Surrey County Bridge Association

Rules and Regulations for the Intermediate Duplicate League

General
A local teams of four league for players are fairly new to duplicate bridge and below the rank of Tournament Master as of 1st of October of the current season. The team may have unlimited reserves, who are also fairly new to duplicate bridge. Players need not be Surrey County Bridge Association or English Bridge Union.

2. Matches
   Matches are to be held at intervals from October to the end of April. Each team will play 20-board matches (or 24 boards if both teams agree) against other teams (changing opponents after 10 or 12 boards). Some matches played 'at home' and others 'away'. The home captain finds out when his own team can play and then contacts his opponents offering them 3 dates, which may not all be on the same day of the week.
   
   A programme of fixtures, allowing at least three weeks for each match, is issued at the beginning of the season. Matches should be played within the scheduled periods, following the Surrey guidelines for fixing matches. If there is difficulty in fixing a match, the area Organiser must be contacted.
   
   If a team fails to arrange a date for a match or cancels a match without a valid reason- and thus concedes the match- the team to whom the match is conceded will get 13 V.P.’s or, if greater, its average in all other matches or, if greater, the average of all teams against the defaulting team. The defaulting team receives no Victory Points for that match.
   
   The organiser may impose the penalty of no-entry on all members of the defaulting team in the next season.
   
3. Systems
   Only Level 3 Licence conventions are permitted.
   
4. Scoring
   Scoring is by IMPs converted to Victory Points using the scale below.
   VICTORY POINT SCALE, 24-BOARD MATCHES
   

   IMPs	0-1	2-4	5-8	9-12	13-16	17-21	22-26	27-32	33-39	40-50	51+
   VPs	10-10	11-9	12-8	13-7	14-6	15-5	16-4	17-3	18-2	19-1	20-0

   
   
5. League Results
   The winning captain reports the VP score to the organiser giving all the names of players in both teams. Master Points will be sent to the captains at the end of the season or directly credited to the EBU if the player is a member of the EBU.
   
6. Rulings
   If a ruling is required during a match the organiser should be contacted. If the organiser is not available, then Mr. R. Bolton should be contacted on 01483 560056.
   
7. Smoking Regulations
   In all Surrey competitions held in clubs or private homes, in addition to the published rules at the venue, any player may request that there shall be no smoking at the table at which he/she is playing.
   In matches played in private homes, it is the duty of both captains to indicate the likely wishes of their team in this matter when arranging the match.
   
8. Final
   Some areas may have more than one league and provided the leagues are of roughly equal strength, the winner of each area league may represent the league in the final. The winning team is invited to play in a multiple teams final held in May. See Competitions Brochure for exact date. If the winning team is unable to play, the second team may represent the area league in the final.
   Prizes will be awarded to the leading team in the final.