When you play at a bridge club, the cards are placed in a board so that the same hand can be played many times.   When a table has finished playing a hand the North player fills in the score on the traveling score sheet (traveller) that accompanies the board.   If you are sitting N/S you are hoping to get a higher score than the other North/Souths who have played the same board.  If you are sitting E/W you are hoping to beat the other E/W scores.

Below is a sample bridge traveller for Board 1 in a seven table competition (fourteen pairs).   At the end of the competition the director (or scorer) awards match points (the figures in red) for each board as follows:

A pair gets 2 points for each pair (playing in the same direction) who they beat and 1 point for each pair with whom they equal.

In this example N/S Pair 4 got the best score by playing in 3NT and making two overtricks.  They beat all the other N/S scores (six other pairs) and so score 12 match points    (This shows the importance of overtricks!)

E/W pair 14 got the best E/W score as they were the only E/W pair to defeat the N/S contract.

When the match points have been calculated for each board they are then transferred to a result sheet or ‘recap sheet’ and the total match points for each pair are calculated for the session (these days this is almost always done by the scorer inputting the scores into a computer bridge scoring program rather than writing on a recap sheet).

For the final results sheet, the match point scores are converted to a percentage.   The percentage is the actual match points scored out of the possible maximum match points.

In this seven table competition the maximum match points on a single board is 12 (6 x 2).  So the maximum match points possible is 12 x 14 boards = 168.

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THE TRAVELLER

It is North's job to write the score on the traveller.  When the traveller has the N/S pair number pre-printed is is very important to make sure the score is entered on the right line.  North always writes the score on the line that is his or her pair number.  When North has finished entering the score, North should show the traveller to East.  East is responsible for checking that all the score details are correct.

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THE PLAY

Always count your cards before playing – if someone has the wrong number of
cards the director can sort it out before the hand is played.

Make the opening lead face down.  This is to make sure that if the lead is accidentally made from the wrong side it can be corrected before anyone sees
the card.

The board should left on the table during the bidding and play of the hand
so everyone can see the vulnerability.  North is in charge of the boards.

Don’t make any comments during the bidding or the play that might give unauthorized information to your partner.

MISTAKES

Always call the director if something goes wrong, e.g. a revoke, wrong number of cards, lead from the wrong hand etc.  The director is there to help sort things out and make sure everything is fair.  Everyone makes mistakes from time to time and there is a rule to cover all kinds of errors.   

COURTESY

Always be polite and courteous to your partner and opponents.

Never criticise your partner (or opponents) or offer advice unless asked. Comments beginning ‘You should have…….’ or ‘Why didn’t you……’ often offend even if they are not intended to!

Avoid post mortems at the end of every hand.  If you want to discuss a hand, wait until the end of the round if there is any time left.  Better still, if hand records are available, save post mortems with your partner until after the session.

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Most clubs now use bridge bidding boxes.  The bid cards must remain on the table until the opening lead is made, then they are put back in the box.

STOP CARD

Place the Stop Card on the table before you make any jump bid.  This includes any opening bids higher than the one level e.g. 2§, 3© etc.  Replace the Stop Card in the bidding box after making your bid.

ALERT CARD

When your partner makes any artificial or conventional bid you pull out the Alert Card and make sure that both opponents have seen it (then replace it).  ALL bids that do not have a natural meaning (i.e. normally showing 4 or more cards in the suit bid) should be alerted, these include:

Blackwood and responses

Gerber and responses

Stayman and the 2¨ response

Strong 2§ opening bid and the 2¨ response

Fourth suit forcing

Cue Bids

Transfers (both bids)

BRIDGE SCORES

You can use the back of the cards in the bidding boxes to check the score:  GREEN scores are used when not vulnerable and RED when vulnerable.

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MITCHELL MOVEMENT

The most common bridge movement you will encounter is the Mitchell movement.  In this movement all the North/Souths stay seated and the East/Wests move up one table.  Usually there are two winners, a North/South winner and an East/West winner.  Sometimes the director will ask for an Arrow Switch on the last round to enable there to be just one winner.

HOWELL MOVEMENT

When there is only a small number of tables (especially if there is a half table) the director may play a Howell movement.  In this movement almost all of the pairs move at the end of each round.  There will be a movement card on each table showing which table and which direction (N/S or E/W) each pair needs to move to at the end of the round. 

It also shows which pairs should be at the table for the current round and which boards should be played.  It is North's responsibility to check that the right pairs and the right boards at at the table (though it is a good idea for everyone to check).  If a pair play at the wrong table or the wrong boards are played this causes serious disruption!

A useful tip is to look at who is seated at the position you are going to move to next... you normally follow this same pair on each round.

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Sometimes the director will ask for an Arrow Switch on the last round of a Mitchell movement to enable there to be just one winner.  (The correct number of boards to switch is one eighth of the total boards). 

It is often a mystery to players how arrow switching just a few boards makes the competition fair between all the North/Souths and East/Wests.   There is some interesting mathematics involved!  If you are interested in finding out more about how Arrow Switching affects the results I recommend David Stephenson's website where there are some in depth articles about Arrow Switching. 

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