In a recent article in the Gazette (March 1983) Chris Haines described the problems which arose when he was arranging a tenth birthday party for his son. There were seven boys in addition to his son at the party, making eight all together. In order to prevent the party from getting too boisterous, Mr Haines decided to split the party into pairs who would play various boxed games for two players: for example, halma, draughts, snakes and ladders. The plan was to have a sort of tournament in which:

1. (1) each child would play every other child once and once only;

2. (2) in a given session, different games would be played by each pair as only one set of each game was available;

3. (3) each child would play as many of the available games as possible.