Events played at Leatherhead Bridge Club

Duplicate Pairs

This is the standard format played at bridge clubs.  

Before the coronavirus restrictions, playing at the Fairfield day Centre, we normally play 24 boards.  Currently we play 18 or 20 boards at the Institute.

There are two principal types of movements.  In ‘Mitchell’ movements, North/South pairs remain at their starting table whilst the East/West pairs move to a higher numbered table for each round.  When an East/West pair reach the highest numbered table being played, they will next move to Table 1.  The boards are moved down one table each round.  

If there are 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 16 or 18 tables in play, East/West pairs will ‘skip’ a table (i.e. move up two tables) after 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 or 9 rounds respectively.  This is to ensure that the East/West pairs do not play the same boards twice during the evening.  In the case of a 12-table movement, the director will arrange a ‘relay’ table between tables 6 and 7, and tables 1 and 12 will share boards.

In a Mitchell movement, it is up to the director to decide whether he wants to run a 1-winner or a 2-winner event.  In a 1-winner movement the boards are ‘arrow-switched’ for the last one or two rounds.  This means that the person sitting in the East seat will play the North cards, and be responsible for completing the traveller.  The traveller, recording the results during the evening, must be completed on the ‘switch’ rounds to show the number of the East/West pair in the North/South column and the number of the North/South pair in the East/West column.   

The other principal type of movement is a ‘Howell’ movement (not used at present, to reduce coronavirus risks).  A Howell may be used when there is a half table, where in a ‘Mitchell’ movement the pair sitting out would miss playing between five and three boards.  Each pair takes their table number from the movement card on their first table; one pair will remain North/South at one table throughout the evening, several pairs will remain at their original table, but will play the North/South cards for some rounds and the East/West cards for the other rounds.  The majority of the pairs will move around the room playing at each table and switching between North/South and East/West.  In a Howell, there is only one winning pair.    

EBU*, BGB* and Surrey Clubs Simultaneous Pairs, and Dorin Salver* 

*  Handouts are available for these events.

See ‘Duplicate Pairs’ above for the general arrangements.

 Prepared hands are sent to each club; the boards are normally made up at the Club just prior to play.  The scores are collated centrally, and additional master points are awarded to the top third of the overall field in addition to those awarded by each club.  Results are available on the EBU (ebu.co.uk), BGB (ecatsbridge.com) and Surrey (surreycountybridge.org.uk) web sites.

For the EBU and BGB events, members pay an entry fee of £2.80.  These events primarily fund English/British teams abroad.  To coincide with ‘The Children in Need’ appeal in November, the BGB organise a special event for which clubs are charged £20 for the booklets etc.; and participants are invited to make a minimum donation of £1.  Currently we charge members the same entry fee as for other similar events, although many members do make a further donation.

The Dorin Salver (£2 entry fee) is a Surrey charity event; the net proceeds go to the Banstead Place Rehabilitation Centre.

The Surrey Simultaneous Pairs events are free.  Different sets of hands are available for each day of the week.

PLEASE CHECK THAT YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY PLAYED THESE HANDS.

Multiple Teams

Entry for these events is as pairs, but teams will be created at the start of the evening.  The draw, for your starting table, will determine the two other members of your team of four.  The Director will call the movement for (a) the boards and (b) the E/W pairs at the end of each round.  This may well vary from round to round depending on the number of tables in play.  At the end of play, usually after 24 boards, the E/W pair will return to their starting table and score up with their other pair, converting the net gain or loss on each board into IMPs.

However, if we do not have a ‘spare pair’, some, if not all, of the N/Ss of the other teams will have to sit out for one round.  On such an occasion, the average score for that hand will be applied to the N/S sitting out.  The Director will apply this adjustment score after play has ended.

Swiss Pairs*   (Played on two consecutive Mondays)

This is a pairs event; it is essential that an even number of pairs participate on each evening so the ‘spare pair’ facility will operate.  If we do not have a ‘spare pair’, entry for that evening will be by list on the notice-board with the last pair signing-up effectively becoming the ‘spare pair’.  The winners will be determined by the results over both evenings but pairs will be welcomed to play on either of the evenings or with a substitute.

Pairs will draw a starting position on the first evening and play eight boards against three different pairs; opponents are selected randomly for the first two rounds.  Thereafter, they will have a similar cumulative score.  Each section, comprising from four to six tables, play the same eight boards.

Results will be scored as for Pairs within each section, expressed as a percentage, and then converted to Victory Points over the whole room.

Swiss Teams   (Played on two consecutive Mondays)

This is a teams event; it is essential that an even number of pairs participate on each evening so the ‘spare pair’ facility will operate.  If we do not have a ‘spare pair’, entry for that evening will be by list on the notice-board with the last pair signing-up effectively becoming the ‘spare pair’.  The winners will be determined by the results over both evenings but pairs will be welcomed to play on either of the evenings or with a substitute.

The draw, for your starting table, will determine the two other members of your team of four.  On each evening there will be three 8-board matches; opponents are selected randomly for the first round; thereafter, they will have a similar cumulative score.  After each 8-board match, the E/W pair will return to their home table and score up with their other pair, converting the net gain or loss on each board into International Match Points (IMPs), and then into Victory Points (VPs).

Mary Edwards Cup

Surrey County Bridge Association runs the above competition for Club pairs’ champions.  It is up to each Club to decide the method of qualification to determine the Club’s representatives.

This Club takes the best score for each pair at pairs events played on any Monday or Friday in each two calendar month period starting from 1 April.  The best five ‘2-monthly results’ will be aggregated to determine the winning pair.

  Wanborough Cup

Surrey County Bridge Association runs the above competition for Club teams’ champions.  It is up to each Club to decide the method of qualification to determine the Club’s representatives.

This Club takes the two best results for each pair achieved at the three Multiple Teams events played during the year.  The top two pairs will be selected to represent the Club.