal size, keeping the strongest fencers appart.
3. Further separation keeps fencers from the same club appart where possible.
4. Everyone in a pool fights everyone else in their pool, and the results of the pools are used to seed the fencers.
5. Points two & four are repeated for as many rounds as are necessary.
6. The final rankings are used for direct elimination - this is a knockout stage, where only the winner goes through to the next round.
7. Point six is repeated until only one fencer is left.

Filling out a pool sheet

This is a pool sheet grid.

Fencer	1	2	3	4	V	D	HS	HR	Ind
1	X
2		X
3			X
4				X

Fill in the names and clubs of the competitors on the left-hand side. As a general rule, if you have more than one member of a club in the pool, try to keep them together on the list, as the order of the fights will dictate that they will then fight off first.

Fencer	1	2	3	4	V	D	HS	HR	Ind
1 Nick Warren (Uni)	X
2 Chris Hall (Uni)		X
3 Paul Cumberland (St A)			X
4 James Bishop (Wat)				X

As the fights progress, keep a tally of the number of hits, in the appropriate square of the grid. Once the bout is completed, fill in Write the letter V below the victor's tally and the number of hits made under the loser's tally.

Therefore in the example below, in the first bout (Warren vs Hall), Warren beat Hall 5-3. In the second bout (Cumberland vs Bishop) Bishop beat Cumberland 5-1.

Fencer	1	2	3	4	V	D	HS	HR	Ind
1 Nick Warren (Uni)	X
2 Chris Hall (Uni)		X
3 Paul Cumberland (St A)			X
4 James Bishop (Wat)				X

Eventually the grid will be complete as shown below.

1. To calculate the number of victories, count the number of 'V's in a row.
2. To calculate the number of defeats, count the number of figures in a row.
3. To calculate the hits scored, count the total number of hits in a row, remember, each V is worth five hits.
4. To calculate the hits received, count the total number of hits in a column

Fencer	1	2	3	4	V	D	HS	HR	Ind
1 Nick Warren (Uni)	X				3	0	15	10
2 Chris Hall (Uni)		X			1	2	10	12
3 Paul Cumberland (St A)			X		1	2	10	12
4 James Bishop (Wat)				X	1	2	10	11

The final column, contains the difference between the number of hits scored and the number of hits received. This is known as the indicator. As an overall check, the sum of all of the indicators should be zero.

The indicator is used to split fencers with equal victories. Where the indicator is equal, the number of hits scored is considered. If this is equal, the fight between the two fencers may be taken into consideration.

The final standings are:
1st Warren; 2nd Bishop; 3rd Cumberland; 4th Hall;

Fencer	1	2	3	4	V	D	HS	HR	Ind
1 Nick Warren (Uni)	X				3	0	15	10	+5
2 Chris Hall (Uni)		X			1	2	10	12	-2
3 Paul Cumberland (St A)			X		1	2	10	12	-2
4 James Bishop (Wat)				X	1	2	10	11	-1

Ranking Fencers from Multiple Pools

When the sizes of the pools are equal, the ranking of the fencers in multiple pools may be done in the same way as for a single pool - just order the competitors by number of victories and indicators.

The difficulty comes when there are more fencers in one pool than another. In this case, the percentage of victories must be taken into account, as it is obviously harder to win four fights in a 5-man pool than in a 6-man pool.

Here are the fractions for 4,5,6 and 7-man pools in decreasing order:

7/7	(100%)	6/6	(100%)	5/5	(100%)	4/4	(100%)	6/7	(85%)	5/6	(83%)	4/5	(80%)
3/4	(75%)	5/7	(71%)	4/6	(66%)	3/5	(60%)	4/7	(57%)	3/6	(50%)	2/4	(50%)
3/7	(42%)	2/5	(40%)	2/6	(33%)	2/7	(28%)	1/4	(25%)	1/5	(20%)	1/6	(16%)
1/7	(14%)	0/4	(0%)	0/5	(0%)	0/6	(0%)	0/7	(0%)

Direct Elimination

This is a knockout stage, where only the winner goes through to the next round, hence the number of fencers in each round is halved. In Direct Elimination, the fencers are seeded, so that in theory, the two top seeds should meet in the final.

In order to do this you need to start the first round with 2ⁿ fencers. (i.e. 2,4,8,16,32 etc.) Just take the number of fencers in the competition and add as many new entries at the bottom with the name 'BYE' as required to make up the numbers. Now list the top half of the entries in the first column ranked in descending order and the bottom half of the entries in the second column in ascending order. This pairs off the fencers to fight each other

For example, if there are seven fencers ranked 1-7, add an extra fencer called 'BYE' at the bottom and order as shown below:

One	v	BYE
Two	v	Seven
Three	v	Six
Four	v	Five

Fencer One (the top seed), gets a bye into the next round, and the remaining six fencers fight it out to get into the semi-finals.

This process can be repeated for each round. If a lower ranked fencer beats a higher ranked fencer, they will take their place in the next round. So for example if Six beats Three the next round will be as follows:

One	v	Four
Two	v	Six

Final Ranking

This combines the ranking from the pools with the results from the Direct Elimination. Just order the Fencers according to number of rounds they won and within these groups order the fencers by rank. Using the example above, and assuming the semi-final and final go according to seed the final result would be:

1. One  (won three rounds)
2. Two  (won two rounds)
3. Four (won one round)
4. Six   (won one round)
5. Three   (won no rounds)
6. Five (won no rounds)
7. Seven   (won no rounds)