The Club's Perspective

Investing in a Bridgemate system is a major step for a club, both financially and organisationally. The process may well be instigated by one or members who have encountered Bridgemates at other clubs or in congresses but, once underway a club has to justify the outlay in terms of benefits for members.

It's helpful to look at those benefits both from the point of view of the players at the table, and from the standpoint of the club overall.

Bridgemates at the Table

We tend to think of Bridgemates as scoring devices, which of course they are, but their role at the table goes rather further than that.

Their first task is to identify the four players at the table: identifying numbers of various kinds may be used for this purpose, and the matching names are then displayed for verification, and are subsequently displayed at the beginning of each round throughout the event.

Also displayed at the beginning of each round are the two pair numbers and the board numbers they will be playing.

As each board is played the contract, declarer, the opening lead [optionally], and the result are entered. The resultant score is calculated automatically, and displayed for verification. The players are then shown their respective percentage scores on the board, based on the results so far recorded at other tables on the board. In larger, multi-section events, where several sets of boards are in play, the percentage result is based on the results from all sections.

At the end of each round, the players have the option of  seeing their ranks in the overall event, based on the results to date. They then see movement instructions for the following round.

Where wireless devices are not used, scoring takes place once the event has been completed, either immediately or at some later stage. With Bridgemates however, once the last board is finished and its result entered, the event is fully scored, and the event results may be displayed, printed, and uploaded to relevant websites. For many players, this means they can pore over the results over a glass of something in the comfort of their own home.

Organising an Event With Bridgemates

A Bridgemate system works in cooperation with the club's scoring program [all such recognised programs work with Bridgemates]. The Bridgemate system in launched by the scoring program, which means that a member who knows how to use the scoring program pretty much knows how to run a Bridgemate-equipped event.

The major difference is in the dynamics of the event: scoring begins at the outset rather than being a process which only occurs after the event has completed.

The demands on an event's director are much reduced. Of course there will be assistance and rulings to be dispensed, but the lot of the playing director is not at all unhappy. Indeed, clubs adopting Bridgemates have been able to utilise their previously non-playing directors as hosts.