Club Rules

CLUB SESSION RULES

1. Except as provided under Special Competition Rules below, every member is welcome to arrange a partner and play as a non-qualifying pair in any session of all scheduled Pairs Competitions at the club. For assistance with finding a partner please join the WhatsApp “Partner Finder” Group. As used in these Rules, “session” refers to one day’s play as set out in the 2025 Programme Booklet.

2. Unless directed otherwise by the Director, sit at any table. The mandatory coin toss by the Director will determine your direction. The winner of the toss MUST sit North/South.

3. In the interest of player development, the Committee will allow Novice level members to make occasional reference to teaching notes whilst bidding during Wednesday and Friday club sessions.

4. SCORING CORRECTIONS, DIRECTOR’S RULINGS & NOTIFICATION OF SUBSTITUTIONS

• At the end of every hand, the South player should enter all data into the Bridgemate and East player should verify and ACCEPT the entry. Any errors that are discovered must be corrected immediately before pressing ACCEPT.
• Any subsequent scoring correction must be notified on the designated form found on the club notice board and handed to the Director or Scorer without delay.
• All substitutions must be notified to the scorer on the designated form. Players failing to notify the Director or Scorer of a substitution within the correction period will be treated as a non-contesting pair (i.e. missed night).
• Substitutes for all Club sessions must be members of the Club. Substitutes may be non-club members, on prior approval of the Club Captain. Substitutes must be in accordance with the terms of the event (i.e. if restricted, no two open players may play together, etc.)
• For all Club sessions, the time for notifying scoring corrections, a substitution, or to request a Director’s ruling expires no later than the start of the next scheduled session of the event, or for the final session no later than 7 days after the conclusion of the event.
• No changes may be made to scores or to the pairs entered after the expiry of the correction period except in exceptional circumstances accepted by the committee.

5. TWO or THREE SESSION DUPLICATE PAIRS COMPETITIONS

• All sessions must be played.
• One substitute is allowed for three and four session competitions only.

6. THE HOWES CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRS

• This is played over 8 sessions as shown in Programme Booklet. To qualify, the partnership must play together at least 6 times and is allowed to: (1) Miss up to 2 sessions; for missed sessions, they will be assigned a score of 50% for every session that is missed, (2) May have no more than 1 substitute in accordance with the Substitution Rules above.
• The winner is the highest average of all 8 scores (calculated to 4 decimal places, rounded up), and if still tied, the title is shared.

7. ALL TEAMS COMPETITIONS

• Teams have 4 members only.
• Except for Teams competitions with a qualifying and final stage, each member of the team may be substituted once in accordance with the Substitution Rules above. No substitute may be a member of another team.
• For Teams competitions with a qualifying and final stage, each player may be substituted once in the qualifying stage (but see the Substitution Rules above). For the final stage(s) at least two of the four members of the team must play in every match(s) or stanza of the match.
• The Club Captain or Director must announce the Conditions of Contest to the players prior the start of the 1st match.

8. CLUB POINTS CUPS

• Points will be awarded for all Pairs Competitions except Holiday Bridge & Christmas Pairs. Points accumulated for each day’s competitions for the playing year will be the basis for this prize.

9. DUPLICATE PAIRS COMPETITIONS (excluding Championship Pairs)

• Although the same partnership may contest any number of competitions throughout the year, they cannot win more than one trophy for each day’s (i.e., Monday, Wednesday and Friday) competitions.

10. HANDICAP PAIRS COMPETITIONS

• All Pairs competitions will be contested on both scratch and on handicap except Butler Pairs or One-Night Swiss Pairs. The winner on scratch cannot win on handicap.
• The following Handicap competitions are contested and won on handicap only: (1) Wednesday – Longhurst Handicap Pairs, and (2) Friday – Sharp/Batten Handicap Pairs

11. MIXED PAIRS

• Players are encouraged to play with the opposite gender.

12. LADDERS

• The final score of each of the Three Session Duplicate Competitions shown in the Programme Booklet will count towards the Ladders. To qualify for the Ladder, a player must have played with a different partner: (1) Monday Ladder: Five different partners are required. If the same partner played more than once, then the first score counts and the 5 best qualifying sessions count.  (2) Wednesday Ladder: Eight different partners are required. If the same partner played more than once, then the first score counts and the 8 best qualifying sessions count.  (3) Friday Ladder: Seven different partners are required. If the same partner played more than once, then the first score counts and the 9 best qualifying sessions count.

13. DANES CUP and OTHER INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIONS

• A different partner is required for each session.

14. RESTRICTED COMPETITIONS

• No two Open players may play together. Other grading restrictions may be set by the committee.

ALLOWABLE SYSTEMS FOR CLUB PLAY

Reference: NZ Bridge Manual – as for 5B Point (Intermediate) and 8B Point (Open/Restricted) tournaments
GREEN systems – All
BLUE systems–All
RED systems – Limited to those that exclude:

• An opening suit bid at the 1 level that does not show, in the bid suit, at least 2 cards if clubs, at least 3 cards if diamonds and at least 4 cards if hearts and spades,
• 1NT opening bid that does not show a balanced hand, or that has a minimum HCP of less than 11,
• Transfer opening bids below the level of 2NT,
• BROWN Sticker conventions,
• Any opening bid of 2S to 3C that may be weak and does not promise at least 4 cards in a known suit. The sole exception is an opening bid of 2C or 2D that may show a weak hand with 6 cards in either major only, or as an option among any number of strong hand types;
• Relay-based system.

Any dispute as to the interpretation of these rules will be resolved by the majority decision of the Appeals Committee. The Appeals Committee comprises: Arie Geursen, Bev Henton, Trevor Robb and Sue Spencer..

ALL COMPLAINTS MUST BE IN WRITING TO THE SECRETARY