GENERAL NEBA COMPETITION RULES
⦁ Except where specified, entry is restricted to paid up members of the Association.
⦁ Clubs will be charged table money for players who enter any event and fail to attend without giving adequate notice.
⦁ For Direct Entry events (Nos 7 to 14), players must enter through the hosting club by the Monday before the event. Late entries may be accepted at the discretion of the Tournament Director in charge. No entry fee is payable with the entry but £10.00 table money will be charged at the event.
⦁ If entry is made by email, an acknowledgement should be requested.
⦁ It is the responsibility of players to ensure that their entry has been received.
⦁ Entry fees for all other events should be sent to the appropriate Tournament Secretary, except where they are paid at a qualifying heat and forwarded by the club concerned.
⦁ All players are requested to show EBU membership numbers on table slips.
⦁ All NEBA events will start promptly at 2.00 p.m, except where specified.
NOTE: Inter Club League matches will start at 2.00 p.m.
⦁ EBU non-smoking rules apply in all NEBA events.
⦁ No substitutes are permitted in semi-finals or finals of pairs events.
⦁ In the Kempson Vases Final, the four players in a team may include one player who did not play in that team in the qualifying round.
⦁ In all other Teams-of-Four events, a team may enter up to 6 players in total, provided that none of the 6 have played for any other team in the event during the season.
⦁ Level 4 systems and conventions are allowed in all NEBA competitions, with the exception of newcomers and other beginners’ events, where only Level 2 systems and conventions are permitted. Both players in a partnership must have identically completed convention cards for exchanging with their opponents.
Clubs will be charged a fee of £2.00 per table for all qualifying heats. There will also be a charge of £3.00, payable at the event, for players in the Chronicle Cups semi-finals and £6.00 per player for all NEBA finals.
Club Secretaries please note that results of qualifying heats should reach the Tournament Secretary no more than one week after the last date for heats.
Table money at all finals will be £6.00 per player to include tea or coffee but no food, except where catering is being provided.
The Chronicle Cups Competition (Event 1) is the NEBA Pairs Championship. Green Points are awarded and four of the top pairs in the final are invited to participate in the EBU Corwen Trophy with the entry fees paid by NEBA. Heats are held in clubs with pairs scoring over 50% qualifying for a semi-final. There will be two regional semi-finals, and from the combined ranking list 24 pairs, all of whom have scored not less than 50%, will qualify for a 46 board final. The runners up will receive the St. George’s Shield.
In events 2 – 4, the Gazette Cups, Summer Pairs and Kempson Vases competitions, heats will take place in the clubs and the qualification ratio for the finals will be one qualifying pair or team, or part thereof, for every four pairs or teams taking part in the heat.
There is no limit to the number of heats of these four competitions in which members may play to qualify, and as many players are expected to play in more than one heat, some will qualify more than once. In such cases, qualification priority should be given to their result in their own club’s heat. If that does not apply, priority should be given to their earliest heat. However, in pairs’ events, a player qualifying with more than on partner can choose which partner to qualify with.
NOTE: Where a player proposes to attend a heat being played at a club of which he or she is not a member, the player MUST telephone the club secretary to let them know in advance. Furthermore, players must be aware that club members take precedence over visitors, irrespective of how early the visitors arrive, and that some clubs may not have space to accommodate visitors. In such an event, visitors may have to be asked to leave and clubs are entirely within their rights to exercise this option.