I am not sure if it's been made clear that EBU-affiliated bridge clubs upload the results of each duplicate session. This enables the EBU to charge the club a fee, currently 45p per person, according to the number of bums on seats. The results also automatically feed into the national rating system (NGS). All club members pay a nominal club annual membership fee (at John's club £8) to establish who therefore becomes an EBU member. At Bedford the annual club membership fee is £10 and table money is £2 for members, £3 for visitors/guests. This includes the 45p EBU charge. Bedford table money is even cashless, as we are billed monthly by the club and most use online banking. There is therefore an 'extra cost' for being in the EBU but it's subsumed in the table money and thus paid painlessly in small instalments throughout the year.John Townsend wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2024 5:33 pmI was slightly surprised by Roger L's comment that comparison with costs of other hobbies should be a separate matter, and perhaps not everyone would agree with him. John U. asked me questions about two of my recent hobbies, but chess seems to compare the least favourably with the third one, bridge.
Having returned to regular duplicate bridge last year after an absence of thirty years, I was happy to find the sub at my local club was just £8, and, thereafter, each session is charged at £1.50. The round trip for me is about eight miles.
I am a member of the national union, the English Bridge Union, at no extra cost. This is similar to the arrangement concerning my former membership of the Lawn Tennis Association, which I mentioned above.
Question: If membership of the national organisations for tennis and bridge is conferred at no extra cost, why is there a charge for the ECF?
All the above is automated. With a click, results are uploaded to the EBU and to the club website and available before you get home. Additionally all the score details for every pair (hands, contracts, opening leads, scores compared with other pairs, computer analysis of best play) are also on the club website.
Although it is possible to join the EBU as a Direct Member for an annual fee of £35, nearly everyone joins through their club. Of course some clubs decide not to affiliate, which is often a bone of contention, and their results don't get rated. You can imagine the chorus of 'What does the EBU do for ME!?' just as with the ECF.
Overall I think chess and bridge costs are very similar and, in my opinion, trivial compared with life's other expenses.
Covid has led to a huge increase in permanent online bridge play, e.g. county matches, but that is another discussion. Milton Keynes Bridge Club has abandoned its venue and meets only online. Online play does have significant advantages, especially with the RealBridge platform involving camera and microphone (now standard in most laptops), which almost eliminates the cheating problem that so bedevils online chess.