What options do you take for a simple two-team match?

[Gravitino]

We are part of a league which runs 20-board matches involving two teams and two rooms.

For the first half, NS1 plays against EW1 in Room 1, while NS2 plays against EW2 in Room 2.  Boards 1-10 are used and shuttled between the two rooms.

We then have a snack and resume the match, using boards 11-20:

• NS2 become EW in Room 1 and play against stationary NS1.
• EW1 become NS in Room 2, where they play against stationary EW2.

Which options do I take to set this up?

I tried it last night in a real match, but for the second half the same player names came up on the display in each room.  It didn't matter to the overall score, but it led me to believe that we must have taken the wrong option somewhere.

[Mirna]

Which movement did you use when you used it in a real match?
I assume you would have to define (in the Movement Library) a two round movement, 10 boards per round?
However, whichever movement you choose, the player names will not change if you change the direction half way through. The results will be correct.
The same thing would happen if you run pivot teams - although the results would always be correct.

There is currently an undocumented tweak in BridgeScore, which lets you run a league/KO teams with 12 boards per round where players would swap half way through - even teams swap, odd teams stay. Player names are here recognised when they swap. Movements where Description starts with 'LEAGUE' are used for this. This is not advertised as a standard BridgeScore function and it was only implemented for some events we run in our club. I wouldn't recommend you use this as it doesn't fully conform to EBU master point requirements. Also it will not work if you try to create a 10 board per round movement with name LEAGUE etc... It is only a tweak...

[Mirna]

Just reading your post again - you say that in the second half original NS2 became EW in room 1 playing stationary NS1.
Also original EW2 was stationary so played EW in room 2. Does it mean that both pairs in team 2 were playing EW in the second half, or is it just a question of numbering? NS1 and EW2 are a team 1 and NS2 and EW1 are team 2? This would then correspond to the pair numbering on BridgePal where NS1 and EW1 are team 1 and NS2 and EW2 are team 2.  In first half NS1 plays EW2 in room/table 1 and NS2 plays EW1 in room/table 2. In second half stationary NS1 plays plays original NS2 (now playing EW) and stationary EW 1 plays original EW2 (now playing NS).
Just tried this scenario for 10 board round on BridgePals and it seems to work (more or less), i.e. names are shown correctly - swapped...

[Gravitino]

Sorry, I'm getting confounded by the notation.

Let's change it to a match between Oxford (pairs OXF1 and OXF2) and Cambridge (CAM1 and CAM2).

In Round 1, OXF 1 plays NS against CAM1 EW on Table 1, while on Table 2, CAM2 is playing NS against OXF2 EW.  The two tables shares boards 1-12.

Since Oxford is the home team, they move for round 2, in which the two tables share boards 13-24:
OXF2 plays NS on Table 1 against static CAM1 EW.
Static CAM2 plays NS on Table 2 against OXF1 EW.

Which pre-configured movement should we use for this match?

[Mirna]

You can try the league/KO Teams movements - see Help for league as on the picture.
The functionality for leagues/KO teams is very limited. It was  developed specifically for our local club at a time before we made BridgePal available to other clubs. As such it is not supported and there are no plans to enhance it. It might not work for everybody in the way they expect it to but you are welcome to use it if you wish.

Normal use of BridgeScore/BridgePal is for multiple teams of 4, but without change in seating lineup. You can still run teams events where seating changes throughout the session, the results will be correct, but the names displayed on BridgePals might sometimes be incorrect.

[Gravitino]

OK, thanks.  It's good to know we hadn't misunderstood this aspect of the instructions.

It's a pity that BridgePal does not properly support sessions with a very small number of players, because it is through these that individuals can demonstrate to themselves that the system works before they make a major proposal to their club.  (As you know, it is so inexpensive for someone to download the software, and borrow a WiFi router and a couple of Android handsets.)

My wife and I play in a couple of leagues in Surrey which take place in people's homes: just two teams of four, in which you play against one pair in the first half, then the other opposing pair in the second half.It would be nice to have BridgePal support this sort of match.

We also have social bridge when we have just four players, in which we compete on the basis of the optimal contract calculated for  the Hand Record.  If you make the Optimal Contract, then neither side wins the board. If you exceed the optimal score, the board is a victory to your pair; if you do worse, the board is a victory to the opposing pair.  Simple, but fun.  It would be wonderful to have BridgePal support that sort of non-duplicate game.

[johng]

Gavin,

What you say is simply misleading. BridgePal does in fact properly supports sessions with a very small number of players, within the confines of the functionality advertised, i.e. pairs and multiple teams. These type of events can be played with as few as two tables, selecting one of the pre-defined movements in Bridgescore, or defining one of your own.

It may not support every type of event you might come up with but that's not a defect of the software. We choose to implement the features that we think will be most useful to clubs, and to do those well, rather than trying to make BridgePal/Bridgescore into the swiss army knife of wireless scoring systems ! Remember that we are providing this software free of charge as a service to the bridge community, and our effort is not unlimited.

For wireless scoring of pairs and multiple teams events we provide comprehensive functionality which I think you will find matches or surpasses any of the commercial wireless scoring systems out there.

John