Tournament Entry System (TES) Guide

Overview

Use the Tournament Entry System (TES) to enter fixtures listed as enter-online in the Online Fixtures Calendar and to withdraw from them. Croquet England Subscribers can enter a team on behalf of their club or county.

Enter one fixture or a whole season's worth at once - the Fixtures Calendar help page explains the easiest way to choose your entries.

Whether entering for themselves or a team, players must pay online using the secure payment system.

The Entry Restrictions section explains how a player's handicap is used to remove the clutter of fixtures they can't enter.

Each calendar fixture lists those entered into it by clicking the Group icon in the fixture details. Croquet England Subscribers can see who has entered, and Fixture Officials can view their payment and contact details. ICE In Case of Emergency [ICE] details are available under restricted circumstances.

Players wishing to remain private should be aware of Privacy Override

There is no need for a club to keep a separate record of entries and fees.

Fixture Officials - Special Access

An Entries Secretary is defined for each fixture's organising body and another person can be added for a particular fixture. They can:

Enter players into their fixtures and may withdraw them, managing their fees and refunds as needed
- When entering for themselves, Fixture Officials must choose whether to make their payment directly to the club or to pay online to Croquet England
- There are restrictions for fixtures organised by Croquet England because all payments are made online to Croquet England

Fixture Officials are the Entries Secretary, Manager, Director, Lead Coach, and the organising club's officers, They can

View all reports
View the contact details of players entered into their fixtures
- See also Privacy Override

Main menu option My Admin Fixtures lists all events for which the viewer is an official.

Please refer also to the TES Terms and Conditions.

Entry Restrictions

Except for a few Open fixtures, only paid-up Croquet England Subscribers can:

use the online Tournament Entry System (TES), or
be entered into events by administrators

Paid-up Croquet England Subscribers include:

Direct-pay Subscribers (e.g. Premium) whose current subscription is Paid, or awaiting payment by Direct Debit
Standard Subscribers
Overseas players are treated as Premium Subscribers if registered for Reciprocal Rights

If a player enters a fixture and then leaves Croquet England, their entries are not removed automatically. Having left Croquet England, they will not have access to TES so they cannot withdraw or modify their entries.

Players pay an additional levy if at the time of entry they are not Croquet England Premium Premium Subscribers (Premium Subscribers includes Reciprocal Rights players).

The initial TES page shows the player's Association Croquet (AC), Golf Croquet (GC) and Short Croquet (SC) handicaps. If players enter online for themselves, they are invited to update their handicap if incorrect and are given a button to do so immediately. During log-in, users are reminded of their recorded handicaps and invited to update them.

Only individual-entry events appropriate for a player's recorded handicap are listed, for example:

if no AC handicap is recorded, no AC events are listed
for GC Handicap 8, events restricted to players below 8 are not shown

All team-entry events are shown so that, for example, a club secretary who plays only GC can enter the AC Inter-Club on behalf of the club.

Courses are shown unless they are specified as for AC or GC players only, when a player would need a handicap in the specified code to see them.

A player's handicap can change after entry into an event. Fixture Officials will find a section in the Check Data menu option that lists any players not eligible for an event into which they have entered (title: Handicap Invalid for Individual-Entry Event). This is for information and no action is required, but Fixture Officials can withdraw and refund the player or move them to a more appropriate event if it is a multi-event fixture. The player's handicap and any event handicap restrictions are displayed in the entry information blocks, with handicap marked Asterisk if invalid or inappropriate.

The Tournament Regulations specify the handicap ranges, which are applied to all events in the Fixtures Calendar (and therefore TES) with no specified handicap restriction.

TES will not allow anyone with a handicap outside the specified range to enter events. This includes players with no handicap specified (i.e. only those with a GC handicap can enter a GC individual event).

Controlling the Number of Entries and the Allocation and Closing Dates

The number of places available in each event and in the overall fixture can be set separately in the Fixtures Calendar. Where there is only one event, the maximum number of entries is applied to the fixture.

If no Allocation Date is specified, it is treated as January 1.

Before the Allocation Date:
- TES will accept any number of entries
On (and after) the Allocation Date (and before the Closing Date):
- TES continues accepting entries, but if a fixture or event is full, entrants are told "Event is Full and past its Allocation Date - Entries will be placed on the reserve list"
  - If they continue with their entry, they are added to the end of the event's reserve list
- If a fixture or event is oversubscribed at the Allocation Date, refer to Allocation of Places and Reserves
- Players don't see the Allocation Date but are told the Allocation Deadline, which, being the day before the Allocation Date, is the date on which entries must be submitted to be included in the initial allocation process
After the Closing Date has passed:
- Players cannot enter online for themselves, whether or not the fixture is full
  - clubs should take care to set a late enough Closing Date

Fixture Officials can enter players into an event at any time up to 10 days after the event, whether or not it is full, awaiting allocation or past its Closing Date.

For fixtures organised by Croquet England, payment must be made online to Croquet England immediately after a Fixtures Official makes an entry on behalf of a player

See also the Tournament Regulations, section C2 Tournament Programme.

Viewing Who Has Entered A Fixture

In the TES menu choose an option to find the fixture you are interested in then click on the Group group icon next to the relevant fixture to see who has entered.

Fixture Officials may use the My Admin Fixtures option
Players may use View My Entries

The player list shows who has entered, whether they are an Under 25 Under-25 priority entry or a Child child (under 18 and so requiring safeguarding arrangements), their Primary Club (if known), their handicap, which events they have entered (their name is repeated for each event), the option they selected for each event (where appropriate), whether or not they want lunch (with a 'v' for vegetarian), their entry status, and who their partner is in a doubles event. Officials identifies the Manager.

The Column headed Comment includes any invited comments that they have put in (such as leave required), and the column headed Qualifications shows referee and handicapper qualifications from the Croquet England Directory.

You can sort the table by column by clicking on a column heading. Fixture Officials see a button to Get Entries CSV, which contains the information displayed in the entries table (plus email addresses and phone numbers) - note that in a downloaded CSV a tick becomes -1 and a cross is 0.

Fixture Officials and the players themselves see three buttons for editing and changing the player's entry into the overall fixture or individual event:

Withdraw after confirmation removes the player from the fixture (all events)
Fixture allows updating of whether lunch is required, or comment for leave requirements, etc.
Event permits withdrawal from the individual event and managing the player's reserve list position

Note that Someone who has entered online but failed to complete the payment, or who has been entered as unpaid by a Fixture Official, appears in the list of entries as a provisional entry. Unpaid entries are highlighted and are subject to the following:

Players with an unpaid entry marked as paid to Croquet England are sent a "reminder to pay" email the day after the payment record date
- if still unpaid two days after the payment record date, the entry is removed automatically and without email notification
- administrators may set a payment record date in the future to give an entrant or promoted reserve sufficient time to pay online before their entry is removed
Unpaid payments marked as paid to the club are not subject to the email reminder or automatic deletion, the club is expected to organise payment and TES reports treat the entry as paid
- an entry marked as unpaid raised by the club can be paid online

In determining if a fixture is full, Entries Secretaries should count only paid entries or those in their control.

Reports

All Fixture Officials can view the reports.

Each fixture details shows the entries and payments to the club, online payments to Croquet England, levy, entry fees donated to the club and the balance owing from Croquet England to the club.

The Check Data report shows any issues with the fixtures, including:

Entries that are withdrawn but not yet recorded as refunded:
- If paid online: Croquet England will raise and record an online refund
- If paid to the club: the club should refund the player and update the record
Players who no longer fit into the handicap range for the event

Contacting Players in the Fixture

Following each person's name, an Person icon links to their Directory entry and another Email to send them an email (unless they are not sharing their contact details). Clicking their name will list all fixtures they have entered (if authorised to view such information).

At the foot of the table is a link to Email email all entrants plus a list of any without email addresses.

Older versions of Microsoft Outlook must be specially configured to use the Email email all link as TES conforms to the standard by separating each email address with a comma - refer to Microsoft help for details.

Contact details of individuals who do not share with fellow Croquet England Subscribers are not included in the email list. Their names are listed separately and their contact details are available only to Fixture Officials - see Privacy Override.

The full set of email addresses appears in the Get Entries CSV download, which is available to Fixture Officials only.

You should not share information taken from TES other than for the purpose for which it is supplied and you should not email a spreadsheet containing personal information without using encryption.

Use BCC when emailing more than one person so as not to expose private email addresses to others.

Individuals can see the details only of the fixtures for which they are a Fixture Official.

In Case of Emergency [ICE] Contact Details

Players are asked to provide or confirm their In Case of Emergency [ICE] details when entering a fixture online. The ICE data should comprise the name and relation to the player, phone number and/or relevant other information such as any essential medical details.

Players who have not provided ICE data are marked in the entries list with ICE_No . The player can add it by editing their fixture entry, just as they might change their lunch preference. No one can do it on their behalf.

Access to the ICE data is via the player's details Admin tab in their Person Directory entry.

Entry for a Team

Entries for teams into inter-club or inter-county events are made and paid for by an individual acting on behalf of the club or county, separately reclaiming the entry fee from the club or team members as appropriate.

Entry is made in the same way as entering an event as an individual, specifying the name of the club or county when prompted.

Entry for a Player

Fixture Officials may make entries on behalf of those who send in an entry form (or an email, if accepted) and record their payment (including a promise to pay on the day).

'Promise to Pay' is an option for clubs that accept entries from players who agree to pay on arrival at the fixture. TES treats this as a payment to the club when calculating the balancing payment so there is no need to record the actual payment when made unless the club needs to do that for its own records.

Leaving the payment as "Not Paid" highlights it and allows the player to complete the payment online if they wish (paying through Croquet England). TES does not send them an email reminder.

See also Complimentary Entries

Fixture Officials can enter players at any time, including after the Closing Date and up to 10 days after the fixture.

This supports adding a reserve into a full event after the Allocation Date and proper record-keeping for clubs accepting last-minute entries.

Enter Someone Into Your Fixture

In the TES menu Fixtures Officials section, select ' Enter For Another'
Find the player by entering at least the first few letters of their surname and hitting return
Click on the player's name to see the fixtures that they can enter that you control (those for which you are an official and for which their handicap makes them eligible)
- Notice that the screen heading always says who you are entering for
Select the fixtures the player wishes to enter by using the tick-boxes on the left and then click 'Enter Selected Fixtures' at the bottom of the page
A shortcut to this point is to view the players already entered in the future and clicking the ' Add Player' button, then selecting the player
The next page lists the fixtures entered but now with the detailed events they comprise, with the default for each being 'not entered'. Select the events and entry fee by clicking on the relevant button
- Some events only have one entry fee, but some clubs have a club member or Under-25 fee
- TES knows whether or not the player is entitled to Premium, Under-25, or club Member rates and presents only the relevant options
  - the club member rate is available to anyone registered as a club member in the Online Directory
  - the Under-25 rate is available to anyone with a Standard or Premium Under-25 Croquet England subscription
- Fixture officials also have a Comp option, which requires no payment and is given by some clubs to the fixture manager
The next page enables you to select options for lunch, vegetarian, etc. for each fixture. Then click on 'Confirm and Pay'
The final page shows a summary of what has been entered
- If OK:
  - Click to identify the relevant payment method
  - Click 'Save Changes', even if no payment is due - this records the entries as confirmed
  - Before saving, you can leave the entry unpaid by closing the window, which gives the player a chance to pay online
    - If you do this, you must notify the player
- If all is not correct:
  - Click 'Delete/Refund Payment and its associated entries' and confirm on the subsequent page
    - Do not just navigate away or close the screen as the entries and a zero payment have already been recorded, which will remain marked as 'Unpaid' if you don't remove it

Complimentary Entries

Many clubs give their Managers complimentary entry, which is for the club to decide and is not a Croquet England requirement
Any such entries must be made on their own and not mixed with paid-for entries
No levy is due on complimentary entries, and none is charged as long as:
- the payment amount is recorded as zero and
- the payment type is recorded as Comp
If a Comp entry is withdrawn, the refund must be amount zero and the payment method also Comp

Finding Someone's Entry

In the TES main menu, there are several ways to access an individual's entries into fixtures for which you are an official:

List All Players shows everyone entered into an event this calendar year, and clicking on their name lists all the events they entered for which you are an official
My Admin Fixtures lists your fixtures, where you can click on the list of entrants
View Payments lists all the payments for entries into fixtures for which you are an official

Withdrawing an Entry

See below for cancelling a fixture and withdrawing all entrants from it.

A player who pulls out of a fixture must be withdrawn, and usually, their entry fee is refunded. Even a 'Promise to Pay' must be withdrawn to avoid it being counted as paid for settlement purposes. Note though that reserves are not included in the calculation (though they should be withdrawn if they paid).

Withdrawing an entry is handled online: refunds for entries paid online through TES are made by Croquet England, and the club is responsible for refunding those paid to the club.

After the Closing Date, players cannot withdraw themselves - they must contact the Entries Secretary, who will decide whether to refund or keep the fee (see the Tournament Regulations for what is expected and permitted).

TES sends the Entries Secretary an email when a player withdraws if the Allocation Date has been reached.

To withdraw a player from your event:

Find the entry you wish to remove:
- Entries Secretaries can use menu option My Admin Fixtures and click on the icon next to the fixture name
- Individuals can use View my Entries
Click the Withdraw button
- If withdrawing from only one event in a multi-event fixture: edit the event and use the Withdraw button there
On the confirmation screen, select the reason for the withdrawal and a direction for refund or donation of the fee then confirm the action - the entry is now withdrawn
- Individuals requesting a refund will see a confirmation that an email has been sent to the payment holder to make a refund
- Entries Secretaries will see either a confirmation that Croquet England will handle the refund (if it was paid online through TES), or will see a refund confirmation page that should be completed and saved when the payment is made
  - be sure to set the payment method appropriately
- Donations need no further processing and are marked as completed with the funds being transferred to the Donations report
- When withdrawing a complimentary entry, make sure the refund and adjustment amounts are zero and the Method of Payment is Zero
- When withdrawing a player who does not qualify for a refund, in answer to the section "What do you want to be done with the entry fee?", select "Please donate the fee to the club" (otherwise, Croquet England will keep the funds)

You should allow several working days for refunds to be processed by Croquet England or the club. Individuals can track their refunds via View My Entries and clicking 'Show Withdrawals'.

When a player withdraws (or is withdrawn by an admin or Fixture Official) after the Allocation Date, an email is sent to the Entries Secretary to tell them (unless the Entries Secretary is doing the withdrawal themselves).

Cancelling a Fixture

A Fixture Official can cancel a fixture by viewing the entries or fixture details, clicking the Cancel button, and then confirming.

When cancelling a fixture, follow the process described onscreen to tell the players; they are not otherwise notified. The reason for this is so that each player can be emailed and told to follow a link to withdraw their own entry and so decide whether they want a refund or to donate their fee to the club. Otherwise, a Fixtures Official can immediately withdraw all entries and schedule refunds.

When viewing a cancelled fixture's entries, there is a button to "Withdraw All Entries", which is available to all Fixture Officials.

Selecting Withdraw All Entries opens a form to confirm the action and displays a list of all the entries. An email All button is provided in the form since, once the entries are withdrawn, there is no easy way to find the players affected to notify them.

In the notification email sent by the operator, players can be invited to consider donating their entry fees to the club while withdrawing themselves.

A template message is displayed, which contains a website link a player can use to get straight to the withdrawal form
- note that this link is specific to the particular fixture
Clicking the email All button will open a new email in your usual email program
Copy and paste the template message into the email, tailoring it as you wish
Ensure that the email addresses are in the BCC field to avoid contravening anyone's wishes to have their email address available only to Fixture Officials

Players withdrawing themselves from a fixture are offered an option to donate their entry fees to the club rather than accepting a refund.

If you send such a request to the players, give them time to respond by waiting 14 days and then re-visit the "Withdraw All Entries" form to withdraw any remaining entries, selecting the reason and confirming withdrawal.

The Levy Report includes entry fees donated to the club, some of which will already be held by the club and those paid online held by Croquet England. If paid online, Croquet England will pay these donations to the club without deducting administration or levy fees. For fixtures organised by Croquet England, donations are paid to the main host club, for all other events they are paid to the organiser (which is usually also the host).

Settlement of donations, and entry fees from fixtures that have taken place, is normally at the end of the season but if you need the money earlier, please tell the office.

Once Withdraw All Entries is confirmed, all remaining entries are withdrawn and a payment record is raised for each player (which manages the refund of their fees, or donation to the club).

Refunds must be processed individually by refunding the player and confirming that the refund is made by updating the method of payment in the refund record (see Managing Online Withdrawals). The list of refunds for the club to make may be found in the Check Data main menu option.

Whoever received the payment (paid online to Croquet England, or directly to the club), must process each refund. Croquet England picks up all refunds and processes them weekly or more frequently as needed.

Managing Refunds of Online Withdrawals

The TES Check Data option checks payments and entries relevant to a Fixture Official, listing any issue for resolution. TES sends the Entries Secretary an email for each online withdrawal that they should refund.

The list includes any outstanding payments due to players withdrawing online that have not yet been recorded as refunded
Click on Refund to access the refund record. There are two sections to refunds:
- Unpaid Croquet England Refunds are for the office to deal with but are there for your information in case a player contacts you about it
- Unpaid Club Refunds are for your action
Refer to the Tournament Regulations for whether the fee should be refunded or an admin fee should or could be deducted
- If appropriate for the stated withdrawal reason, the refund details initially show the refund as the amount paid less £5, with £5 recorded as 'Amount deducted'
- You can change this to the full amount against 'Total Amount Refunded' with zero against 'Amount Deducted'

- The amount deducted must contain a value, even if it is zero, and the deduction and amount refunded must add up to the amount paid (shown as 'Total Fees to Refund')
The 'Refund Method' must be set to show that it is paid:
- If you are simply tearing up a cheque, click on 'cheque'
- If you are cancelling a 'Promise to Pay', click on 'Promise to Pay'
Once you are sure that the refund amount is correct and the refund method selected, click Save Changes

Note that if a player decides to donate their entry fee to the club (or the Entries Secretary uses this option when withdrawing a player after the Closing Date), the refund payment record is automatically completed. A separate report accounts for the donations.

If you discover that a withdrawal was actioned by mistake (e.g. you selected the wrong person or event:

Find the refund transaction record (usually by clicking on WITHDRAWN in the event display)
Click on the button 'Delete this refund payment and reinstate associated entries'.
Confirm it
All the associated entries are reinstated

Swapping a Player

Sometimes a player becomes unavailable but allows a friend to take up the place and they settle up between themselves. This is recorded by going to the withdrawing player's TES entry:

Click on the button 'Fixture', which brings up the 'Edit Fixture Entry Details'
In the 'Fixture Entry' box, it shows the player with an update button:
- Player: John Smith Change player - does not affect the payment
Click on the Update icon
You'll be asked to find the person you wish to swap to - select the player and the change is made

This mechanism accepts swaps for any player, without changing the payment details (or payer).

Allocation of Places and Reserves

If an event is oversubscribed on or after the Allocation Date, it shows as 'Oversubscribed - allocation pending'. In this case, a Fixture Official (usually the Entries Secretary) must decide which entries are accepted. This decision is made using the procedure described in the Tournament Regulations. TES emails the Entries Secretary on the Allocation Date if any event is oversubscribed.

Unsuccessful entrants are added to the reserve list, from where they can choose to withdraw and claim a refund.

Any Fixture Official can subsequently promote a reserve into an event

Reserve lists are per event, though most fixtures have only one event - see reserve list for multi-event fixtures.

If working online and using a random draw process, it is simpler to draw for unsuccessful players and withdraw them until the event is not oversubscribed.

The entry number column identifies entrants who may have priority allocation:

Before making the allocation, check if any reserves are already recorded - they are entries made on or after the Allocation Date and should be moved (in order) to the end of the reserve list after completing allocation.

Work out how many players must be removed from the list to resolve allocation and go in turn to each entry that has not been allocated a place (first reserve first):

Click the RL button on the right to move the entry to the end of the event's reserve list
- alternatively, you might immediately withdraw them from the fixture, refunding their entry fee - see the section on Withdrawing an Entry for full details
- note that until the Closing Date, any player can withdraw themselves from the fixture online and claim a refund
When you return to the fixtures entries list, reserves are now listed (in italics) in order
When sufficient players have been transferred to the reserve list or withdrawn, the Acc. ^{(Accepted/ReserveList Position)} column will show for those players in the event and their reserve position for those not
Move any reserves that entered on or after the Allocation Date to the bottom of the reserves list by editing the relevant event entries
TES does not send allocation emails to players, so when allocation is completed, the Entries Secretary should notify all concerned (note that you can access a list of the email addresses of all players)
- you should explain how the reserve list works and suggest that they withdraw themselves for a full refund if they do not wish to wait to see if others withdraw before the fixture starts
After the fixture has taken place, you must withdraw (and so refund) any reserves who did not play

Reserve List for Multi-Event Fixtures

Most fixtures have only one event whose number of entrants must be restricted - consolation events are usually free and open to all those in the main event who meet certain criteria (such as losing in the main event) and so they are not entered directly.

Some fixtures have multiple events entered separately and entrant numbers need to be controlled for each of those events.

TES allows entry into any event until its Allocation Date and then those that are not full until their Closing Date, even if other events in the fixtures are full. Take care to set all the event limits appropriately if there is no overall fixture limit - you won't want someone entering the consolation event after the main event is full!

Each event has a separate reserve list. The Entries Secretary can put a player on the reserve list for one event but not for another - so take care! Warnings are shown for players both listed as a reserve for one event and as playing in another.

Entry to a Full Fixture after the Allocation Date (as a Reserve)

If a fixture is full and past its Allocation Date, players can enter online and are added to the reserve list.

Fixture Officials can enter them as a reserve exactly as in the normal way for recording an entry. The entry is automatically allocated the next reserve list place (for this reason, the allocation should be done first if the event is oversubscribed).

Often, the Payment Method is left as Not Paid since it is not certain if the player will play.

Promoting a Reserve Into the Event

If a player drops out and you wish to move a reserve player up:

Click the EV button in the Acc column to add the reserve into the event (which clears their reserve list position)
Remove the dropout player's entry
If the promoted player has not paid and wishes to do so using a credit card online:
1. set their entry as Not Paid and ask them to pay online
2. you can send them a link to the payment record, or just tell them to visit TES and select "View my Entries"
If you have received the payment, record the Payment Method
Note the information in the Allocation section
If a player allocated a place withdraws themselves, reserves are not automatically promoted. TES sends an email to alert about the withdrawal to the Entries Secretary

After an Event: Withdraw Reserves and Add Last-Minute Entries

Reserves who paid to enter but didn't get to play must be withdrawn and refunded following the procedure above; note that they do not need to be withdrawn if they didn't pay (unpaid reserves are ignored for Croquet England settlement calculation).

Reserves or others who actually played must be transferred into the event so the settlement figure is properly calculated and recorded.

Correcting Mistakes

The Check Data menu option runs several checks of data integrity and maintenance for an official's fixtures, reporting any anomalies. for example

failing to record that a payment has been made (by setting its payment method), or
outstanding payments to be chased up.

Most mistakes are correctable: you simply have to go to the relevant entry and change it.

Fixtures Entries: work your way through to the entry you wish to change - perhaps to add lunch, for example, and add it.

Payment Entries: work your way through to the payment details of any entry, you can change the payment date, type of payment, etc.

Further Information

Please contact the office for anything not covered here or for someone to talk you through an unfamiliar process.