Rugby & District Bridge League: Rules of Team Competitions                     

Scope and related documents:

This document sets out the rules governing team competitions organised by RDBL. These rules are maintained, and will be amended when necessary, by the RDBL Management Committee. They are not subject to approval by a General Meeting of members.

Rules governing the play of hands and scoring are as set down by the EBU in The Laws of Duplicate Bridge, 2007. Handicaps are as calculated by the procedure documented separately on the RDBL website. The disciplinary procedure to be followed in the event of misconduct is as documented separately on the website.

It is not mandatory that players should carry convention cards but they are encouraged to do so. A guide to convention cards (system cards) may be found on the website.

All important information relating to competitions will be posted on the RDBL website for the benefit of participants. An asterisk (*) in the text draws attention to items of information that must be notified promptly to the Webmaster to facilitate the progress of competitions. These items are listed in the Appendix.

Teams:

The Captain of any team wishing to participate in RDBL competitions must register the following information with the Fixtures Secretary* by the 7th of August of each year,

The name of the team,

Full contact details for the Captain and, in case of unavailability, a deputy,

The name of each team member.

 No member may be registered for more than one team.

Teams must have sufficient members to field four players at each match in any competition entered, allowing for normal absences and unavailability. But no team may include more than ten players without exceptional reason.

Later registration of additional team members is permitted, but is subject to the approval of the Fixtures Secretary*.

Divisional Competitions:

Registered teams will automatically participate in Divisional Competition, each team playing each other team in the same division once at home and once away.

The number of teams in each division will be as in Table 1 below, or extended in a similar pattern.

Table 1: Number of teams, in total and in each division

The Fixtures Secretary will allocate teams to divisions* primarily according to the following principles,

Division 1 will include the strongest teams, Div.2 the next strongest and so on,

The two teams in Div.2 (or Div.3) with the highest average VPs at the end of the previous season will be promoted to Div.1 (or Div.2) for the following season; and the two in Div.1 (or Div.2) with the lowest average VPs will be demoted.

New teams will be allocated to the lowest division,

but teams may be allocated otherwise if the Fixtures Secretary judges that to be in the best interests of those competing.

The Fixtures Secretary* will send Captains a guideline match schedule for their division by the 21st of August, with one home and one away match in each of the periods specified in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Guideline match periods for divisional competitions

Team Captains must, by the 1st of October, have agreed and notified* provisional match dates for all divisional matches. They ( or their deputy) will be asked by the Fixtures Secretary to attend a Team Captains Fixtures Meeting to confirm and arrange and conduct other business.

 They may subsequently agree and notify* alterations to those dates. All matches must be played or defaulted by 15/5.

Any match not played by 15/5 will be considered defaulted and the Fixtures Secretary will award a default score*. Each team will be awarded an IMP score equal to their opponents’ handicap. But if the Fixtures Secretary determines that one team has been significantly more at fault than the other, 10 IMPs will be added to their opponents’ score prior to calculating the outcome in VPs. In the case of a new team, the outcome can be determined only when their handicap has been calculated at the end of the calendar year.

Unless otherwise agreed between Team Captains, matches will take place on weekday evenings and play will start at 7.00 pm. If a team is incomplete 20 minutes after the agreed start time then it will be considered at fault and the match will be scored* as under Rule 11. But if the defaulting team can show compelling and unforeseeable reason for the default, within 3 days, then the match will be re-arranged* for a date very soon afterwards.

A team that is unable to field four of its registered members for a match may field substitutes, subject to the following conditions. Any team breaching these conditions will be deemed at fault and the match will be scored as under Rule 11, with a 10 IMP penalty. But if the match has been played before the fault comes to light, and if it gives their opponents a better result, then the 10 IMP penalty will instead be added to opponents’ match score.

Substitutes must be registered players from a lower division or from the next higher division. For each substitute from the next higher division 10 IMPs must be added to the opposing team’s score prior to determining the outcome in VPs,

No more than two substitutes per team may be fielded for any match,

The Fixtures Secretary and the opposing Captain must be informed of all substitutions before the match takes place,

No more than an average of one substitute in every two matches may be fielded over the season. The Fixtures Secretary will impose a penalty* of 5 VPs per excess substitution, deducted from the offending team’s total.

Each match consists of 24 boards played at each of two tables. Dealer and vulnerability follow the standard scorecard order, and the Home pairs change table and orientation after the first 12 boards. At the end of each match teams will complete a standard result slip, including any adjustments under Rule 13a, and the Home Captain* will ensure that its full contents reach the webmaster in e-document form.

The winner in each division will be the team with the highest aggregate VPs at the end of the season. In the event of a draw the winner will be the team with the higher aggregate score from the matches played between the drawn teams. And if those match scores are drawn, the winner will be the team with the greater handicap.

Knockout Competitions:

Registered teams from any division may enter the annual Open and Handicap knockout competitions. In the latter, match scores are adjusted according to team handicaps based on average scores in previous Divisional competition. Team Captains must notify the Fixtures Secretary of their wish to participate in the Open competition by the 1st of September and in the Handicap competition by the 7th of December.

Knockout competitions will consist of 5 rounds if between 17 and 32 teams enter, or 4 rounds if between 9 and 16 teams enter. Any shortfall in the full complement of teams (32 or 16) will be overcome by the random allocation of first-round byes by the Fixtures Sec, who will issue a list of first round matches one week before the start of either competition.

The Open competition will run in the first half of the season and the Handicap competition will run in the second half. Matches in each round must be played within the periods shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Match periods for knockout competitions

Any match not played within the scheduled period will be considered defaulted and both teams will be eliminated from the competition unless it is played within the next 7 days. But if the Fixtures Secretary determines that one team has been significantly more at fault than the other then that team will be eliminated and the other will be deemed the winner.

Unless otherwise agreed between Team Captains, matches will take place on weekday evenings and play will start at 7.00 pm. If a team is incomplete 20 minutes after the agreed start time then the incomplete team will be considered at fault, and will be eliminated. But if the defaulting team can show compelling and unforeseeable reason for the default, within 3 days, then the match will be re-arranged* for a date very soon afterwards.

Players must be registered members of the competing teams. No substitutions are allowed.

Each match will consist of 24 boards as in Rule 14. In the event of a draw a further 4 boards will be played (as for boards 1-4 of the scorecard) and a further one sixth of the handicaps (including fractions) will apply. At the end of each match the Captains will complete a standard result slip, including any additional board scores and handicaps, and the Home Captain* will ensure that its full contents reach the webmaster in e-document form.

Team Captains are responsible for checking the website to find their next opponent in a knockout competition. It is not the responsibility of any RDBL officer to remind them.

Other competitions:

The RDBL Management Committee may stage other events or competitions as it sees fit, and will specify the rules applying in each case.

Appendix - Information to be supplied to the Webmaster:

The Fixtures Secretary is responsible for supplying the names of all registered teams and their allocation to divisions, the names of teams competing in knockout competitions, initial match schedules, handicaps, default scores and details of any VP penalties or eliminations.

Team Captains are responsible for supplying contact and member details.

Home Team Captains are responsible for promptly notifying their agreed/re-arranged match dates and their match results. Match results should include all details required on a standard result slip, as displayed on the website and available from the League Secretary in paper or e-document form. Away Team Captains should check the website to verify the correct recording of results.

July 2016