The A Division Football Championship has just finished the preliminary group stage. According to the fixtures we got, we are in the ‘quarter-final’ stage.

If you thought the quarter-final stage suggests a knock-out format with four matches involving eight teams, you are mistaken.

The ‘quarter-final’ stage actually divides up the eight teams into two groups. So each team gets another three more games. The top two from each group qualify for the semi-finals.

The quarter-final stage, as used by the English FA Cup, is a knock-out stage where the winner of the game goes on to play in the semi-final stage. The word ‘final’ suggests one last game for one of the teams. So using the term ‘quarter-final’ should mean only one game.

In the Red Sports fixtures page, we’ve decided to use ‘Round 2′ to describe a second stage of competition where teams are still playing in a round-robin format. We hope this explains our terminology.

This wording ambiguity also seems to be in play with the schools’ divisional basketball championships.

Another word that is used incorrectly all the time is ‘finals’. However, there is only ONE final game and so the correct term is ‘final’. If there is a best-of-three or best-of-five series to determine the championship winner, then ‘finals’ is the correct term to use.

Finally, the phrase ‘Sports School won CHIJ in netball final’ is wrong. The correct phrase is ‘Sports School BEAT CHIJ …’. If you say ‘Sports School won CHIJ’, that means Sports School brought home the CHIJ team as prizes.

Tempting as that may sound for some teams (and coaches), that is incorrect usage.

You beat a team, you won a cup. So ‘Sports School beat CHIJ’ and ‘Sports School won the championship title’ are the correct ways of phrasing.

Go to SCHOOLS FIXTURES & RESULTS page for more details