The English Bridge Union co-ordinates the playing of duplicate bridge in England.  Its many activites include:

• Publishing the bimonthly "English Bridge" magazine.
• Distributing a diary annually
• Running teams that represent England in international competitions
• Organising national tournaments and competitions, some for counties, some for clubs, and some for pairs or teams of players
• Running the popular Master Points structure awarding Master Point Ranks to players based on their level of acquisition of Master Points in qualifying bridge sessions
• Running the National Grading Scheme awarding a National Grade to players based on their more recent results
• Running a shop selling bridge equipment and stationery
• Contributing to the World Wide laws of bridge and creating the English Regulations
• For a fee, providing certain training for Tournament Directors and Teachers

All EBU competitions and most County competitions are solely open to EBU members.  EBU members receive the English Bridge magazine, an EBU diary and various other benefits.

Historical Note

Some years ago the English Bridge Union changed its membership structure to widen access to its services.  Until 31^st March 2010 members joined the EBU individually at a fixed annual cost.  Clubs and Leagues could also be affiliated to the EBU at a similar fixed annual cost.  Many players belonged to bridge clubs, but not to the EBU.  Players were also given country membership allocated by the EBU and included in the member’s subscription.       

The popular master point scheme, available to EBU members, measuring lifetime achievement at participating duplicate sessions was financed by the purchase of master point certificates by the clubs.  The clubs then completed and issued these certificates to successful players according to the rules of the scheme.

Introduction of Universal Membership

Under the new “Universal Membership” scheme, EBU affiliated clubs take on the administration of EBU membership.  The Clubs pay an affiliation fee, collect details of their members and forward them to the EBU.  The EBU builds its membership lists from those sent by the affiliated clubs, and therefore the default position is that members of an affiliated club will automatically become members of the EBU and their local county contract bridge association.   

The clubs collect details of players and their results at each qualifying bridge session they run, and send them to the EBU.  The EBU will collect a fee for each player at club sessions from the club.  This fee will be included in your table money.  It covers your EBU membership and any master points you earn.

Master points are now credited to each EBU member automatically from the results sent to the EBU by the Club.  These results also drive the National Grading Scheme.

Direct EBU Membership

Any individual can join the EBU directly, at a fee of £23.00.  Alternatively, you can join any EBU affiliated club and your EBU membership will resume automatically. 

If you join the EBU directly, you are not automatically affiliated to a county.  You can choose to also affiliate to any other county although there may be a fee. It varies from county to county.

Anonymous Membership

If you do not wish to become a member of the EBU but would like to join Rugby Village Bridge Club, just let us know.  We will create an anonymous identity for you.  Your results will still be sent to the EBU, and we will still pay the fee when you play, but the EBU won’t keep a record of your name and address details and won’t contact you directly.

When you join the EBU, you take on affiliation to a county.  Rugby Bridge Club is affiliated to Warwickshire, and Rugby Village Bridge Club is affiliated to Northamptonshire.  This means that our members can take part in Northamptonshire competitions, or indeed represent Northamptonshire in national competitions, and there is no further fee to pay.

Rugby Village Bridge Club, despite being geographically in Warwickshire, is affiliated for bridge purposes to Northamptonshire.

This means that a new EBU member's primary county affiliation is set up to be the same as the club’s, Northamptonshire.

Primary Allegiance is only relevant when a player wishes to play in one of the following:

• The Inter-County League
• The County Pairs Championship (ie the event which serves as qualification to the EBU Corwen)
• The County Teams Championship (ie the event which serves as qualification to the EBU Pachabo)
• The Tollemache

A player may switch his or her County of Primary Allegiance once during the season providing they have not played in any of the above during the current season.

Counties often run competitions for players to qualify for entry into EBU country based competitions listed above. Some counties restrict entry to such competitions to players who have the county as their primary county of allegiance. Others will let anyone play in qualifying competitions, but only players with the appropriate county of allegiance can qualify to represent the county in an EBU competition.

Occasionally county level players have a primary county of allegiance, but also have other associate county allegiance(s) to enable them to play in certain, usually senior, competitions.

Counties sometimes publish ranked lists of county affiliated players or recognise top performances.

Your personal county of allegiance doesn’t affect your playing at any event in our club, nor at other clubs in the area, nor your playing for us in most external competitions where you might or might not be representing the club.

It would become an issue to consider if you found yourself wanting to compete at the county or national level. If you did, you might want to consider that Warwickshire is a county of around two thousand players with three very strong and large, clubs, and many players at county, national, and indeed international level. Northamptonshire has more like five hundred players. Many of these are very strong, but there is perhaps more hope of making an impact in Northamptonshire than in Warwickshire.

The cost of your primary county of allegience, along with the cost of your EBU membership is met by the club through levies on each player at each EBU registered session.

Any player may become an Associate Member of as many Counties as they wish. In order to play in most County events a player must be at least an Associate Member of that County. Counties may charge an annual fee which they collect directly.

If you should wish to change your country of allegiance to Warwickshire, you would e-mail the EBU and ask them to change it. It would make no difference to your playing at or for Rugby Village Bridge Club, and is entirely up to you. We have members with affiliation to Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and even Somerset!