Leicestershire Contract Bridge Association
Leicestershire Contract Bridge Association
RULES FOR THE GIMSON TROPHY - 2011
Competition Controller: Robert Northage, 5 Harrington Close, Quorn LE12 8AZ. Tel 01509 412 189 email rnorthage@btinternet.com
1. All competitors must be paid-up Player Members of the EBU who meet the general LCBA conditions for participation in the Association‟s Members-only competitions for the year 2010-11. (see Footnote 1)
2 a) The competition is for pairs.
b) No pair may take part in more than one Preliminary Round qualifying heat.
c) No player who has played with one partner may later play in another Preliminary Round heat with any other partner save in exceptional circumstances, and then only with the written consent of the Competition Controller (CC).
d) No substitutes are permitted, save in exceptional circumstances. The CC may allow a proposed substitution only if it meets the conditions 2 (d) (i) to (v) and 2 (e); and no player with Prime Allegiance to another county is the substitute or substituted for; and he is satisfied that his consent would not be unduly damaging to other players.
This regulation applies equally to substitutions of a player for either the whole or for a part of any stage of the competition.
i) One player only in a partnership may be substituted for, and then only in one of the Preliminary Round or the Semi-final.
ii) A partner playing in the Preliminary Round may be designated as the substitute prior to the Semi-final; his replacement in the Semi-final becoming the substantive partner.
iii) Otherwise a player introduced in the Semi-final is the substitute and may not play thereafter.
iv) No substitutions are permitted in the Final.
v) The membership status (see Footnote 1) of all competitors will be checked after the Preliminary Round. Any pair having included an ineligible player will be disqualified and may not participate thereafter, unless this player makes all payments necessary to become eligible and these payments are received by the LCBA (and EBU if appropriate) by Friday 18 March 2011, or the CC is notified by that date of his replacement by an eligible player in accordance with d) ii).
e) No person having already played in one pair, whether as substantive partner or substitute, may subsequently play in either the Semi-final or the Final as a substantive partner or substitute in another pair.
3. a) Each player must provide a completed EBU 20/20A/20B style system card and hand this to the opponents for their use throughout each round. Pairs not having completed such cards should be furnished with EBU 20B style (or original) LCBA Simple System (Standard English) Cards and required to play in accordance with these until personal EBU style cards are completed. WBF style cards may not be used.
b) Pairs with properly completed (2 paged) EBU 20 style system cards, may employ EBU Level 2 (and 3) Permitted Agreements, as detailed in Section 11 of the 2006 Orange Book, incorporating amendments as per subsequent LCBA Yearbooks.
c) However pairs having properly completed full (4 paged) EBU 20A or 20B style system cards may also employ any Agreements permitted at Level 4, as detailed in Section 11 of the 2006 Orange Book, incorporating amendments as per subsequent LCBA Yearbooks. [These amendments are consolidated on the LCBA website.]
4. a) Any pair either wishing to appeal, or reserve the right to later appeal, against a decision of the Director or Scorer should inform both the Director and the other pair of this and ensure that all relevant details of the hand and decision etc are recorded on a witnessed statement before leaving the venue.
Whether the actual appeal is immediate, or made later after reflection or consultation, it must be made in writing by email or post, to the CC, within two days of the event.
b) If a psychic bid is reported to the Director, he shall, on request, record the details of the board on which it occurred, and report the matter to the CC for the attention of the Laws and Ethics SC of the LCBA. The Director may also record and similarly report any departure from the system that he considers should be brought to its attention.
5. All results shall be treated as provisional until confirmed by the CC after receipt of the records and the determination of any appeal.
6. a) The winners of the competition will hold the Gimson Trophy for one year.
b) Subject to prime allegiance
(i) The leading three pairs will qualify to represent the county in the Corwen Trophy. Other pairs scoring over 50% in the Final will rank as reserves.
(ii) The winning pair and runners-up will be invited to represent Leicestershire in a Midlands League match.
c) Monetary prizes of £70, £50, £30 and £20 will be awarded to the first four pairs in the Final. If none of these are won by non-expert pairs then a further prize of £20 will be awarded to the highest placed such pair, subject to this pair having qualified to proceed beyond the preliminary round.
The definitions of non-expert players/pairs are kept on files held by the Tournament Secretary, LCBA Qualified Directors and the General Secretary; are published in the LCBA Yearbook and on the LCBA Website.
7. The LCBA will award local Master Points on the Regional Scale in the Preliminary Round and Semi-final and Green Points in the Final.
8. a) Pairs MUST notify the CC if they wish to withdraw from the competition at any stage.
b) If just one of the pair is available for either the Preliminary Round or the Semi-final he may apply to the CC for permission to make a substitution in accordance with Rule 2.
PRELIMINARY ROUND:
9. a) The LCBA will hold a number of regionalised Preliminary Round Heats, with non-playing Directors, at various Affiliated Clubs around the County. Clubs may agree to act together as one, when their combined membership will be deemed to be members of the actual host club. Mostly heats will be held at Clubs which have run successful heats in recent years. A membership base including three League teams has normally been necessary to generate an adequate bona fide entry. The LCBA may run additional heats beyond those already arranged if there is clear evidence of sufficient demand. Any further applicants to host a Preliminary Round heat at their venue should notify the CC by at the very latest Monday 10 January 2011.
Six dates, Monday 28 February, Tuesday 1 and Monday 7 to Thursday 10 March 2011, have been set aside in the calendar for regionalised heats, but they may exceptionally be held on other days within the period Monday 14 February to Friday 11 March on which there are no other LCBA events.
b) Pairs are expected wherever possible to play in a ‘regional heat’ embracing a club of which at least one of them is a member. Such entries should be made directly to the host club by at latest seven days before the heat.
At this point, 7 days before the planned heat the Host clubs own entry list will be closed, and reported to the CC. Any later applications to play received by the club will be referred to the CC.
c) The LCBA will also run an Open Preliminary Round heat on Wednesday 23 March 2011 at Glenfield Bridge Club for pairs neither of whom are members of a club embraced in a regional heat, or who are unable to play in such a heat.
All entries to this Open heat must be made direct to the CC.
d) Any pair unable to play either in a heat at a club of which at least one of them is a member or in the Open heat, and who are therefore wishing to play in an alternative heat should apply at least 7 days in advance of the heat to the CC, who will subject to space remaining arrange this.
e) The absolute minimum number of bona fide competing pairs is six. If fewer entries are received the pairs will be invited to play in the Open heat, possibly with the option of playing in an alternative regional heat.
If the entry to the heat comprises seven or any higher odd number of pairs, the Director may permit either a standby pair, or a single pair of unexpected visitors, to play “without standing”. (see rule 10 c)
f) In such Preliminary Round Regional Club heats table fees, other than the LCBA entry fee of £1 per head, are at the discretion of the host club. Full results and payments must reach the CC within four days of the heat and in any event by 14 March 2011. [N.B. These heats are not P2P sessions and details should not be reported to the EBU.]
g) The entry fee in the Open Preliminary Round heat is £3 per head, inclusive of table money.
10. a) Subject to all or nearly all pairs being bona fide* competitors then, unless the CC has given specific prior consent to the Director to do otherwise, the following common movements will be used in all Preliminary Round heats.
with 3 to 7 tables, a full Howell
with 7 complete tables or more, a simple Mitchell, with no seeding of pairs
* Bona fide competitors are those that have entered through the host club at least seven days in advance (or later direct to the CC) are eligible to play (see Footnote 1) and propose to play in the Semi-final.
b) In the case of a heat held on a host club’s own club night then normally the club will make arrangements for those who would not be bona fide entrants in the Gimson Trophy to play in a separate movement under their own auspices. However if there are only between two and an absolute maximum of five such pairs then these may be permitted to play in the heat, subject to not thereby creating a half-table or requiring the admission of a pair without standing to complete a table.
The Director must further ensure these are seated and the movement chosen so as to minimise the imbalance this causes.
If the number of tables exceeds seven, thus precluding playing a full Howell, then the number of non bona fide pairs in each direction must be as far as possible balanced. If mobility problems restrict the balance, or if there are in total ten or fewer bona fide competing pairs, then the Mitchell must also be arrow-switched. Whether or not the Mitchell be arrow-switched neither the group of bona fide nor the group of non bona fide pairs shall be seeded.
Alternative movements may again only be played with the prior consent of the CC.
c) If, as is permitted only under rule 9 e), one pair has been admitted to play ‘without standing’, to complete a half-table, then boards played by this pair shall not be scored. Moreover all other pairs must be made aware of this in advance and advised that they may take a sit-out rather than play the pair that is without standing. The CC will consider any application by one who has played without standing to play later with a different partner (see 2c) but only in the light of evidence of full compliance with rules 9 e) and 10.
d) All pairs must play at least 20 boards (i.e. excluding any sit-out, or played against a pair without standing)
11. a) The Master recapitulation sheets showing the individual board match-pointing, and the travellers either showing the original match-pointing or accompanied by a computer print-out of this, together with the official table slips and the heat entry fees must all be sent to the CC as soon as possible, meeting the deadline stipulated in Rule 9(f). Any Director using other than a standard Mitchell movement, or one of the standard ‘Manning’ Howell movements must include a copy of the table movement cards
b) The table slips should show the seat orientation, EBU number, surname and forename of all participating players.
12. a) All eligible pairs (see rules 1 and 2) finishing both within the top half of the bona fide entry in each field in each heat and obtaining 50% or more of the available Match Points will automatically qualify to play in the Semi-final. Directors should not attempt to resolve any tie; the LCBA will if necessary split it in accordance with EBU procedures.
b) However additionally eligible pairs either meeting only one of the criteria in a) or finishing exactly midway or in a tie for the middle position in a field, ranked overall in accordance with their Preliminary Round Match Point percentage may be allocated places in the Semi-final to create four 13 pair fields.
c) Thereafter reserves will be ranked in accordance with standard EBU procedures, and called if required.
SEMI-FINAL & FINAL:
13. The schedule of dates, venues and playing charges for these is:
Semi-final: Wednesday 27 April 2011, Rothley Centre, £3 per head
Final: Sunday 8 May 2011, Rothley Centre, £4 per head.
14. a) In the Semi-final pairs will be placed without seeding into four fields by, subject to mobility requirements, the drawing of lots.
b) The first five pairs from each field will then qualify for the all play all Final.
c) Reserves will be ranked in accordance with standard EBU procedures, and called if required in order to maintain a Final of 10 full tables.
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Footnote 1 (abridged)
Players may not be members of the LCBA unless they are ‘Player Members of the EBU’.
To be eligible to play in LCBA Members-only Competitions like the Gimson Trophy such EBU Player Members must also, unless exempted by sufficient participation in P2P sessions in LCBA affiliated clubs, have paid an LCBA subscription of £4.
Full details of the regulation are published in the LCBA Yearbook, LCBA League Rules and on the LCBA website.