Player of the Month

The Player of the Month competition was a very successful initiative introduced by the committee in 2010 and has proved deservedly popular ever since.

It runs for each of the 12 calendar months of the year, with no summer break. Points are scored by all club members who play during the month, according to their performance in the various games, as described below.

Both Tuesday and Thursday nights are counted, and the winner is the player with the most points at the end of the month.

Each month is a separate stand-alone competition i.e. everyone starts again at 0 points at the start of the next month and there is no carryover.

Since 2015 there are also prizes for Best Intermediate and Best Area Master – and since June 2020 there have in addition been 2nd and 3rd prizes both for the overall rankings and in the Area Master and Intermediate categories.

Player of the Year

The Player of the Year competition was introduced in 2016, along the same lines. It runs from the first night of the first 2-session club competition of the year OR the first club night in September – whichever is the earlier – up to and including the last night of the President’s Prize competition in late May or early June. Points are scored in exactly the same way as in the Player of the Month competition (see below) EXCEPT that only performance on club nights (currently Tuesday) is counted. As with the Player of the Month competition, both overall and grade prizes are awarded.

How it works
Points are scored as follows:
Usual weekly games (Tuesday, Thursday)

• Pairs, Mitchell movement : With an exact number of tables, each of the 4 players making up the winning N/S and E/W pairs get that number of points, with the points awards then reducing by one for the players in each subsequent place, all the way down to 1 point for the 4 players in last place. (So e.g. for 13 tables, the 4 players who are the N/S and E/W winners each get 13 pts, 2nd place each get 12 pts, 3rd get 11 pts etc).

If there is a half-table, then the players in the field with the extra pair get an extra point. So e.g. with 11½ tables and the extra pair as E/W, then the N/S winners each get 11 pts, N/S 2nd get 10 pts, N/S 3rd get 9 pts etc…while the E/W winners each get 12 pts, E/W 2nd get 11 pts, E/W 3rd get 10 pts….and so on, reducing as before to 1 pt for last place.

If there are 2 different competitions e.g. two 8-table sections, each one is scored separately.

• Monthly Teams : the points award to each of the 4 members of the winning team is the same as the number of teams in the competition, and as with pairs the award reduces by one point for each place down the table. So e.g. for 14 teams, the winners each get 14 pts, the 2nd-placed team’s members each get 13 pts, 3rd each get 12 pts etc…and so on, as before, down to 1 pt for last place.

• Pairs, Howell movement (N.B. amended Sept 2021 to cater for the larger Howells now sometimes required on the online platform) : similar to Mitchell movements, the top award is the same as the number of tables in the competition, and the awards decrease by half a point for each place down the rankings. E.g for a 6½- table Howell, the winners each get 6½ pts, 2nd each get 6 pts, 3rd each get 5½ pts etc…..down to 1 pt for 2nd-last and, finally, ½ pt for last place.

2-session club competitions

N.B Points are awarded for rankings in each of the 2 sessions separately
and NOT for the overall rankings

• Teams : exactly as for normal club night teams i.e. the top award for each session is the same as the number of teams, decreasing by 1 pt for each place down the table.

• Pairs : to keep the award of points in proportion, and to account for the fact that the competition is scored as one field, the top award in each session is HALF of the total number of pairs in that session, and the awards decrease by half a point for each place down the table. (Thus, in effect, the same as for the amended Howell rules above). E.g. with 20 tables (= 40 pairs), the highest-placed pair get 20 pts each, the 2nd-placed get 19½ pts each, 3rd get 19 pts each, 4th get 18½ pts each….and so on down to 1 pt each for 2nd-last and ½ pt each for last.

IMPORTANT - The above re 2-session club competitions applies to the usual format in face-to-face bridge, which of course we all hope we can get back to sooner rather than later – but in the meantime, platform constraints in the online club mean that, for club team competitions in particular, other formats may have to be used which don’t lend themselves so readily to the straightforward award of points in this way, especially in the 2nd session. Any cases of this so far have been handled on an ad-hoc basis, with the aim of ensuring equity in the award of points with respect to performance.

NOTES

• In the case of tied or joint placings, the award of points is shared/averaged.

Examples
Joint 2nd /3rd place N/S in a normal club night pairs with 12 tables get 10½ pts each, the average of 11 and 10.
Joint winners E/W of a normal club night pairs with 13½ tables (and the extra pair in the E/W field) get 13½ pts each, the average of 14 and 13.
Joint 9th/10th/11th of 15 teams get 6 pts each (average of 7, 6 and 5).
Joint 8th/9th in a session of a Pairs Club competition with 38 pairs get 15¼ pts each (average of 15½ and 15).

• Players representing the club in any Fanagan League match taking place on a Tuesday or Thursday night (in the case of Player of the Month) or on a Tuesday night (in the case of Player of the Year), whether home or away, are compensated by being awarded HALF of the maximum number of points available for that night’s competition (e.g. if there are 12½ tables, the maximum award is 13 pts, for the E/W winners, so the League players get 6½ pts each).

• Points are NOT awarded for the Christmas Party game, because of the reduced number of boards played. The same applies in the unlikely event of any other night’s competition having to be curtailed or shortened to the extent that 18 boards or fewer are played.

• Prizes and grades : if an Intermediate or Area Master player finished in the top 3 places overall, thus winning an overall prize, the relevant grade prize is won by the highest-placed player of that grade outside the overall prizes.
  Area Master and Intermediate prizes are confined within the grade i.e. Intermediate players are not eligible for Area Master prizes. Novice-grade players are deemed to be Intermediates for the purposes of the competitions.

• Changes of grade: Any relevant summer regradings by the CBAI are deemed to apply from the September Player of the Month competition onwards. Any relevant changes in the 2nd round of CBAI regradings – usually around New Year – are deemed to apply from the January Player of the Month competition onwards. In the case of the Player of the Year competition, a player’s grade at the end of the competition is deemed to apply.