| 1 Entries |
| 1.1 |
Clubs which are members of the League may enter any number of teams. |
| 1.2 |
A captain must be nominated for each team and his/her address and home and daytime phone numbers
must be sent to the League Secretary with the entry. |
| 1.3 |
Entries must normally be made to the League Secretary by end-June (the actual closing date will be
announced during the League AGM each year). Ideally entries should be via email. |
| 1.4 |
An entry fee (to be determined by the Committee) will be charged for each team and is payable direct
to the Treasurer, at the same time as the entry is made. |
| 2 Teams |
| 2.1 |
A team may consist of any number of players but only four players may take part in any one match. |
| 2.2 |
No player may play for more than one team. |
| 3 The Draw |
| 3.1 |
The draw will be made by end-July. Pairings for the subsequent rounds will be determined by the position
in this draw. The team drawn first in any pairing is the home team. |
| 3.2 |
No team will have the same opponents in their first match as they had in their first match of the
preceding season. |
| 3.3 |
Teams from the same club will be kept apart for as long as possible. |
| 3.4 |
There will be no seeding. |
| 4 The Handicap |
| 4.1 |
Each player will be allocated a handicap in IMPs depending on the division of the League in which
he/she played most matches in the previous season. If a player plays an equal number of matches for
two or more teams the handicap for the team that finished highest in the league applies. There will be
an adjustment of -2 IMPs if that team was first or second in its division and +2 IMPs if that team was
last or next to last in its division. The members of the team holding the Cup will also have an adjustment
of -2 IMPs. |
| | The League Committee will publish a list of players and their handicaps at the start of
each season. At any time after the start of the season, a player not on this list may apply to the Committee
for a handicap. The Committee will base the handicap on the divisions the player has played in during the
current season and/or their knowledge of the ability of that player. If a player plays in a Cup match without
applying for a handicap he/she will have a handicap of zero IMPs. |
| |
- The handicap for a Division 1 player will be zero IMPs.
- The handicap for a Division 2 player will be three IMPs.
- The handicap for a Division 3 player will be six IMPs.
- The handicap for a Division 4 player will be nine IMPs.
|
| 4.2 |
The handicap of the team will be the sum of the handicaps of the four players selected for that match. The
team with the higher handicap subtracts the handicap of the other team from their own handicap and adds 10 to
determine the number of IMPs which they add to their actual IMP score at the end of the match. |
| | [Thus if a team of four Division 3 players (handicap 4 x 6 = 24) plays a team
of four Division 2 players (handicap 4 x 3 = 12) they will receive a handicap of
24 - 12 + 10 = 22 IMPs for the match. Similarly, if a team of four players who were in the team
that was last in Division 4 in the previous season (handicap (9 + 2) x 4 = 44) plays a team of four
players who were in the team that won Division 1 in the previous season and also were in the Cup winning
team in the previous season (handicap (-2 + -2) x 4 = -16) they will receive the maximum possible
handicap of 44 - (-16) + 10 = 70 IMPs for the match.] |
| 5 Matches |
| 5.1 |
Matches will consist of 24 boards. The team captain plays three 8-board rounds in partnership with each
member of his/her team. The two tables share the eight boards. The two captains oppose one another at the
same table throughout the match. |
| 5.2 |
If required, the home captain must announce his/her pairings and their seating for the first round before
the away captain decides his/her pairings and their seating. The away captain must announce first for the
second round. |
| 5.3 |
For each pairing a fully completed convention card must be available. |
| 5.4 |
Only those systems and conventions currently defined by the EBU as level 3 may be used. |
| 5.5 |
Should one or more player(s) be delayed for an acceptable reason and the match starts late, the team
captains may agree to play three 7-board rounds. In extremis, a minimum match of three 6-board rounds is legal.
If the captains cannot agree a reduction in the number of boards, a 24 board match must be played. If a reduction
in the number of boards is agreed, then the handicap is reduced pro-rata, rounded to one place of decimals. |
| 6 Scoring |
| 6.1 |
Scoring will be by IMPs. Any difference constitutes a winning margin.
|
| 6.2 |
If the scores are equal after the original number of boards then six additional boards will be played (as
three two board rounds). The seating arrangements are as defined in section 5. The handicap for these
additional boards will be one quarter of the original handicaps, rounded to one place of decimals. If the
result is still a draw, a replay must be arranged as soon as possible. In the replay, the original away
team becomes the home team. If necessary, more replays make be arranged as necessary. However, any replays
are subject to the requirements of 7.1. |
| 6.3 |
Scores can be compared after each set of boards has been completed. |
| 7 Arranging matches |
| 7.1 |
The fixtures will be managed in the same way as league matches, with the added proviso that each fixture
needs to be completed before the date for the following round match and the final is to be played by the
end of March. If for any reason this proves impossible to achieve, the BBL committee will determine the outcome. |
| 8 Results |
| 8.1 |
Within 48 hours of the match, the winning captain must submit the result on the BBL website or send the
result to the Results Secretary, providing the same information about the players as is required for a
league match. |
| 8.2 |
As the rules of the EBU master point system forbid the award of master points for handicap events, no
master points will be gained by the players of the team winning any match. |