Court Marshals

Calling teams to the court is the single most repeated task of the day, and a missed call is the most common cause of a forfeit. Megaphones do not reach the parking lot or the bar terrace.

The marshal needs a call to fan out across every channel a player might be on — phone push, SMS, public address — and to escalate automatically if the team has not arrived within the call window. Without escalation the marshal walks the venue searching for missing players and the next match starts late.

The call system fires push to the player app and SMS to registered numbers, simultaneously triggering a public address announcement through the venue audio if integrated, in the team's preferred language. A configurable timer (default 5 minutes) escalates with a second call and finally a forfeit warning to the marshal, captain and director, and the full call history is logged against the match for any later dispute.

Manually walking 30 courts to see which is free is unworkable at any scale; radio traffic between marshals fills the airwaves with 'is court 14 free yet'. A live board with current score and estimated finish time lets the marshal queue the next match for the right court, send the call early so players are on their way, and balance load across zones.

It also lets the director see the whole event at a glance.

The court assignment board is fed by the live score SSE stream — current score, end count, estimated remaining time based on round average, assigned next match and any active disputes. Marshals assign upcoming matches by drag-and-drop or auto-assign within their zone, and the assignment propagates instantly to player calls, the public schedule and the press feed.

A 90-minute target match that runs to 130 minutes pushes the entire schedule and burns through the lunch slot. By the time the marshal notices, three rounds are stacked behind it and players are circling the bar terrace asking what is happening.

Automatic alerts when a match crosses a time threshold let the marshal intervene early — speak to the captain, allocate a referee for time-keeping, or rearrange downstream matches before the cascade hits the public schedule. Suggested adjustments take cognitive load off the marshal in the busiest moments of the day.

Each match tracks elapsed time against the format's expected duration. Threshold alerts (75 percent, 100 percent, 125 percent) ping the marshal with the affected court and recommended actions — speak to captain, request umpire, reshuffle next assignment.

The director sees the same alerts in summary form on the event console.