General

All events shall be played in accordance with the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge 2007 and the English Bridge Union Handbook of Directives and Permitted Agreements 2006 (The “Orange” Book) and any subsequent updates thereto. Conventions up to Level 4 of those agreements shall be allowed in all WCBA competitions.

Where it is necessary to split a tie this will be done in accordance with the EBU “White Book” section 143.7. (This gives priority to matches between contestants with equal scores.)

Usually WCBA Sunday events will have a non-playing director, in which case rulings of first instance will be made at the event by the Tournament Director, who may seek advice from other Tournament Directors, either present or external, if required. Usually the Premier and Allcomers leagues will not have a non-playing director. Whenever there is no non-playing director rulings of first instance may be obtained from any qualified and available tournament director.  

Any appeals against rulings made by the Director must be lodged within the correction periods shown below and in accordance with the Appeals Procedure (See below).

The Premier League.

Teams may register up to six players, all of whom must be County registered and EBU members. At least 2 players in any given match must have Wiltshire as their county of primary allegiance. Any team with fewer than six registered players may register additional members to their team at any time before 31 December.

Substitutes are permitted with the permission of the Event Organizer in consultation with the Tournament Sub-Committee (TSC). A substitute may not strengthen the strongest possible line-up of the team. If permission to play a substitute is not sought with sufficient notice to check the eligibility of that substitute, priority will be given to getting the match played, but the team captain will be warned that the score in the match may be adjusted if the substitution is found to be unfair.

Matches shall be played at a fixed time and date to be announced before the start of the season by the League Secretary. Matches may only be played at an alternative time and place in unavoidable extenuating circumstances with the permission of the TSC. The teams concerned will be required to pay the table money for their team for that round.

Matches shall consist of 24 boards.

If players arrive late matches shall still be played if the player(s) arrive before 8.45pm. A minimum of 14 boards must be played and if appropriate an adjusted VP scale (in accordance with EBU guidelines) will be applied. The reason for the late arrival will later be reviewed by the TSC and, if appropriate, a fine/award for boards lost may be applied to the offending/non-offending team.  

 A team who puts the integrity of the movement at risk (for example, by sitting in the same direction at both tables) shall be given a mandatory procedural penalty of 1 VP.

 The team mentioned second in the fixture shall seat its players first at the start of the match. Players in this team must play at the same table throughout the match, unless substituted. The team mentioned first in the fixture shall send a pair to each opposition table for the first 12 boards of the match. Opponents shall be changed after 12 boards have been played and any changes in team personnel can only be made at this time.

 All players must exchange properly completed convention cards with their opponents at the start of each stanza.

 Spectators are allowed. A spectator who is a registered player in the League may not watch at tables where his team is playing.

 Matches shall be scored by IMP's converted to VP's on the scale set out here:  

 The result of each match, with the total number of IMP's and VP's scored by each team, together with the names of the competing players shall be recorded on one of the match result cards provided and be signed by both captains. The captain of the winning team shall be responsible for handing in the result to the Director or League Organizer. If the match is drawn, the captain of the team sitting throughout is responsible. 

A team's position in the league will be determined by the number of VP's gained. If there is a tie for first place, this will be split in accordance with EBU procedures.

A team given a walk-over will, at the end of the season, be awarded for that match, the greater of:

 a. the average of the VP's it has scored in its other league matches during the current season

b. the difference between the conceding team's season average score and 20.

c. 12VP.

A team conceding a walkover will score no VP's for the match.

The Allcomers League

The rules for the Premier League shall also apply to the Allcomers League except that players do not need to be EBU members.

WCBA Pairs Events

Pairs arriving up to 30 minutes late will be permitted to play in Pairs events subject to the Tournament Director being able to accommodate the late arrivals.

Their opponents will be awarded average+ and the offending pair’s average or average- according to circumstances and subject to a ruling by the TSC.

 County Knock Out

 The county Knock Out shall be subject to EBU rules for knock out events.

Appeals Procedure

 Rulings of first instance may be obtained from any suitable and available Tournament Director. If this ruling is disputed the Tournament Sub-Committee will form the Appeals Committee, with appropriate substitutions if one of the members is involved. If they wish to seek further guidance from a panel Tournament Director then they can do so, but the decision should be made by the Appeals Committee. Players will then have the right of appeal to the EBU, but not to the WCBA, after the event.

 Any appeals against rulings made by the Director must be lodged within the correction periods shown below.

Last Updated: 25/9/09