CAMBS & HUNTS CONTRACT BRIDGE ASSOCIATION

INTER-CLUB LEAGUES for TEAMS of FOUR

COMPETITION RULES

The competition shall be conducted in accordance with the following rules:

  1. The League shall be called the Cambs & Hunts Contract Bridge League. It will not be part of the official Cambs & Hunts CBA competition programme. Accordingly ALL club members (whether or not they are members of Cambs & Hunts CBA or the EBU) are eligible to represent their club.
  2. The League shall be organised by a League Secretary appointed by the Management Committee of the Association. All correspondence relating to the conduct of the League, including appeals, should be addressed to the League Secretary.
  3. In view of the small expenditure to run the League no entrance fee nor annual subscription shall be required of member clubs. At the end of the season the Secretary shall submit his expenses (which should be nominal - ie postage and stationery) and these shall be reimbursed to him by the Association.
  4. The League competition shall take place within the period 1st October to 30th April.
  5. No player shall represent a club unless he is a paid-up member of that club and a member of more than one club shall nominate his club for League matches at the beginning of the season. No player may represent more than one club during the season without the prior consent of the League Secretary which will not be given if the player has played 2 or more games in that season for his/her first club.
  6. Matches shall be of 24 boards, with a compulsory change of opponents after 12 boards. They shall be scored in IMPs converted to Victory Points according to the scale in the EBU Supplement to the EBL Tournament Directors' Guide namely:
    IMP Difference VPs
    0-110-10
    2-411-9
    5-812-8
    9-1213-7
    13-1714-6
    18-2215-5
    23-2816-4
    29-3417-3
    35-4118-2
    42-4919-1
    50+20-0
  7. It shall be the duty of the home team to inform the Secretary as soon as possible of a match result by written note or score-card signed by a member of each team showing the result and the members of each team.
  8. If a club has to scratch a fixture the offending side will score no VPs. The non-offending side shall be credited with a win and, at the end of the season, be credited with a VP score for the fixture being the highest of (a) the average VPs scored by the non-offending side (b) the average VPs conceded by the offending side and (c) 11 VPs.
  9. Generally, when a side requests a fixture to be postponed owing to very bad weather or for mutual convenience, a new fixture date shall be arranged. The fact that a side is unable to raise its strongest team for a fixture would not justify a postponement and if it is not possible to complete a match by the end of the season rule 8 shall apply.
  10. Play and procedure shall be governed by the latest (1997) edition of the "Laws of Duplicate Bridge" and such penalties as are laid down in these Laws shall be exacted.
  11. The home club shall provide a Director for each fixture. The Director may be a team member.
  12. Any complaint as to the decisions or conduct of a Director shall be made to the Secretary.
  13. Convention cards shall be obligatory (attention is drawn to the EBU requirement that both members of a partnership are required to provide a convention card and have it available at all times). Only systems and conventions having a Level 3 licence shall be played.
  14. The Secretary shall keep accurate records of the results and will provide up-to-date information to any team making a telephoned request.
  15. Master points shall be awarded as follows:
    1. The awards per match won shall be 95 local points in Division One, 81 in Division Two, 68 in Division Three and 54 in Division Four. Drawn matches (in terms of Victory Points) count as a half win.
    2. The ranking awards (to be given to all players playing in 3 or more matches for the teams finishing first or second in each division) shall be 190 and 95 local points in Division One, 162 and 81 in Division Two, 136 and 68 in Division Three and 108 and 54 in Division Four.
  16. The League shall be divided into divisions of not less than 6 nor more than 9 teams in each division. Each team in a division shall play each other team in that division once. Participating Clubs shall nominate the teams to represent their Club in writing addressed to the League Secretary by 1st September in each year. Teams may consist of 4, 5 or 6 players of whom only 4 may play in any particular match. A player nominated for one team of a particular club may play for another team from that same club if he/she has not already played for the original team and, with the permission of the League Secretary (which will not be given in the case of a request to play for a team in a lower division), may play for another team from the same club, in order to fulfil a fixture on the agreed date, notwithstanding that he/she has played 1 or more matches for the original team.
  17. At the end of each season, the top two teams in each division (other than Division One) shall be promoted and the bottom two teams in each division (other than the lowest division) shall be relegated. Further teams may be promoted and/or relegated, at the discretion of the League Secretary, in order to ensure, so far as possible, that the divisions for the following season shall contain an equal number of teams. If at the end of the season two or more teams are tied (in terms of VPs) for top or bottom place in any division, the tie shall be split first by considering the aggregate VPs scored by each team in its matches against the other team(s) involved in the tie and, if that does not split the tie, then by considering the total IMPs scored by each team in all its matches in that season.