Rationale for significant proposed changes to the 2026 - 27 Calendar of Club Sessions

These changes are proposed only for 2026-27.  We anticipate that the club Development Plan will revisit this issue and possibly propose changes for future years in line with the Club Mission Statement and Strands within the Development Plan

1.  The addition of Friday Afternoon Sessions as a fundamental element of club bridge sessions requires that the competition structure is changed to

          a.  reward success at Friday bridge and,  b.  integrate Friday bridge into other competitions (such as a handicapped competition and the Stewart Trophy)

2.  This creates a domino effect where other changes are required, as follows

3.  The Abbey Salver (AS) will remain as the merit-based individual competition for Wednesday.  The Calchou Cup (CC) will remain as the merit-based individual competition for Thursday.  The Tom Peel Quaich (TPQ) will be repurposed (from its single night, random pairs competition) to become the merit-base individual competition for Friday.  This puts Wed, Thurs and Fri on an equal footing.  11 slots each on designated days, 6 to qualify, best 6 to count

6.  The Ireland Rose Bowl (IRB) is to be retained as the merit-based Pairs competition but this to be extended from a specific Wednesday trophy, to allow Thursday pairs and Friday pairs to contest.  This requires significant and equal numbers of 'slots' on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays.  10 slots on each day, 6 to qualify, best 6 to count

7.  The Stewart Trophy will remain as it is i.e. a merit-based overall individual trophy based on an individuals average % score over all sessions throughout the year (September - April).

8.  Aligned with our mission to extend reward and recognition to all members, we wished to retain the handicapped competition, the Millenium Trophy.  It is most fair if this is open to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sessions.  Therefore the Millenium Trophy will run as per the Stewart Trophy, the difference being that % scores will be adjusted according to handicap (for explanation of how the handicap system is configured, please click here).  Therefore no specific slots are required for the Millenium Trophy (as is, and has always been, the case for the Stewart Trophy)

10.  Competitions require significantly high numbers of slots.  This is to reduce the impact of randomly good/poor scores.  Also, it has been past practice a.) to only count the best 'n' scores (where n may be 4, 6, or 8 etc.) and b.) require individuals or pairs to play a minimum no. of sessions.  We have proposed that the merit-based individual competitions (AS for Wednesday, CC for Thursday and TPQ for Friday) should all require at least 6 out of 11 scores (best 6 counting).  The merit-based pairs competion (IRB) would require at least 6 out of 30 (10 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) (the best 6 counting)

We have proposed other minor changes, that nevertheless reflect our committment to inclusivity, as follows

11. SIMS competition nights have been distributed between Wednesday and Thursday nights

12.  Possible OPEN social nights (less formal, come without a pair), Xmas party, Awards night and AGM to be similarly distributed between Wednesday and Thursday.  Also the 2 other one-night competitions, the Evelyn Erskine Charity Plate and the Jeanette Chalmers Trophy to be similarly distributed

13.  Finally, we are proposing that the Summer Competition be based on aggregate scores (averaged per session) rather than %.  Therefore, unlike past Summer Competitions, handicap adjustment cannot be used as the basis.  The reason for this change is that it allows members to learn how to adjust and optimise their bidding and play to suit this format and hence teams events.  We will wish to retain a qualifier - a minimum of 4 different partners, to encourage flexibility in playing with multiple partners over the summer.