- A Minileague Fable

Once upon a time, there was a squash minileague. In this minileague there were many poules, but in one particular poule there were five players. One of these players was the minileague Organiser, and he knew how the system was supposed to work.

The Organiser recognised that the poule would be a difficult one, and expected that he would have to work very hard just to stay at the same level for the next period.

The Organiser played his first match expecting to have a hard game and to emerge triumphant at the end, but he lost and was disappointed.

For his second match he expected another hard game and hoped (not expected) that he would be able to scrape through for a win, but again he was disappointed.

For his third match he knew that he didn’t have a snowball in hell’s chance of winning, but hoped beyond hope that his opponent might have a moment of weakness (or at least nine of them) and give him a set. Once again he was disappointed, losing 3-0.

At this point our Organiser was a little down-hearted, with only one match to play, and expecting to lose. He calculated his current points, and weighed up the strengths and weaknesses of the other players in the poule. He became more downhearted when he realised that instead of being able to stay at the current level, he was actually facing dropping two poules for the next period.

But then the Gods smiled on him, and he won his last match. Not just scraped through 3-2, but sailed through 3-0. This was a surprise for both him and his opponent.

Counting up all of the the match results (5 points for 3-0, 4 points for 3-1, 3 for 3-2, 2 for 2-3, 1 for 1-3 and 0 for 0-3) and a point for each match played, and then sorting the poule on the totals, the situation looked like this:

Gaining the single MatchBonus for playing the last match would put Blue Player on 12 points, and thus ahead of the Organiser because players with equal MatchTotals retain their relative positions. Therefore the Organiser knew that, at best, he could only stay in the poule. But the Organiser also expected Red Player to beat Blue Player, which would give him at least three MatchPoints and one MatchBonus. The Organiser resigned himself to ending the period as number four in the poule, and the inevitable journey to the lower poule.

The Organiser received a challenge from a player new to the minileague competition, and after a long, arduous and very tight match, was forced to admit defeat. The Challenger would join the minileague.

The following day the Challenger reported that he was seriously fatigued after his labours and asked the Organiser to join at a lower position in the next minileague. "Don’t worry", said the Organiser, "I will drop one poule for the next minileague, so your wish will be granted";

The end of the minileague period came, and the Organiser collected the results sheets and all of the requests to join or leave the minileague.

And now the Gods smiled on the Organiser for a second time, and then the Organiser smiled too. The last match in his poule was still unplayed, which left him unexpectedly as number two in the poule with the chance of rising one poule. And then he smiled again for three members of higher poules had asked to leave the minileague so the addition of the Challenger wouldn’t push him back down again.

And then the Organiser smiled even more. For the first time in his ten year minileague career he had climbed above Poule 5, and crossed the divide to arrive at Poule 4, on the first of the minileague results sheets.

His smile faded briefly when he remembered that the Challenger had been hoping to play in Poule 6, and had ended up in Poule 4, where matches would be hard for both of them.

But then he saw Poule 4 again, and his smile returned.

So the moral of the story is that playing all of your matches is important, and that even a single point for losing 0-3 is enough to make a big difference in your fortunes, and the fortunes of others.

My thanks to the Blue Player and Red Player for not playing their final match, and my apologies to the Challenger who was thrown in at the deep end.