The club meets every Tuesday evening playing from 7pm - 10pm. With the exception of Christmas and New Year weeks.

More experienced players are asked to be tolerant of those who are still learning their way around the intricacies of duplicate bridge and to provide gentle help and guidance where necessary.

General procedure and keeping time. 

• Please aim to arrive by 6.45pm to be seated and ready to play for 7pm.
• If you are able, please help to set up and put away tables, chairs etc.., at the beginning and end of the evening.
• Dress code smart casual.
• Always count your cards before looking at them. If you do not have 13 cards, call the tournament director (TD).
• North is responsible for entering the scores, but he/she may delegate this to South.
• East is responsible for verifying the entry, but he/she may delegate this to West.
• If you are not sure about something please ask the Director.
• During the bidding you can only ask an opponent for an explanation of the bid made by their side when it's your turn to call. And you must ask the partner of the player who made the bid, not the player who made it.
• If there is hesitation in the bidding or play, the partner of the player who hesitated must be very careful not to draw any inference from this and must bid/play as he/she would have done if there had been no hesitation. This is particularly the case if a player hesitates during the bidding and then passes.
• You should shuffle your cards after the hand before returning them to the board.
• Thank your opponents at the end of the round and move promptly to your new table.
• Don't forget to enjoy the game!

Bidding and playing

• Do not touch your bidding box, until you are ready to make a pass or bid.
• Use your STOP card when making a jump bid, including an opening bid, leave it on the table for 10 seconds, then put it away.
• When alerting a call, it is your responsibility to make sure that both opponents see the ALERT card.
• At Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe Bridge Club we follow the EBU rules on Announcing and Alerting.
• When you are on lead, make your lead face down, in case your partner wants to ask a question.
• It is good practice to make a lead before putting your bidding cards away, or writing the contract on your score card. Similarly, your dummy puts their hand down first, then puts away the bidding cards and write down the contract.
• Unless dummy has left the table, declarer should never touch dummy's cards, even to arrange them.