The Darkin Shield was presented to the Maltings Duplicate Bridge Club in 1989 in memory of Major-General Roy Darkin. He and his wife had been largely responsible for setting up the club when the Maltings Bridge club separated into rubber and duplicate clubs.

For the first 10 years, the Darkin Shield was not based on a handicap system and was presented to the most successful player over the year. However, in 2000, a handicap system was developed designed to give all eligible club members an equal chance of winning. The competition now recognises the member who has shown the greatest improvement during the previous 3 years.

To be eligible, a member must have been a member for the preceding 2 years and played on at least 50% of the available weeks over the 3 year period. This is because it is only possible to establish a true handicap in the third year.

Prior to the Annual General Meeting March 2026, members were asked to review the terms of eligibility for winning the Darkin Shield. At the AGM it was decided that in order to include more of the regular members in the club to be eligible, wef 2026 the handicap system would now be based on only one previous year’s average scores, instead of 2 previous years. Furthermore, members only have to have played 40% of the preceding and current year.

The handicap would still be applied at 60% to give less experienced players a fairer chance of winning.

Previous winners