Good morning

Advance notice of our first "Mix-In Monday"

Our first "Mix-In Monday" will be taking place on Monday 6th July. On that evening, members of Bridge School will be playing in the duplicate session. The session itself will be more relaxed than usual, with fewer boards played and results not published or sent to the EBU. Consequently, table money will be £3 for everyone. We will give you some more information about how these sessions are going to be organised in next week's bulletin.

More information about the EBU National Grading Scheme (NGS)

This week, as promised, we are going to attempt to explain how the EBU calculates your personal NGS. It is quite complicated.

Your personal NGS is a precise up-to-date snapshot of your actual playing ability. It is recorded as a percentage and a grade. For example, the writer's NGS at this moment in time is 52.16% = Grade 9. Every time you play, your results are automatically sent to the EBU - and your percentage/grade will go up or down depending on how well you did in that session. You can see the outcome of this if you go onto the EBU website (www.ebu.co.uk) and log into "My EBU". 

Here is an example of what three rows of data from the "Sessions" section of someone's "My EBU" might look like, along with an explanation of what is recorded in each column:

Date - YYYY-MM-DD, with the most recent session at the top

SID - a unique number identifying the session/venue

Score - the overall percentage achieved by you and your partner in that session

SOpp - the average NGS of the people that you actually played against in that session (expressed as a percentage)

MPs - any Masterpoints that you were awarded (if you came in the top third of the field)

Par - the difference between what you actually scored and what you should have scored, taking into account your partnership's average NGS and your opponents' average NGS. It is calculated by taking the following away from your Score for the session: (50 + your average NGS %) - SOpp

Finally, if your "Par" figure for the session is positive, your NGS will go up. If it is negative, your NGS will go down. How much your NGS goes up or down will depend on how many boards you played in the session. The more boards you played, the more difference it will make to your NGS. For a 24-board session, the difference to your NGS will be (roughly) the figure in the "Par" column divided by 20. (For a 12-board session, you would need to divide your "Par" figure by 40.)

Well we did say it was complicated!

Team rota for June

At the the table: the Directors' Cut

As we mentioned last week, an "opening lead out of turn" by a Defender can cause a real headache for the Director when he or she is called to the table to put things right. Indeed, the Director has to read out five different options for Declarer to choose from. The script goes something like this:

You, as Declarer, have five options and you must choose one without consulting your partner.

The first two involve accepting the opening lead and they are:

1. You can put your hand down as Dummy and let your partner play the hand.

2. The person who should have been Dummy turns their cards face upwards in the usual manner, and then you play the second card to this trick from your hand.

If you do not accept the opening lead out of turn, it becomes a major penalty card and the lead reverts to the correct person. In this case you may:

3. Demand a lead of the same suit

4. Forbid a lead of the same suit.

(If you choose either of these, the offending card is returned to your Right-Hand Opponent's hand.)

5. Finally, you may allow the correct player to make any opening lead, and the offending card remains on the table as a major penalty card to be played at the first legal opportunity.

What would you like to do?

Phew!

Last week at the club

There were four and a half tables at the Lindum on Monday night. Well done to Keith & Tony who came top with 68.3%, and to Colin M & Sue H who came second with 55.6%. 

At Bridge School on Monday we put our recent learning about defence into practise by playing a number of randomly-dealt hands.

There were seven and a half tables at the Lindum on Wednesday afternoon. Well done to Tim & Robin who came top with 64.4%, and to Mari & Shirley who came second with 56.1%.

This week‘s calendar

Monday 8th June: normal duplicate session at the Lindum; please be seated by 6.20 pm, ready to start play at 6.30 pm.

Monday 8th June: Bridge School at the Lindum at 6.30 pm; this week we will be starting a new module entitled "Overcalling when an opponent has opened the bidding with one-of-a-suit".

Wednesday 10th June: normal duplicate session at the Lindum; please be seated by 1.05 pm, ready to start play at 1.15 pm.

Thursday 11th June: Bridge Practice online at 6.30 pm (please let Tina know by at least the day before if you will be able to join us).

Forthcoming county events at Dunholme Village Hall

Sunday 14th June - 12 noon - Veteran Pairs

Please see the Lincolnshire Contract Bridge Association website for more details.