Block Mitchell

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This movement has been published under the two names

·   Block Mitchell by F.E. Blandon

·   Tri-sect Mitchell by G.S. Coffin.

The advantages apply when a large number of tables are spread over several rooms, as they can be run as one movement with a minimum of fuss; if the number of tables is odd and not prime, a rover pair or rover tables can be accommodated quite easily.

The principle involved in the Block Mitchell is much the same as the trisect and is covered more thoroughly in the section on large pairs movements.

The principle behind the trisect is to divide the movement into a number of groups of tables. 9 tables, for example, is 3 x 3, 12 tables is 3 x 4, and 15 tables is 3 x 5.

As conducting a Mitchell (including rovers) for 3, 4 or 5 tables has been covered, the organisation of the groups of movements is as follows.

The first sub-Mitchell has N-S pairs N1 playing against E-W pairs E1 with boards B1 over rounds R1. Similarly the second group have N2, E2, B2 and R2 and so on. So for the movement with three blocks of tables the schedule is:
N-S remain stationary.

Rounds   N1   N2   N3

R1   E1/B1   E2/B2   E3/B3

R2   E3/B2   E1/B3   E2/B1

R3   E2/B3   E3/B1   E1/B2

The rover tables in a 9-table movement use the following guide to decide which tables share boards:

rover 1 -      1, 4, 7, 5, 8, 2, 9, 3, 6

rover 2 -      4, 7, 1, 8, 2, 5, 3, 6, 9

rover 3 -      7, 1, 4, 2, 5, 8, 6, 9, 3

A rover pair can use the schedule for one of these, sitting out on the first round, and entering as E-W at the second table in the list.

Using the same principle it is possible to divide movements into different sizes and numbers of groups. For example 12 tables can be made into 4 groups of 3 tables.