How long do winks games take?

Here's an analysis of how long games of winks take.

Timeslips were completed for 27 (out of 28) games played at the London Open 2004. The missing game was a pot-out before rounds, so unlikely to influence matters.

Some comparisons are made with time data obtained at the 1990 National Pairs (an 18-pair all-play-all at which timeslips were completed for 120 games out of the 153 played).

London Open 2004:

Longest game: 56 mins (compare 61 mins in 1990).

Duration of longest game each round: 44, 49, 46, 48, 56, 55, 51 mins.

Average length of longest game each round = 49.9 mins (compare 48.2 mins in 1990).

Average length of all games played: 39.8 mins (compare 37.4 mins in 1990).

Average length of the games that did not involve a pot-out before rounds: 44.9 mins (compare 39.0 mins in 1990).

Percentage of games lasting longer than 45 minutes = 32.1 % (no comparative figure for 1990).

Summary of game durations for each pair: 

                  Number of games       Mean          Number of games
                  not pot-out       (excl pot-outs    lasting more
                  before rounds     before rounds)    than 45 mins
Sage/Harper            4                50.0               4
Garrard/Whalley        6                47.3               4
Cullingham/Thorpe      7                45.6               2
Goodman/Rose           5                45.4               3
Barrie/Hunt            4                44.8               1
Batty/Horton           4                44.0               1
Dean/Relle             6                42.3               2
Fayers/Inglis          6                40.2               1
Comments:

  • We're only dealing with a handful of games in this analysis. Beware statistical significance and all that. The occasional game that is rapid due to one pair being squopped up all rounds has a big effect on the averages.
  • Games that are close tend to take longer than one-sided games. In a single tournament, it's not unexpected for a "slow" pair to have a fast average time (e.g. by being involved in mainly one-sided games). Similarly a "quick" pair might actually have a slow average time if they were only involved in very tight games.
  • In my opinion, one thing the data does show is that too many games are lasting longer than 45 minutes.

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