Club Director Training

Club Director Training Courses - Classroom based

EBED offers a program of 4 days of classroom based training, led by an experienced EBU Tournament Director, as follows:

Day-0 introduces delegates to the skills which a good director will need and the organisational aspects of running a club session such as selecting the movement, scoring and dealing with slow play.

Days 1 & 2 equip the club director with the skills needed to handle the most commonly occurring law infractions in club bridge. This includes dealing with revokes, penalty cards, lead out of turn, claims, insufficient bids, calls out of turn, unauthorised Information & misinformation.

To qualify as an EBU club director, a delegate needs to pass a Day 3 Assessment which tests their understanding and application of the material covered in Days 1 and 2.

Who can attend?
Participants do not need to be members of the English Bridge Union. EBU members benefit from a cost subsidy provided by the EBU.

Do I need to attend Day-0 the introductory session?
The Day-0 “How to Run a Club Duplicate” introductory session is not a prerequisite for attending the remaining days of the program - but it would be normal to do so unless the individual already has some experience of running a club session and is comfortable with movements and scoring.

Can I opt to only attend Day-0?
Day 0 – “How to Run a Club Duplicate” is also suitable for individuals who just wish to help out at their clubs as scorers or "session managers". Day-0 can be run as a stand-alone event or in advance of the main 3 day training course and is also available as an online session, delivered over zoom.

Can I be trained online rather than in a classroom?
Only the day-0 introductory session “How to Run a Club Duplicate” is available to be taught online. See details of online training courses

Days 1, 2 & 3 involve practical simulations of situations you will encounter at the bridge table. We cannot replicate these using online platforms, so are not able to offer online training of these sessions.

Can I choose to take the courses at different venues?
Each day of the course has standardised content - so participants can choose whichever venue is most suitable for each day.

For more information about course content
Please contact Clive at EBED for any enquires regarding these courses by email clive@ebedcio.org.uk or by phone on 01296 317212.

Where, when, cost and how to book

Please see the course calendar. here
For course bookings, fees and other Frequently Asked Questions please see here

Register your interest for future Club Tournament Director Training courses
If there are no course local to you and you might wish to attend one please pre-register your interest [by clicking on the button], or just get in touch. Pre-registration is quick and easy and there is no obligation to attend.

Would your bridge club benefit from additional directors? Is your club interested in hosting a Club Tournament Director Training course? If you would like to know more please call Clive Turner on 01296-317212 (clive@ebedcio.org.uk).

More Information for Club Directors
The EBU has also created a series of videos to help Club Tournament Directors deal with six of the more commonly occurring situations. They can be viewed here

We recommend that all potential directors watch these videos as part of their preparation for the club director course, and also sign up to the EBU forum established for club directors to share questions and concerns about scoring or directing problems which they have encountered. The forum can be found here

Online training offered for Club Directors
For those wishing to gain an introduction to face-to-face directing at your club EBED is offering the Day-0 “How to run a club duplicate – Online version” session delivered over Zoom.

Also, you can be trained to use the EBUScore scoring program via an online session.
Online training in “Judgement rulings for online bridge”, and “How to direct on BBO” are available.

These sessions may be arranged for individual clubs, or for a wider public. Please email Clive for more information.

See online training courses

Next Steps and becoming a County TD

For more experienced directors, with ambitions to progress to a county or national level, advanced training is provided in the form of a 'refresher day' held occassionally at selected locations. Material from previous County courses is used to give delegates a flavour of harder book and judgement rulings. It will also cover use of the EBU’s White Book (the essential guide for tournament organisers). Full details of the course are here.

Consolidate your Skills

Download a test paper consisting of 40 situations to consider: book rulings, judgement rulings and, in some cases, good old-fashioned common-sense. Some are quite intricate and others straightforward, but hopefully they will all make you think.

This course is designed for Club TDs who need more experience of rulings and is ideal preparation for the County Director’s Course held annually in September. Full details of the course are here.

You can study or download useful flow charts on the most commonly infringed laws here.

Explanation of the TD training courses