The Rengstorff Rumble is an occasional informal round-robin doubles pickleball tournament that we hold at the Rengstorff courts. The next one hasn’t been scheduled yet.

The tournament is low-key. Small, friendly, no refs, no fees, good sportsmanship, and lots of fun. Winners get comically-large chocolate coin medallions. The tournament is open to absolutely everybody.

Format

It’s rotating-partner round-robin (aka a “whist tournament”). Players are divided into groups. Within your group, you’ll play with each other player once as a partner and against each other player twice as an opponent. All the games are doubles. Each match is a single game. Games use standard scoring, first to 11 win by 2 or first to 15.

After all the group’s games are done, the players are ranked by number of wins, with ties broken by total points won across all games. That means that every point matters, even in the games you lose. Games that go past 11 (e.g. 12-10 or 15-14) will count as 11-9 for purposes of points-won totals used to break ties.

We usually divide beginners and intermediate players into separate groups. If there are a lot of groups, we put the top players from each group into a playoff group to determine the medal winners.

Court logistics

This is important: we do *not* have any reservation or priority to use the courts for this tournament. Our games will mix with the open rec play and wait for courts using the same rules as everybody else. Try to make sure that non-tournament players know that they are welcome to play and can use the courts as usual. If it’s crowded, we may have to cut some games from the tournament schedule.

For each match, I’ll hand out a mini clipboard with the names of the four players and a space to write the final score. There is no assigned court for each match. Take the clipboard and find any open court. If there is none, get in line for one using the normal queueing rules (four paddles down by the nets on the dual-use courts, or four paddles in a stack on the grey tarp by the three dedicated courts). When your match is done, write the score on the match sheet using the red marker attached to the clipboard and bring it back to me at the table, where you’ll pick up your next match.

Use your bye round as a chance to use the bathroom, get something from your car, or otherwise take a break, and try to avoid such breaks when it’s not your bye.  Stamina is part of the competition. All non-bye players play in each round, so heading to the bathroom when it's not your bye delays the whole tournament.

Rules

There will be no refs. Each team calls balls in/out on their side of the net; if you’re not sure of the call, it’s in. In general, follow the norms of friendly rec play, be generous, and be good sports. Resolve disagreements with do-overs. Remember, the stakes here are just chocolate.

We’re using standard side-out scoring: score points on serves only, first team to 11 (win by 2) or to 15 (win by 1).

Sides & First Serve

On the back of the match sheet on your clipboard, there will be a number, either 1 or 2. Anybody in the match guesses the number. If they’re right (It’s like winning a coin flip.), they win first choice. First choice team may choose to serve first, to receive first, or to pick a starting side of the court.  If they choose serve or receive, the other team gets to choose their starting side; if they choose a side, the other team gets to choose whether to start serving or start receiving. You don’t have to follow the Rengstorff house rule that the team by the fence serves first. Switch sides as soon as either team gets to 6 points. If you forget to switch, it’s no big deal, just switch as soon as you realize.

DUPR

We ask everybody who signs up whether they are OK with their match results being posted to DUPR so that they and the other players can get a numeric skill rating. We post these results only for the matches where all four players consented.

Player Selection

Sign ups happen on a web form over a period of time that usually starts 2-3 weeks before the tournament and closes about a week before. If there are more sign-ups than available slots in any particular division, I’ll choose participants randomly from those that signed up on time. It’s not first-come/first-served.