[tournament-org] TrigantiusLessonI

[Geoff Kaniuk]

I think there were three lessons to be learnt from last week's Trigantius:

Late Surge, Registration Time, Trophy Management.

Lesson I - Late surge.
Entries were dribbling in steadily in the weeks before the date and had 
got close to last years entry.  However two days before the date I 
suddenly got 16 entries, breaking our previous entry and getting scarily 
close to our maximum of 80 for the main tournament. It is great to get 
more entries than usual, but if they come in good time it is easier to 
manage.

Sourcing extra sets was not a major headache thanks to willingness of 
Helen and Martin Harvey to load some in their car. We had plenty of 
clocks thanks to the Fischer time trial managed by Matt Marsh and his 
supply of digital clocks.

A particular issue faced at Trigantius is that the venue is opened only 
at 10 am so we can never start registration early.  The late surge 
induced the problem of locating sufficient tables in the venue for use 
by the extras. This took time, delayed the start of registration and we 
were not able to recover the time.

The question is how to stop the late surge?

A. Close entry a week before the date.

B. A very punitive late entry fee kicking in a week before the date.

C. An incrementing late entry fee e.g. start at £2 on the Monday 
incrementing by £2 every day.

All organisers have so far been very resigned to players entering at the 
last minute. I believe this is not tolerated in other competitions.

I will be interested to hear your views?

-- 
Geoff

33 Ashbury Close, Cambridge CB1 3RW 01223 710582