Linnnhe Creative

The Scottish Highland Football League approached Linnhe Creative with an issue they faced in creating their league fixtures table.

Their existing methods involved customising the output from a Microsoft Access-based software package to achieve the layout of games required. However a problem arose when specific matches were added, such as during Christmas and New Year when local teams played each other in “Home Derbies”. The software was unable then to build the optimal number of games per fixture date and as result extended the season further than need be and on occasion left some teams without a match.

We developed a custom algorithm to overcome the problem; creating the optimal layout while incorporating the set fixture requirements. This was packaged into a lightweight Windows application that allowed multiple league setups and configuration, direct export of data into dynamically customised Excel spread sheets and an installer so it could be deployed on multiple machines.

This saved the administration teams around 50 hours a year in creating the league structure and the system’s flexibility allows it to be used to create other fixtures such as youth leagues. The application works on all Windows XP or later computers.