[UPDATE: 24/3: The two remaining groups will now be held at The Maram. And yes they have 12 tables so there will be 4 tables per group.]

Hi all

The Open Doubles Championship begins this weekend with Round One. With yet another bumper entry list of 78 pairs, we have decided to award seedings and first round byes to the Top 16 pairs.

This leaves 62 pairs for round one, which will be contested over 8 groups (6 x 8 and 2 x 7) with the top four qualifying for the second round. Each group will play three round robins against all other pairs
in the group.

Round Two sees the 16 seeds join the 32 qualifiers in 6 groups of 8, again 3 round robins with top 4 qualifying.

Round Three will be 3 groups of 8 play 3 round robins and the top 4 qualifying for the Top 12 Shootout.

The Top 12 Shootout will be held over two days, with all pairs playing two round robins on the Saturday, followed by a third round on Sunday. The Top 4 will then play a finals series of 1 v 2 and 3 v 4, with the winner of 1 v 2 making the final and the loser playing the winner of 3 v 4 to join them.

A few points, as always:

• PLAY COMMENCES AT 11AM FOR ALL GROUPS. If you are not present when the first frame of the day is called, then you will be automatically disqualified. If you have a legitimate reason for running
  late, call either myself or your adjudicator prior to 11am. Failure to do this will also result in disqualification.
• Be ready when your frame is called. The day goes long enough as it is, so if you are going for a smoke or to grab a feed, ask your adjudicator before you go, as they may need you to play again.
• There are no scheduled breaks for lunch, so arrange in advance with your adjudicator when is a good time to have a quick feed.
• As there are no referees on the day, be honest with your opponents as far as fouls go, sportsmanship etc.
• And finally, buy your adjudicator a drink.

The 16 seeds for the tournament are:

Ranking Names
1 Rony Sood & Michael Hazilias
2 Mick Norton & Ian Will
3 Semisi Naupoto & Nicole Welsh
4 Alessandro Nasca & Dragan Markovic
5 Matt Power & Dean Welsh
6 Anthony Chia & Colin Gamble
7 Peter Penfold & Peter Madden
8 Ian Stanley & Ted Mallowes
9 Ben Boyd & Troy Miller
10 Brendon Smith & Richard Bondietti
11 Dylan McFawn & Kris Bandte
12 Phil Bailey & Andrew Bailey
13 Edmund Chen & Bob Sifri
14 Andrew Pearce & Phil Morton
15 Stephen Thomas & Michael Masal
16 Kenny Nicol & Phil Bryan

Please finda link below to the groups and venues for Round One. (Note that two groups still need a venue confirmed – will let you know tomorrow). As this is quite a lengthy process to coordinate, I will be unable to make any changes to days of play. As you only nominated 3 weeks ago, your availibility should not have changed, anyway, so hopefully no one’s forced to miss work or their wedding anniversary.

Good luck to all players this weekend.

http://www.acteba.com.au/downloads/2011_Open_Doubles_Round1_Groups.xls