While some teams may wish to restrict team membership to members of only one club (with the club possibly paying the fees for the team) there is no restriction on team membership (except that players must be EBU members in all but the lowest division).

Most teams have opted to include their club name in the team name but the team will be identified by the Captain’s initials in the fixtures.

Unless you have already done so, please send to Bob Warrender (marianandbob86@gmail.com) the names of four or more of your core team players together with EBU numbers if any players are new to the County League or belong to a club not affiliated to EBU through Somerset.

County League fees are £45 for 1st division (play 9 matches) and £40 for 2nd and 3rd divisions (play 8 matches).

It is the Captain’s responsibility to ensure that before the date of the first round of matches the league fees are paid by bank transfer to SORT CODE 30-98-45 ACC NO 03080007

If a club is paying fees for one or more teams it is important that the treasurer can identify for which teams the fees are being paid.

Matches must be played at the time and date shown in the match schedule. If a Captain cannot raise a team they must as soon as possible inform their opposing Captain, Bob Warrender (01963-440070) and Frank Coltman the Director (07777-641366).

If a team fails to fulfil a fixture, at the end of the season the team will be given an adjusted score for the match and their opponents given their own end of season average.

The adjusted score is calculated as (Av + 20 – OpAv) / 4

(Av being the defaulting team’s end of season average and OpAv their opponent's end of season average.)

 CONDUCT OF MATCHES

Matches are of 24 boards on Realbridge on fixed dates.

Players use a link from menu on LHS of SCBA website and sit at the table allocated to their team.

Realbridge moves the EW players of both teams to their opposition table against whom the first 12 boards will start at 7.15 pm.

When both tables of a match have completed 12 boards Realbridge will return players to their home table.

The away team (sitting at the even-numbered table) will automatically be switched (NS become EW and vice versa) for boards 13–24.

If there are any problems during the match please call the director.

Play will start at 7.15 pm even if some players have failed to log on.

A missing player may join at any stage, but if a match is unable to complete boards the team missing a player loses 3 IMPs for each board not played.

If a match cannot be played because a team never has four players present the offending team is given 0 VPs and the non-offending team their end of programme average VPs.

Undos for genuine misclicks are allowed in bidding but not in play.

As in F2F bridge your partner must announce and alert your bids (unlike BBO when you alert your own bids).

Permitted conventions are at EBU level 4 in ‘1st’ and ‘2nd’ divisions, but level 2 in lower divisions.