For the last few years, the National 40 & Over format has been using a 4-court format, 1 singles court and 3 doubles courts, much to the chagrin of many who preferred the previous 5-court format with 2 singles and 3 doubles courts.
The change was seemingly driven by a few captains who had trouble fielding two singles courts, and some facilities that didn't like league matches taking five courts. The majority of players I heard from didn't like it for a number of reasons ranging from reduced playing opportunities (7 players instead of 8 in a match), fewer opportunities for singles players, and complicated/confusing/inequitable determination of team match winners. On the last point some sections went to points per position to avoid the whole team win fiasco.
I did a poll at the time of the change and given the choice of 2 singles / 3 doubles or 1 singles / 3 doubles, 85% preferred the former, a pretty clear indication the change was not well received. Comments and feedback also indicated if a change was required to reduce singles, a 5-court format with 1 singles / 4 doubles would be preferred.
Well, indications are that for 2024 we are going back to a 5 court format for 40 & Over! And it very well may be 1 singles / 4 doubles.
If the 2024 regulations aren't out yet, what do I base this on?
Well, there have been rumors of this change for a bit, but as Sections that run 40 & Over as early start leagues begin communicating about those leagues, word is getting out about the format. Specifically, a district in Missouri Valley sent out an e-mail announcing 40 & Over moving to the fall with a 5-court 1 singles / 4 doubles format, calling out specifically "NEW FORMAT to match National Format!".
Even in the absence of a 2024 regulations document, this seems to be a pretty clear indication that we will be using 5 courts with 1 singles / 4 doubles in 2024.
I think this will be a welcome change to most players. It gets rid of the confusion of 2-2 ties and it actually gets more players in a match, 9 vs 8, than the old 2 singles / 3 doubles does. It doesn't address playing opportunities for that want to play singles, but is still better overall than the 4-court format.
The only challenge may be that rosters need to be a bit bigger to make sure you have 9 players available for every match, and in smaller areas this may mean fewer teams or more defaults when a team doesn't have 9 players avaialble.
What do you think? Is this change a good thing?
It's better than the 4-court format for sure. Which district was it in the Missouri Valley that announced that?
ReplyDeleteGood move to avoid the 2-2 ties that are so frequent when two good 40+ teams play. Hopefully roster sizes will increase to match needing 9 players available. In Rhode Island rosters are capped at 17 players. Finding 8 players can be a challenge - RI currently plays 2S lines and 3D lines at 40+ for league (then it's 1S and 3D for playoffs). I'm not sure why the decision is to deemphasize singles though. I don't see a shortage 40+ guys who want to play singles.
ReplyDeleteI think some areas struggle to have singles players, particularly at higher levels perhaps, or it may be it affects women's teams more. I agree diminished singles opportunities is bad.
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