The Big Boat Race Shoves Off
Wednesday players at both Cambridge and Tauranga played the same hands on the 14th of August - as they will on the 21st and 28th. This is not abnormal - it happens with every session of bridge at about one third of clubs in NZ. It is part of a scheme called X-Clubs which scores across the results of many clubs. The reason for this arrangement is to slot everyone's results into a wider spectrum so the percentages are more meaningful. It takes about 120 pairs for the results to settle down to +/-0.5% of what they would be in a huge field.