Promoting BRIDGE within Victoria
Fostering interest in the game

  • VBA Bulletin Cup – Introduction

     

    Bridge clubs all closed? How on earth do you get to keep playing?  One of the things Dee Harley, our esteemed Bulletin editor, admired about bridge in Scotland was the format of the Scottish Cup, and since we are in dire straits with covid19, he thought to recreate that format here in Victoria, and call it the VBA Bulletin Cup.

    Format

    • The VBA Bulletin Cup will be played entirely online. Entry is free of charge.  It will be contested between teams of exactly four players.
    • Matches will be played using BBO Teams match format (scored in IMPS).
    • Each team is guaranteed to play in at least two matches.
    • Teams will consist of four players, one of whom is designated Captain.
    • A team will be drawn against another team, one will be designated the Home Team, and the other team the Away Team.
    • The Captains agree a date and time for the match to be played which MUST be played in the specified week.
    • If no time/date can be agreed the match will be decided by coin toss. The next match either team plays will start the match with a penalty 12 Imps. I do not expect this to ever happen.A match will consist of 24 boards, to be played in two sets of 12.
    • After 12 boards, the Home team must switch seats (from North/South to East/West) and the Away team will retain their seats. This will ensure you play different opponents in the second half.
    • The winning team should notify me of the result.
    • The draw for the next round will be made available on the VBA Website.
    • Imagine that 16 teams enter, we would have 8 first round matches in week one, 4 second round matches (Quarter finals) in week two, 2 third round (Semi-finals) in week three, and a final during the fourth week. We may agree to play more boards in the final (two lots of 16 boards?). I would imagine that we could showcase the final, allowing Kibitzers to entertain themselves by watching.

    If you lose your first match then your team will go into a secondary competition called The Plate, which would mirror the Cup in detail. (quarter-finals, semi-finals, Final).

    The competition is open to anyone who lives in Victoria.

    Entry

    • It would be best if you can enter as a full team of four. Nominate the captain, the Captain’s email address, the names of the four players, and an appropriate Team Name.
    • Entries are to be submitted before the 15th April. Dee Harley will acknowledge receipt.
    • Click here to Enter   via email
    • All players must be ACTIVE players on the ABF Masterpoint centre – ie they must be current members of a club 

     

    Schedule

    • The draw will be issued on the 16th April.
    • The first week of competition will start on the following Sunday – the 19th April.
    • Since it is unlikely that we will have exactly 16 teams, we are likely to have to play some preliminary matches, so some teams are likely to have a Bye in the first week.
    • The tournaments are called the Cup and the Plate.

    Ethics

    This is an online competition, and we are well aware that cheating would be easy to do. We trust that we all have enough respect for the game not to do so.

    If you are playing in the same venue as your partner for example you should ensure that you are in different rooms – out of sight and out of earshot from each other.


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