"Speedball" has been long established, a popular event at the EBU Summer Congress;

We are introducing "Speed Bridge" on similar lines - here's how it will work...

(Final details TBC; where there is a "?", this number is yet to be finalised)

You and another pair will be scheduled a ??1hr 15 min time slot, at the Dice Box Café, to play a set of ?18 boards; actual bridge playing time will be limited to 1hr, or rather to 30mins per pair.

How do we do this? Each pair will operate their half of a chess-clock! So as soon as you make your bid, you hit the button, and the other team's clock starts.

The 15 spare mins will allow for a quick sorting of your hand (!) and for entering a score in a Bridgemate.

When your 30 mins are up, play can continue if the full hour is still unused; a small per-board penalty will be applied to the team on unplayed boards (but if you fail to play 5 bds, this could be quite a lot!) whilst the other team can still get positive MPs on remaining boards.

Exact detail of how these penalties will be applied will follow next week, when we have completed our dry-run!

There will be three separate table-slots:  10-45am start, 12-30pm start and 2-15pm start: each table will play the board-set, and after some calculations, there will be a winning NS pair and a winning EW pair.

Please book in, and state if you can offer to play at alternative times.

BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!!!