by Malcolm Dawson, Bishop Auckland Bridge Club
Having developed from the game of whist in Victorian times, Bridge became a popular passtime amongst the middle and upper classes in the years either side of the Great War. At that time it was mostly played socially in people’s homes or for money in Gentlemen’s Clubs and the most common form of the game was Rubber Bridge.
In Rubber Bridge, one pair designated North/South is in direct competition with the other who are East/West. Because of the way Rubber Bridge is scored, whilst skill is still an important factor in determining the winner, the hands one is dealt also play a significant part. If over the course of a session, one side gets most of the top cards they have a better chance of finishing on top.
Following the end of WWII, with people able to get around more easily, more Bridge clubs sprang up and at the same time it became increasingly popular through all sections of society.
The adoption of special boards which allowed each hand to remain separate from the others led to the development of Duplicate Bridge.
This is by far the most popular form of the game played in most clubs. Now when a hand is played, the score is recorded and the cards returned to the board which is passed on and the same hands played several times by different pairs over the course of the session. At the end of the session pairs’ scores are compared with one another to determine a winner. This puts more emphasis on how well a pair plays and less on the value of the cards a player is dealt.
The better a pair do on each board, the more points they get: two for every pair whose score they beat and one for any they equal. When all boards are scored this is converted to a % of the maximum they may have got.
Here after 24 hands Ann and Bob have done well and finished with a score of 65%, outperforming the next best pair by over 10%. Next time we’ll look at a couple of example hands to see how the scoring works.
Bishop Auckland Bridge Club meets in the bar at the Golf Club on Thursday evenings at 7pm and would welcome new members. If you enjoy the game and have a regular partner why not join us? Further information and contact details can be found on our website at www.bridgewebs.com/bishopauckland.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
