The first series (four evenings) was won by the team of Mark Rogers & Peter Waggett, Tony Hill & Alan Wearmouth, picking up 21 VPS more than their next rival. We will start afresh now and run four evenings (January to April) on the same format. Teams can come along on the day, and if you come along as a pair we can assign you robots as team-mates. 

ARRANGEMENTS

We run as Swiss Teams using the BBO capability for that, which lets everyone play the same boards at the same time. We need teams to form and register a little (10 minutes enough) in advance to give the TD time to sort anomalies. We need one pair to login to BBO (any time after 1730) and register as they would for any CBC or EBU pairs game (and pay their $4).  While they are logged in, we need the second pair to login, Once this pair has registered, they should invoke the option to invite a registered pair to make up their team. Once the team is registered the players could log out (but must return before the game or they lose their place).  If any difficulties registering then BBO-message to patr1cks or to vebu_glo.   Any pairs who are registered but not team-ed up when the game starts wil be randomly assigned team-mates by BBO.  Any odd pair will be given robot team-mates. We will play 4 matches of 5 boards.. We will track performance across these sessions and have a single Spring winning team.

Teams can come or go as they please as long as (a) their BBO names are known to Patrick in advance, and (b) they follow the above registration process and pay their BB$4 per head.

*NOW UP TO DATE* Overall performance tracker : we will count up the number of promotions people have achieved (after round one, and staying in Div One counts as promotion) and we will have an overall winner based on this. Everyone has a chance!  ** CLICK HERE **

SERIES 1 BEST PERFORMERS :  Peter Shelley & Trevor Ward,   Filip Kurbalija & Dan McIntosh,    Brian Goalby & Judy Sanis.

We will restart in January on basically the same format but

• There will be 6 pairs per division, playing 5 rounds of 4 boards each evening.
• The discussion on Zoom after the game will continue
• Scoring will be by cross-imps within your Division
• Top two get promoted each session, bottom two go down one division (three down in divisions of more than six)
• Initial assignments will be based on the overall performance tracker

So far we have 27 pairs involved. We will generally run with divisions of six pairs, and for session 1 go as 6-6-8-7.  This is the line up for session one (11 Jan)

• DIV 1 : Peter Shelley & Trevor Ward, Filip Kurbalija & Dan McIntosh, Brian Goalby & Judith Sanis, Paul Denning & Patrick Shields, Keith Sharp & Roger Schofield, Martin McWilliam & Lesley Harrison
• DIV 2 : Garry Watson & Jack Armorgie, Steve Sasanow & Anne Swannell, Richard Butland & Allan Sanis, Val Constable & Jim Simons, Nigel Pitel & Nicky Ferguson, Mike Wignall & Roger Williams
• DIV 3 : Peter Waggett & Ben Ritacca, Ian Sidgwick & Paul Spencer, David Atthey & Alison Pritchard, Joe Angseesing & Andrew Kambites, Malcolm Green & Mike Lewis, John Arblaster & Mel Barlow, Betty & Richard Harris, John Polhill & Paul Clark
• DIV 4 : Paul Lilley & Peter Swales, John Councer & Mark Rogers, Ken Fillmore & Roger Miles. Ashok Kwatra & partner, John Skjonnemand & Mary Jones, Tom Jarman & Natalie Davenport, Steve Betteley & partner.

If you cannot make a session you must arrange a substitute (this can be a robot or two robots if you want to chance that).

ARRANGEMENTS : we run as a Pairs League (with cross imp scoring in your section) like the CBC Pairs League BUT WITH DIVISIONS OF FOUR PAIRS (best I can do on BBO), and promotion/relegation after every session. We need pairs to register in advance for this (email to gcba-pairs-league@gcba.org.uk), and we need you to organise a substitute if you are missing a session (or you can just drop one division, but must let us know in advance). On the day this event will appear in BBO as multiple GCBA tournaments and you should register only for the one in which you are expected. On each evening, we will play 5 rounds of 4 boards (different for lowest division) and follow up with a Zoom session at which to uncover any learning points and good stories from the hands just played. Pairs can join in on later sessions but will start in the bottom division when they do.  There are 8 sessions planned to run from January to April (second and fourth Mondays).

*** THE DRAW FOR EACH ROUND IS FOUND IN THE CALENDAR ENTRY FOR THAT DAY ***  THSI EVENT RUNS UNTIL APRIL 2021   ***

NEWS: we will run this event on RealBridge from January onwards. As well as making the administration much simpler, this allows a more sociable game where you can see and talk to your team and your opponents. The link for the game will appear on the calendar entry in the hours before the match. We will play with screens and self-announcing, as this both makes chatting during the game easier (when the bidding is at the other side of the table) and much improves our abiity to handle full disclosure and avoid Unauthorised Information.

THIRD MONDAY of the month : we will run the County League in the same way we always have. We will have one 24 board match on the evening, played in two sets of 12-boards with a change of opponents at half time. We will make arrangements (yet to be settled) to allow all matches that evening to play the same hands. Again we need entries in advance (email to gcba-league@gcba.org.uk) giving the captain and the BBO names of the first foursome to play. We will use the standard VP scale for 24-boards (seen on the Swiss Teams webpage).

FIFTH MONDAY of the month : will be another League Monday.

PROCEDURES : the team must login to BBO before the game starts and sit in the Competitive area; once a captain has confirmed the full team is present, they should check that the other captain has four also, and then inform Patrick by a BBO message to "vebu_glo" (passing on any late player changes).   The match will then be set up for you.  Matches will get set up between 1925 and 1935.  In order to give time for a leg stretch and eye rest, the second half will do through the same process but starting at 2100 hrs. The second halves will be started in the order in which the first halves finish. [These boards might be numbered 1-12 by BBO but should have the vulnerabilities and dealers of 13-24] This allows all matches to use the same boards and the creation and display of travellers on the website.  Matches can proceed independently of this process (or at a different time) but in that case the players cannot compare results with others. At this time there is no charge for County League matches.