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Bridge Events You Need To Enter Now For The Autumn
It’s that time of year again. The new bridge season starts in September and there is a wide range of annual competitions, including knock-out cups, season-long leagues and so on. There is something for every standard, so read on and plan your bridge for later in the year. When the autumn nights start drawing in, you’ll be glad you did.
Matches in league or knock-out bridge are generally played privately at
home or at bridge clubs by arrangement with the club organisers, with the
exact date and venue agreed between the opposing teams. It is usual to
serve some refreshments at ‘half-time’ – tea/coffee, cake/sandwiches, etc
If you need team-mates for any competitions why not ask around your club.
Team Play
Team play is regarded as the fairest test of bridge. To play a match against another team, your team’s players play North-South at one table against your opponents’ East-West pair. At another table, ideally in a separate room, your other pair will be playing East-West against the opponent’s North-South. This means that each team will play each board once in each direction.
To score at teams play, the team’s two pairs then come together and compare results. For example, North-South may have made 4 vulnerable, worth 620points. East-West may have defended the same contract in the other room and lost 620points. The result is break-even or a ‘flat’ board. On a different board North-South may have made 2+1, scoring 140, but East-West outbid their opponents and played 3 just making, scoring another 140 points. Our team has won a total of 280 points on this deal. A comparison like this is made for each board.
In basic competition, the scoring is by total points or ‘aggregate’ – i.e. on the above example plus 280 points is exactly what you score. This difference is usually called a ‘swing’. In more advanced competition, the swing on each board is converted to ‘International Match Points’ (IMPs for short) using an agreed international scale that you can see printed on the bottom of normal duplicate score cards. Using IMPS small part score swings are slightly emphasised and big slam swings are slightly moderated so that one single slam swing doesn’t decide the whole match. In our example a difference of 280 points translates as 7 IMPs. A simple matter of one overtricks produces a 1 IMP swing; two overtricks 2 IMPS. A typical game swing is 10-12 imps and bidding a slam when the other side stop in game is worth up to about 13 IMPs.
ADVANCED COMPETITIONS
a) Knock Out Cups
1) Crockfords Cup. English National team-of-four KO competition. Five rounds of knock-out
leading to 8-team all-play-all final. Matches consist of 32 deals, increasing
to 48 in round 5.. Standard is good. ‘Green’ (i.e nationally significant)
master points awarded. Teams beaten in first match continue in Crockfords
Plate. Fee £74 per team. All players must be EBU members.
Details at http://www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/knockouts/crockfords/default.htm.
2) Bridge Great Britain Gold Cup. UK’s premier knock out cup with records stretching back over 70 years.
Green points awarded. Standard good. Teams beaten in first match continue
in Silver Plate. Fee £17 per player. Details from the organiser Sandra
Claridge – claridge31@tiscali.co.uk
b) Leagues
1) London League higher divisions – see below.
2) TGR League. Two division league organised by TGR Bridge Club. Matches played twice a month on set dates. Standard very high. Details: http://www.tgrsbridge.com/Super_League.html
CLUB-LEVEL COMPETITIONS
a) Knock Out Cups
1) National Inter-Club Knock Out. EBU Team of Four Competition aimed at good club duplicate players. Entries should be made in the name of an EBU-affiliated club and must be made by the club. Clubs can enter any number of teams. Entries due by 21 September 2009. Green master points awarded. Entry forms will be sent to clubs; general info at www.ebu.co.uk. Ask your club if interested in entering.
b) Leagues
1) London League. League organised by the London Metropolitan Bridge Association. Organised
into three divisions with promotion and relegation. New teams normally
start in Division 3 but exceptional teams may be considered for a higher
start. Enter by 1 September 2010. Enquiries Sati McKenzie, LMBA – sati.mckenzie@googlemail.com
2) London Business Houses League
Active 3-divison league based loosely around teams with some kind of work-related affiliation – teams include lawyers, government departments, local authorities as well as company-based teams. Enter by 1 September 2009. Enquiries: Carol Regulski – carol.magner@tiscali.co.uk General info: www.lbhcba.org
3) Other Leagues:
a) Hammersmith & District League. Single division league (7 teams in 2008-9) drawing entries from West London. Enquiries Ron Wood – ronalexwood@yahoo.co.uk
b) South East Bridge League. Draws teams from a catchment area bounded by the Thames, the A23 and the M25. Players from outside are welcome but matches must be played within this area. Non-EBU members welcome. Three divisons with promotion and relegation. Typically 10 matches between September & April. Fee £20 a team, enter by mid-August. New teams will start in Division 3. Enquiries: Liz Blande – lizblande@aol.com.
c) Civil Service Bridge League. Entry to this London-based league is open to serving civil servants, retired or resigned civil servants and the staff of bodies outside the civil service eligible for membership of the Civil Service Sports Council. Departments and associated organisations with teams in the league include Ministry of Justice, Home Office, Church Commissioners, Office for National Statistics and HM Revenue and Customs. The league consists of two divisions with eight or nine teams in each division with promotion and relegation opportunities. Enquiries: League Secretary (Graham Horscroft) graham.horscroft@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk or tel: 020-7276 2782. Even if you are not sure you can raise a team, register your interest with Graham, as other people from your department may be in the same situation.
ENTRY-LEVEL COMPETITIONS
a) Knock-Out Cups
1) The London Trophy. This is a LMBA competition for new players and social players. Dubbed the ‘bridge for non-bridge clubs’ competition, entries are encouraged from tennis, golf and other sports social clubs, but also from churches, synagogues, and other places of worship; company and work-place based teams; pubs, gyms, etc. Teams may include no more than one player of EBU National Master rank or above and scoring is by aggregate, the best format to encourage giant-killing. Only simple bidding systems are permitted with no advanced conventions. Early rounds regionalised to minimise travel. This in terms of prestige and entry is a major competition and has a buzz about it. In the early rounds at least many players are social rather than club players so it is a very accessible competition.
Entry fee £16 per team ideally by 1 September 2010 to kit Jackson kit.jackson@ntlworld.com.
Other details – www.metrobridge.co.uk
Teams eliminated in their first match advance to the Della-Porta Plate so every team is guaranteed two matches.
b) Leagues
1) London Newcomers League. Ideal for those with little experience of competitive bridge. A match approx every six weeks arranged between the teams involved at a mutually convenient location (e.g home, office, bridge club, etc). Teams can include up to 8 named players. Captains will be responsible for making match arrangements so a more-experienced captain is an asset but not essential. Winners of this League will be eligible for promotion into Division 3 of London League.
Entry fee £16 per team by 1 September 2010. Enquiries/entries to Sati McKenzie – sati.mckenzie@googlemail.com
c) Charity Event
1) Cancer Research Bridge Tournament. Friendly competition for pairs (not teams). Enter as a pair and you are
placed in a small local league with four or five other pairs to play rubber
bridge or Chicago bridge matches at home or away. Leagues run from October
to January. Leading teams in each league then advance to a semi-final round
and are redrawn into new leagues playing between February and April. Qualifiers
from the semi-final then meet in a West End venue to play a gala duplicate
pairs final. Enter as a pair or round up five pairs and create your own
complete first round league. Fee £25 per player in aid of Cancer Research.
Enter by 30 September 2010. Full details and .pdf entry from at www.cancerresearchbridge.co.uk.
Enquiries: Beryl & Gary Pollak – admin@cancerresearchbridge.co.uk
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