Key Dates
Closing Date for Entry: Wednesday 15th February
Group Stage Matches: Monday 20th February to Friday 14th April
Last-16: Friday 21st April
Quarters, Semi-Final :Saturday 22nd April
Grand Final:Saturday 13th May (Cambridge Weekend)

Eligibility
Players should not have provisional handicaps and are required to record a minimum of 4 results against different opponents since 1 December 2016.

To enter: Please sign up on the clubs website and we’ll contact you when the group draw has been made.

Format
Group Stage:
The draw is for 64 players. Players are grouped by handicap order and not drawn (as in previous years). There will be 16 Groups of 4 players. The Group winners (the strongest Group being Group A and the next strongest being Group B, and the weakest being Groups O and P) progress to the ordered knock out stage of the tournament where the winner of Group A plays the winner of Group B, the winner of Group C versus the winner of Group D etc …to the winner of Group O versus the winner of Group P. There will be no cap on the maximum difference in handicaps (e.g. No cap at 23 as in past years). The Handicap Committee will review the handicaps of the Group winners prior to the start of the knock phase of the tournament. Results where the handicap difference is greater than 10 will not be input thus protecting the stronger players who progress to the knockout phase.

All group stage matches are to be played between Monday 20th February to Friday 14th April. Players are responsible for arranging their own matches.

Each match is “first to 8 games”, to be played off handicap and 40-all, not deuce and advantage.

Court fees will be charged at the usual peak/off-peak rates of £8.25/£7.25 per person per hour.

Before entering please ensure that you will be available to play ALL 3 of your group matches before the group stage ends on 14th April. If you fail to play matches you disadvantage your fellow group members!

We strongly encourage members to arrange & play their matches before Monday 10th April.

Knockout Stage:
The 16 group winners from the group stage will contest 3 rounds of the knockout competition on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd April, which will produce our two finalists. These matches will be arranged by the tournament organisers.

The Grand Final will be played on Saturday 13th May and the winner presented with the trophy during the Cambridge Weekend dinner that same evening. The tournament winner will also be eligible to enter the National Handicap Tournament in the autumn.

A group winner unable to play in the knockout stage will not necessarily be replaced with the runner-up from the same group. Rather, the “next best” runner-up from all of the groups will be selected using the following criteria (in order): most matches won, most games won, fewest games lost, coin-toss!

Contact: Scott Blaber (01223) 357106 scott@curtc.net