This document provides instructions on how Competition Management tasks, most importantly creating Competitions and Fixtures, can be undertaken in the NV Play Pro Cricket Scorer software. The ability to undertake these tasks in PCS is now available to those users who have previously had web-admin access or who previously had these tasks undertaken for them by NV Play. The shifting of these tasks from web-admin and NV Play to PCS is designed to make users more self-sufficient in the management of their own Competitions and Fixtures, and thus have more control over their data, Match Centre publishing, etc. All these tasks are undertaken via the Tools -> Edit Database function and are as follows:
On the respective tabs for all these entities, a New entity can be created by clicking this button and entering the required information (mandatory information is highlighted in red), via free text boxes, checkboxes, and dropdown lists. When a user is logged-in, the Share on Server checkbox will be active and should be ticked when a New entity is being created that is attached to the same Club/Organisation (on the Organisations tab, this is the Affiliated To dropdown) that they are attached to, e.g. St Albans Cricket Club. Ticking this checkbox ensures that the New entity is immediately uploaded to the server, as well as being saved to the local database, when Save is clicked.
NB: Currently (August 2023), the Share on Server checkbox will be inactive for Organisations and Match Types attached to the user’s Club/Organisation, so these can only be saved locally initially. However, they will be uploaded when they are used in a match that is Live Scored, and we are reviewing this existing behaviour.
The Delete (Local) button can be used to delete no longer required entities from the local database, but this is only active when the selected entity is not attached to another entity or is part of a match. This button will sometimes show as Delete (Server), when the user has permissions to delete from the server, but this should be used very rarely.
The recommended Competition Management process is to create all entities required for a new Competition and its Fixtures first, i.e.:
- Organisations – this only needs to be done when a new Organisation (e.g., a Cricket Club) is required, and should be Affiliated To the user’s Club/Organisation
- Teams – this only needs to be done when a new Team is required
- Players – this only needs to be done when a new Player is required, but it’s not essential as users can create new Players at match setup
- Venues – this only needs to be done when a new Venue is required
- Officials – this only needs to be done when a new Official is required, but it’s not essential as users can create new Officials at match setup, and a match can be scored/coded without nominated Officials
- Match Types – this only needs to be done when a new custom Match Type is required, as users will have access to several default Match Types, e.g., Twenty20, One Day, and 4-Innings
After all these required entities have been created, go to the Competitions tab and click New to create the new Competition, i.e.:
Most of these settings should be self-explanatory, but a few points to note:
- If the new Competition is the Continuation Of a competition played in a previous Season, select this competition from the dropdown list, which will pre-populate the Competition Name, Competition Type, and Match Type from the previous competition
- If it’s not a Continuation Of a competition from a previous Season, enter the Competition Name, or edit this if the new Competition has a different name from the previous competition, e.g., a new sponsor.
- Select the required Competition Type and Level from the dropdown lists, but note that this does not make any material difference unless NV Play Pro Cricket Scorer is integrated into a specific bespoke website, i.e., excluding embedded Match List/Centres
- If the new Competition is one part of the same Competition, e.g., the Twenty20 part of a Competition that also includes a One Day part or a Competition has two or more round-robin pools/groups of teams and possibly a playoff section, then Parent and Child Competitions need to be used
- To do this, create the Parent Competition as normal but do not add any Fixtures to it, unless there are 'playoff matches' after Pool play, e.g. two semi-finals and a final, in which case these Fixtures (initially as TBC vs TBC) should be added to this Parent Competition (but this can be done last)
- Then create the Child Competitions as normal (with, e.g., a "Twenty20" or "Pool A" suffix to the name) and select the overarching Parent Competition from the Parent Competition dropdown list (a Parent Competition should therefore have a minimum of two Child Competitions)
- On all Child Competitions, tick the Group by Parent Competition? checkbox
- Add the appropriate Fixtures to each Child Competition, e.g. add the Twenty20 Fixtures to the "Twenty20" Child Competition or the "Pool A" Fixtures to the Pool A Child Competition, etc
- The Club/Organisation should be set to the user’s Club/Organisation
- The Secondary Club/Org dropdown and External ID box will be inactive by default and can be ignored
- Tick the Points Table -> Calculate checkbox to enable all the settings underneath it and complete these as per the points system for the Competition, if applicable (see the Competition Management Glossary of Terms in NV Play Pro Cricket Scorer for definitions)
- NB: It is only worth entering a points system if all matches within a Competition will be scored on NV Play Pro Cricket Scorer and/or the Cricket Scorer mobile app (including Scorecard/Totals Only Entry)
Once all required entities and the new Competition have been created, go to the Fixtures tab to add each match into the competition by clicking the New button, i.e.:
Again, most of these settings should be self-explanatory, but a few points to note:
- Any field marked with a red asterisk (*) are mandatory, so must be entered before Save is active
- Selecting the Club(/Organisation) from the dropdown will filter the Team list to those from that club
- Although a Competition is not mandatory, it is recommended that one is created (as above) and selected so that the Match Centre is as tidy as possible and, for example, to assist any Stats Wizard filtering
- The Admin Settings link, Share on Server checkbox, and Save button will become active when the user is logged-in, all mandatory fields are completed, and:
- If one of the selected Teams is attached to the same Club/Organisation that the user is, or one that they have created and is Affiliated To their same Club/Organisation
- Thus, Fixtures involving two Clubs/Teams not from a Club/Organisation to which the user has permissions cannot be Shared on Server or Live Scored, i.e., Local Scoring only
- Clicking Save on a Fixture with Share on Server ticked will automatically publish the Fixture on the relevant Match Centre, so check this as Fixtures are created, e.g., http://live.nvplay.com/play
- If required, see the Competition Management Glossary of Terms in NV Play Pro Cricket Scorer for definitions to assist with creating Fixtures
Once all Fixtures in a Competition have been created, we recommend double-checking these have been setup correctly by selecting the newly created Competition in the Fixtures -> Competition dropdown and reviewing the list underneath, which shows each Fixture’s Date and the two Teams (Abbreviated Name only). To see more Fixture details than this, go to File -> Start Match from Fixture, select the newly created Competition from the Competition dropdown (the Date range may need to be adjusted for future Competitions to appear on this list), and review the Date (hovering over this will display a popup that includes the Start Time), Team 1, Team 2, Match Type, and Venue. If other users in your Club/Organisation or Competition have access to these Competitions and Fixtures, ask them to login on their device and confirm that they can see these under File -> Start Match from Fixture, which will avoid match day stress. Obviously, if any errors are noticed when reviewing these new Competitions and Fixtures these can be corrected via Tools -> Edit Database, selecting the required entity, correcting the required information, and clicking Save.
All users with the correct permissions are then able to use File -> Start Match from Fixture when required, as was done after the web-admin or NV Play Competition Management setup of Competitions and Fixtures.
Please also see Competition Management Glossary of Terms (Aug 2023).docx for a full explanation of all the Tools -> Edit Database dialogs and their settings to assist your Competition Management within Pro Cricket Scorer.
Please contact support@nvplay.com if you have any problems creating your own Competitions and Fixtures.