Wimbledon 'Battle of the Boards' pick em - now back on - closing Monday 11.30 UK

steven · Tennis legend

Wimbledon 'Battle of the Boards' pick em - now back on - closing Monday 11.30 UK

huntley93 · Strong Club Player

RE: Wimbledon - to BOTB or not to BOTB, that is the question ...

Count Zero · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

As a side benefit, you might not see so much of me for a week or so

every cloud has a silver lining.... biggrin

only joking well miss you that steven. hope you can get the work done on time. i kinda stopped palying the pickems a while back so cant really comment further.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Work has to come first Steven. Do what's right for you.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

huntley93 wrote:
i'm new here this year so can someone please explain what this is?

I had to do a search on this to, it's a battle of the boards, as far as I can see, this board against others to see who's the most accurate at picking the people getting through at various stages. (Please correct me anyone if I'm wrong).

I've never tried it before (or even been aware of it), but would give ti a go if it were running. But as SMC says, work has to come first.

indiana · Tennis legend

I would say if it is not going to be too much hastle to set up the entry sheet, process the entries and produce later results ( even after the end of the tournamkent ) then go for it.

It's great having all the up-dated daily results ( and the other bells and whistles ) and follow the emerging story. But my first paragraph still allows us to enter and in the end see how well we have done aganst others. Meantime we can follow our own progress with all the normal unfolding dramas with just a delay to how we compare to others. Have we really done as badly or as well comparatively as we thought ? Also the world rankings can remain a bit more meaningful, still including 3 Slams and the Paris Masters. So could have the best 5 of 7 say.

I don't want you putting yourself out too much, Steven, your day to day work must come first. But I do get the impression the above is doable and I tend to think many would be happy with this.

It would be a pity to miss out another Slam. Long Live BOTB !

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 20th of June 2012 05:57:46 PM

Miriambee · Futures level

Helen40 wrote:
huntley93 wrote:
i'm new here this year so can someone please explain what this is?
I had to do a search on this to, it's a battle of the boards, as far as I can see, this board against others to see who's the most accurate at picking the people getting through at various stages. (Please correct me anyone if I'm wrong).

I've never tried it before (or even been aware of it), but would give ti a go if it were running. But as SMC says, work has to come first.

You have to predict every match, usually there is a 2-3 days time limit to enter. There is an individual race and a team race. You don't have to play as part of a team however, you can play as an individual.

Mikeduke · County player

I would be happy to help, is required.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Mikeduke wrote:
I would be happy to help, is required.

Likewise.

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks for the offers of help. Unfortunately, that's not really the issue though, since Bethan (who usually shares the BOTB work with me) is going to be around and is able (and willing) to do all the bits that I can leave to someone else, including the more complicated bits that have already been documented, i.e. processing the entries as they come in and updating the results after each match once the initial results are up.

The problem is the middle stage. The main set of spreadsheets that I use to produce all the results tables takes a few concentrated hours of sort out once all the entries are in. It has evolved over the years and while it works very well (and once the initial results are up, it takes hardly any time to update after each match), it's quite ad hoc and I've never had a chance to document all the steps necessary to set it all up. I've done all the steps so often now that I can do it virtually on auto-pilot, but it's not at all intuitive and it is easy to inadvertently mess it up without even knowing it, such that you only find out things have gone wrong much later.

At some (as yet, hypothetical) point, when I have a lot of free time all at once (assuming I can bring myself to spend it all on BOTB!), I will get the process documented and/or programmed so that it becomes more automated and easier for someone else to do. Until then, the stage in between entries closing and the initial results going up is the sticking point and short- term, there's not much I can do about it.

Miriambee · Futures level

For me personally, I'd rather have the fun of doing the competition even if I have to wait for the results, and it doesn't matter if the complicated stuff doesn't get done till later. We can mostly keep track of our own results I expect, even if the team competition results are delayed - to me that's not an issue - however others may see it differently.

Steven your priority must be your work, so if running it at all is an issue, then you shouldn't do it.

RobH · Social player

If feasible, I would love to see the BOTB albeit with delayed results. To echo others, only if work allows.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

very selfish answer - would love a BOTB. Seems ages since we had one and RG definitely lost something this year without it. Having to make decisions about matches you know so little about makes them so much more interesting to follow and gives significance to each one too. However, I don't want to be the one responsible for Steven's heart attack and I do wonder just how he can put more work in. He doesn't sleep anyway!

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

steven wrote:
Thanks for the offers of help. Unfortunately, that's not really the issue though, since Bethan (who usually shares the BOTB work with me) is going to be around and is able (and willing) to do all the bits that I can leave to someone else, including the more complicated bits that have already been documented, i.e. processing the entries as they come in and updating the results after each match once the initial results are up.

The problem is the middle stage. The main set of spreadsheets that I use to produce all the results tables takes a few concentrated hours of sort out once all the entries are in. It has evolved over the years and while it works very well (and once the initial results are up, it takes hardly any time to update after each match), it's quite ad hoc and I've never had a chance to document all the steps necessary to set it all up. I've done all the steps so often now that I can do it virtually on auto-pilot, but it's not at all intuitive and it is easy to inadvertently mess it up without even knowing it, such that you only find out things have gone wrong much later.

At some (as yet, hypothetical) point, when I have a lot of free time all at once (assuming I can bring myself to spend it all on BOTB!), I will get the process documented and/or programmed so that it becomes more automated and easier for someone else to do. Until then, the stage in between entries closing and the initial results going up is the sticking point and short- term, there's not much I can do about it.

I'm a saddo on excel too, so if this can help at all let me know.

steven · Tennis legend

We decided in the end to try to run a BOTB for Wimbledon and got all the pre-entry stuff ready only to find within minutes of opening entries that the application that converts them has 'upgraded' itself and won't convert the filled in entry forms into the format the entry sheets are set up to take any more.

Unless there turns out to be a very quick fix, in which case the form might go up again tonight, we're going to have to give up on Wimbledon BOTB after all. It might well be possible to work with the new format eventually (i.e. for a future BOTB), but it'll take a lot of re-jigging of the spreadsheets which I just don't have time to do at the moment.

In the end, I spent a lot more time on the pre-entry stuff in the early hours of this morning than I had ever intended to and then this happened - the worst combination possible and sooooo frustrating! It makes even watching Gulbis muppet away a match after being stupid enough to pick him seem only mildly annoying in comparison!

We might try again for the USO but I'm beginning to wonder whether it might be better to write off 2012 from a BOTB point of view and instead spend any free time I might have used for that on getting things sorted a bit better for next year, e.g. getting the sheets into a state that would allow anyone with a decent grasp of Excel to do the bits that only I can really do at the moment.

Anyway, the stuff I was waiting for before I could get fully into the work I need to do before the end of this month got further delayed but finally arrived this afternoon, so time to get stuck into that ... while probably keeping half an eye on the score in Eastbourne.