1. Teams may register up to six players, all of whom must be County registered and EBU members. 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 League Secretary, which must be obtained before the match.

2. 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 be played only at the time and place thus specified. A walkover will be awarded to the opponents of any team unable to fulfil its fixture (for whatever reason). The defaulting team will score no Victory Points for that match and will be required to pay the table money for their team for that round.

3. Matches shall consist of 24 boards and shall be played in accordance with the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge 1997 and the rulings of the English Bridge Union. Conventions up to Level 3 of the EBU "Orange Book" shall be allowed. Rulings will be made on the night by the Director. Any appeals against rulings made by the Director must be lodged within the correction periods shown below.

4. Correction periods shall be

5. 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.

6. 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.

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

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

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

10. 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 Organiser. If the match is drawn, the captain of the team sitting throughout is responsible.

11. A team's position in the league will be determined by the number of VP's gained. If the number of VP's is equal ranking will be decided on the net difference of IMP's. Should that be equal the result between the two tied teams will be the deciding factor.

12. 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.

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