Rohan DsouzaThe points system is the format
Most club leagues argue about the format of a tie and copy the points system from last year’s spreadsheet. Do it the other way round. The tie decides who plays; the points system decides who wins, and it changes behaviour on court.
Here are the fifteen results behind the table above.
| Mumbai | Bengaluru | Kolkata | Delhi | Chennai | Hyderabad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai | 5–0 | 5–0 | 1–4 | 2–3 | 3–2 | |
| Bengaluru | 0–5 | 4–1 | 2–3 | 4–1 | 4–1 | |
| Kolkata | 0–5 | 1–4 | 2–3 | 2–3 | 3–2 | |
| Delhi | 4–1 | 3–2 | 3–2 | 2–3 | 2–3 | |
| Chennai | 3–2 | 1–4 | 3–2 | 3–2 | 3–2 | |
| Hyderabad | 2–3 | 1–4 | 2–3 | 3–2 | 2–3 |
Bold: the team on the left won the tie.
Chennai won four ties, every one of them 3–2. Mumbai hammered two teams 5–0, then lost 1–4 to Delhi and 2–3 to Chennai. Bengaluru won three ties 4–1, and its one close loss earned a bonus point. Each system rewards one of those seasons.
| System | Rewards | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ties won | Winning the tie, however narrowly | Matches after 3–0 mean nothing unless a tie-break uses them |
| Matches won | Depth across the whole squad | A team can lose more ties than it wins and still top the table |
| Bonus points | Both, plus fight in a losing tie | Harder to follow; publish a worked example |
My default: league points for ties won, then the BWF team ladder to break ties, which goes to match difference, then games, then points, with head-to-head whenever exactly two teams are left level. Lakshmi’s BWF team piece works through a group where that ladder turned on two dead rubbers. If you use it, every match in every tie must be played. Write that down too.
Four teams or six
Count ties and rounds before you count courts.
| Teams | Ties | Rounds | Ties a round | Matches a round | Byes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 10 | None |
| 5 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 10 | One team each round |
| 6 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 15 | None |
| 8 | 28 | 7 | 4 | 20 | None |
Home and away doubles the ties and the rounds.
Four teams is a short league: three nights, or six with home and away. It suits a club splitting its own members into teams for a month. Six teams is the size I’d choose for a season between clubs. Five rounds is long enough to recover from a bad night, and three ties a round fill three courts.
Avoid five. Somebody sits out every round, and the team with the bye on the last night watches the title settle without them.
Six teams fit a standard rotation. Fix one team and turn the others round it. I put the two strongest teams on paper in the last round, so the title is usually alive on the final night.
Six-team fixture list
Round 1
Mumbai v Hyderabad
Bengaluru v Chennai
Kolkata v Delhi
Round 2
Mumbai v Chennai
Hyderabad v Delhi
Bengaluru v Kolkata
Round 3
Mumbai v Delhi
Chennai v Kolkata
Hyderabad v Bengaluru
Round 4
Mumbai v Kolkata
Delhi v Bengaluru
Chennai v Hyderabad
Round 5
Mumbai v Bengaluru
Kolkata v Hyderabad
Delhi v Chennai
Will it fit in an evening
Do this sum before you book the hall. My planning figure for a club best-of-three match to 21 is 35 minutes, start to finish, which works out at about three rallies a minute. Time one night at your own club and replace my numbers with yours.
| Tie format | Rally ceiling | Per tie | The evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five matches, best of 3 to 21 | 885, in theory | ~3 h on one court, or spread across courts | ~3 h |
| Relay, best of 3 sets to 55 | 327 | 80–130 min | ~2 h 15 |
| Relay, one set to 105 | 209 | 60–75 min | ~1 h 15 |
Planning estimates at three rallies a minute, with two-minute changes between relay legs. The ceiling is the longest a tie can possibly run: a set to 55 lasts at most 109 rallies, because 54-all then one more point ends it. A classic tie has no practical ceiling.
The classic five-match tie also has the worst spread. A three-game mixed can still be on court an hour after everyone else has gone home. Relays finish together because the length is capped by the target score, not by how many games go to three.
From 4 January 2027 the Laws of Badminton move matches to the best of three games to 15. Your classic tie gets shorter. The relay rows don’t change, because a relay never used games.
Run the tie as a relay
BWF publishes a relay format for its junior team world championships, and most of it transfers straight to a club night. Five matches per set, one in each event, and scores carry over. The first match ends when a side reaches 11; the next continues to 22; then 33, 44 and 55. Lakshmi sets out the full junior rules.
For a club league I prefer one set with legs of 21, to 105. Each leg feels like a game, every player gets a proper spell on court, and the evening is short. This is a local adaptation, not a BWF format, so write the rules out.
A relay to 105 on the score sheet · illustrative
| Leg | Event | Ends when a side reaches | Score after | Mumbai | Bengaluru |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mixed | 21 | 21–15 | +21 | +15 |
| 2 | Men’s doubles | 42 | 42–33 | +21 | +18 |
| 3 | Women’s singles | 63 | 51–63 | +9 | +30 |
| 4 | Men’s singles | 84 | 84–70 | +33 | +7 |
| 5 | Women’s doubles | 105 | 100–105 | +16 | +35 |
Rules I’d put on the sheet:
- Each leg ends when either side reaches the next multiple of 21. At 104-all, the next point wins.
- The side leading at the end of a leg serves first in the next. That is the BWF junior rule (clause 12.10).
- Two minutes between legs, and a 60-second interval when the leading score in a leg passes its halfway mark.
- Captains pick the order alternately. Toss; the winner picks leg 1, the loser leg 2, and so on, with the fifth leg what remains. Again the junior method (20.3–20.8).
- A retirement concedes the leg at the relay score: the opponents are taken to the leg’s target, and the next leg starts from there.
Watch for blowouts. Because the score carries over, a big lead can settle a relay before the last leg. At 84–40, the leading side needs 21 more points; the other side needs 65 before that happens. Everyone in the hall can do that sum, and the final pair play a dead rubber. You can keep the last leg alive in two ways. Play best of three sets to 55, as the juniors do, so a thrashing costs one set and the next starts at 0–0. Or give a league point for each leg to the side that scores more points in it. The leg still ends at 105, but if the trailing pair take it from 84–40 to 105–62, they have won that leg 22–21 and the point is theirs.
Squad rules that hold up
“Everyone must play” sounds friendly. Check it against the tie first.
A five-match tie (men’s and women’s singles and doubles, plus mixed) has four places for men and four for women. Cap each player at two matches and a team needs at least two men and two women, which is the BWF Sudirman Cup limit. Require everyone named to play at least once and the most you can name is four of each. Bring six, three of each, and one man and one woman play twice.
| Named for the tie | Everyone plays? | One player falls ill |
|---|---|---|
| 2 men, 2 women | Yes, all twice | That gender’s level doubles is conceded |
| 3 men, 3 women | Yes | Still a full line-up |
| 4 men, 4 women | Yes, all once | One player covers two places |
| 5 of either | No | Breaks an everyone-plays rule |
Three men and three women is the size to ask for. It survives one illness per gender and still gets everyone on court.
Fix the order of strength too. If your club grades players, publish each team’s squad list in order before the season, and make every tie’s line-up follow it, the way BWF’s team regulations do. Otherwise someone will put their best player at third singles. Set a date after which squads are frozen, with additions only by the league secretary, so the team that’s two points behind can’t recruit a county player for the run-in.
Line-ups go in sealed, both at once, before the toss. Choose the order of play after you’ve seen both, so nobody doubling up plays two in a row.
Ways to make it more fun
Each of these adds a rule people will argue about. Add one a season, not three.
A trump match
Each captain secretly names one of their own matches before line-ups are swapped; win it and it counts as two. Captains love it. It also means a five-match tie can end level, 3–3 for example, so you need a decider. I’d use total points across the tie, written into the rules before anyone has seen a trump card.
Handicaps for mixed grades
BWF has a section on handicap matches (Section 4.1.3, in force 24 November 2020). It keeps the winning score where the Laws put it and moves only the interval and the third-game change of ends to half the points required. So the weaker side starts ahead; the stronger side doesn’t play to more. Publish the head-start table by grade gap, and use it for every match, not just the ones someone asks about.
A finals night
Top two in a final, or top four in semis. It packs the hall on the last night. Decide in advance whether the league table or the final crowns the champion, because the team that won the table by six points will ask.
Pitfalls I see every season
- Dead rubbers abandonedPlayers leave at 3–0. If match difference breaks ties, those two matches matter. Score an unplayed or conceded match the BWF way: as completed, with the conceding side scoring no more points (GCR 16.3.8).
- No-showsDecide the scoreline for a walkover (21–0, 21–0 is common) and whether it costs a league point as well. A team that doesn’t turn up shouldn’t gain from it.
- A team folds mid-seasonBWF deletes all results of a team that can’t finish its group ties (GCR 16.3.7). In a league that means the teams who beat them lose those points. Pick deletion or keeping, before it happens.
- Home courts and shuttlesLow ceilings, slow shuttles, one court with a pillar. Play home and away, or a neutral venue.
- Order of playThe double-duty player gets two in a row and blames the organiser. Set the order after the line-ups.
- Last-night informationIf the title depends on two ties, play them at the same time on adjacent courts.
- The rulebook is a WhatsApp messagePut the format, points, tie-break ladder and squad rules on one page, and pin it.
Before the season starts
Do these in order. Each one depends on the last.
- Count your teams and courts. Six teams and three courts is the comfortable shape.
- Choose the tie: classic five matches, or a relay. Run the evening sum with your own match times.
- Choose the points system, then the tie-break ladder, and say whether every match is played.
- Write squad rules: size, cap per player, the everyone-plays rule if you want it, the freeze date.
- Write line-up and order-of-play rules: sealed exchange, who picks the order, when.
- Write what happens on a no-show, a retirement and a team folding.
- Print the fixture list, put the strongest pair of teams in the last round, and send it all on one page.
Then play a friendly relay night before the league starts. You’ll find the rule you forgot.
Teams, players and results in this story are illustrative. Points totals were calculated from the results grid; court times are planning estimates, not measurements.