Only 29 of the 88 players in the league responded, but for the most part the responses were positive. I learned a long time ago you can’t make everyone happy, but I still aim to make as many happy as possible.  Here are the survey results. At the bottom is my response to some of the suggestions.

Do you have any suggestions for improving the team league?
Go back to doubles.
I think it’s fine the way it is. Nice job.
Maybe use a handicap like bowling so you could play higher divisions against lower divisions and it would then be somewhat fair.
It’s too hard to get 4 people
Singles league
A point system where the 4 person game is worth x- amount of points and the same for the 2 doubles games

Is there another format you would prefer over the team league?
Bring back singles!
I really liked the doubles format, but I’m not crazy about the 4 player team.
Doubles
Also like singles
If you run something different next spring, I think it should still be a team oriented league. We don’t get those often so it’s a nice change from the normal doubles or singles.
I like singles
Rate each player on there skill not there team skill

My Responses

• I am a big fan of singles, but we simply cannot run singles at our current location. 10 sets of boards and 80 players just doesn’t work. Players would either have to sit 2 hours between games, or only play 1 out of every 3 weeks. Neither of which sounds appealing…  If we ever move to a larger location, singles will again become an option.
• We run doubles in Winter, Summer and Fall.  We could certainly run it in Spring too, but it just feels like we should try something different at least once a year. The survey results sound like 80%+ of the players are happy with the current format and that’s pretty good in my opinion. But I’m always looking for new ideas and better ways to do things.
• Player rankings are as individual as I can get them. Unfortunately if players only play in the league and always with the same partner, it becomes much more difficult to give them an accurate rating. If anyone feels a player is classified incorrectly I would love to hear from you. I want the ratings to be as accurate as possible and I know that’s not always the case, especially for players in the lower divisions.
• Finally, handicapping has been tried in our area before, but I’m just not a fan of changing the way the games played. I think the divisions and in this case capping a teams “skill level” help to level the playing field. For the most part the divisions we have for the spring league have worked out well with the exception of only getting 4 teams in D2. I wish we could have gotten at least 2 more.