July 21 – Comments & Explanations

The competition for July 21 (2026) involved a small number of players (12 in total) hence a Howell movement (3 tables) was appropriate. Because there are 6 pairs, each pair plays against 5 others. This means 4 boards per set (20 games in all) so that we can get finished before 10 o'clock. However, the diagrams showing the rotations indicate 5 boards per set (1 to 5, then 6 to 10, etc). This would take too long to finish (25 games instead of 20) so for such player numbers we leave out the fifth board in each set so we play 1 to 4, then 6 to 9, and so on.

The rotation and boards used require that, for the last setting of players, one set of boards needs to be shared between two tables (e.g. 21 to 24). To work this, one table starts with 21 & 22, while the other has 23 & 24; then they swap after finishing those first two boards.

Scoring is as usual for Howell with care being taken to ensure that the N-S pair at each table fills in the traveler. Sometimes a particular pair is N-S and at other times E-W, so care needs to be taken to write (or use) the pair numbers in the correct column: N-S use their number where it appears in the N-S column, then the E-W number is written next to that.

For a 3-table Howell (i.e. July 21), each traveler has three lines filled in. So, for the competition, the possible scores are 4 (for a 'top'), zero for a 'bottom' and 2 for the middle result. So, when looking at the final results table, each column under a particular pair number, shows a 0 or 2 or 4 scored (if there are two who score an 'equal top', it is shared ... 3 pts each).

In the special case when a pair needs to leave early, the results for the two pairs who would have played a particular set of boards is given 'an 'average' score for each hand not played (essentially, the 'middle' score ... 2). This means that there are only two lines on the traveler showing results of play, with the third line (the absent pairs) being allocated the 'average' score. That way, every column on the results table still shows the 0 or 2 or 4 for a result and the total for each column is still 6 (0 + 2 + 4).

From the 20 boards that everyone plays, the most a pair could score, in total, would be 80 (4 times 20), so the percentage number on the results sheet is each pair's total score as a percentage of 80.