[jillybean]

We ran a 22 table game with a round clock displayed on the Centre's big screen TV today, I think the lollygaggers have already sped up a little.
The software we have for the clock is reasonable, does anyone have free round clock software that it superb?

We posted the results on the big screen (1 round to go). This was a big hit and kept the players from hovering around the Directors PC to see their results.

Next, I am thinking a barometer game would be fun once or twice a year. Barometer doesn't seem to be popular in North America but I played one at a tournament in NZ once, it was fun. If all tables need to be playing the same boards each round, having boards for two sections of 11 tables is impossible.
From memory, at the barometer game I played, a group of tables shared a set of boards. This appears to be the answer?

[paulg]

I believe that barometer is the norm for club events in Norway and Sweden. If you do not get an answer here, then I suggest you message Harald Berre Skjæran on BridgeWinners as he will certainly be able to help (he is no longer active on this forum).

We use Mike Rothwell's bridge timer at the club - https://rothwells.we...com/timer.html. It is not free, it is not round, but cheap, and the Bridgemate extension is great for speeding up tables as it tells everyone which tables are still playing. There is also a free trial.

[jillybean]

Thanks, Paul.

The timer looks fabulous, I like the last tables playing feature and the interface with the bridgemates.
It’s approximately $80 CAD with the BM interface

I know of Harald from here and have seen him on BW. Thanks.

[pescetom]

 paulg, on 2025-January-16, 03:02, said:

We use Mike Rothwell's bridge timer at the club - https://rothwells.we...com/timer.html. It is not free, it is not round, but cheap, and the Bridgemate extension is great for speeding up tables as it tells everyone which tables are still playing. There is also a free trial.

After a first dose of caffeine I decided that OP is looking for a clock to time out rounds, not a clock that is round

I'm not a fan of showing the clock (the slower players tend to game it even more, in my experience) but I do like the idea of an 'impartial' software that shames the late tables. I did try to convince our app developers to insert a warning for tables running slow (similar to Realbridge, but for both players and TD), but that hasn't happened yet.

[jillybean]

pescetom, on 2025-January-16, 03:50, said:

After a first dose of caffeine I decided that OP is looking for a clock to time out rounds, not a clock that is round

British humour, I got a laugh

[barmar]

Two of the clubs around here have been using Rich Waugh's Bridge Round Timer for years. It requires Windows, though.

[mycroft]

jillybean, on 2025-January-15, 20:52, said:

We ran a 22 table game with a round clock displayed on the Centre's big screen TV today, I think the lollygaggers have already sped up a little.
The software we have for the clock is reasonable, does anyone have free round clock software that it superb?

Let me start with: NO!

However:

I do have a clock that does everything I want, including a few things no other clock I've seen does. It is at the point where we use it at our club, and I use it in my tournaments, and I trust it.

It is not superb for at least two reasons:

• One of the things it's missing is unit tests. I don't have any problems with it, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.
  
• It's a python program, and all the tools to create an executable from python are massively used by malware authors; so any executable I make of it is guaranteed to be flagged as malware within two weeks, if I don't do a *lot* of work submitting it to everywhere. So, unless someone is computer savvy enough to understand "copy this entire directory somewhere, install python, install wxPython, run this script from the command line" (or create shortcut that does the same), it's as effective a clock as a sledgehammer.

I would also say that there are things "available" (in menu items, or in the setup page) that are 100% not implemented. Sounds, for instance :-).

But - if there's someone who is comfortable with beta software and understands everything I've said above, please try it!

Edit to add: it's heavily based on Rich Waugh's timer; the only reason(s) I'm not still using that is it requires a library that is hard to find for Windows 10 and does not exist for Windows 11 (and is restricted to 800x600 pixels). Do check that one out if you can!

[skjaeran]

jillybean, on 2025-January-15, 20:52, said:

We ran a 22 table game with a round clock displayed on the Centre's big screen TV today, I think the lollygaggers have already sped up a little.
The software we have for the clock is reasonable, does anyone have free round clock software that it superb?

We posted the results on the big screen (1 round to go). This was a big hit and kept the players from hovering around the Directors PC to see their results.

Next, I am thinking a barometer game would be fun once or twice a year. Barometer doesn't seem to be popular in North America but I played one at a tournament in NZ once, it was fun. If all tables need to be playing the same boards each round, having boards for two sections of 11 tables is impossible.
From memory, at the barometer game I played, a group of tables shared a set of boards. This appears to be the answer?

In Norway I think 75-80 % of the clubs (afilliated clubs, there are many clubs outside the federation) play barometer tournaments. Some clubs have more than one group, but there are few of those these days. The biggest clubs with only one group play Swiss pairs, the rest play normal barometer style; curtailed if the number of pairs make a full barometer impossible/difficult. Most clubs play 24 or 27 boards. Small clubs (just three tables play 25 or 30 boards).

We reccomend that the number of boards available is at least 1.5 times the number of tables. That is, if you have ten tables playing 3 board rounds, you need 5 duplicates of each board.

Many clubs have their own machine duplicating the boards. Some of the district federations rent out boards to clubs. A few clubs (maybe 8-10) use Bridge+More (a small device placed on each table that duplicates the next board while the table is playing one board.

All tournaments in Norway is played barometer style and have been for decades, I remember well hand duplicating all boards for an annual tournament I directed in my youth (I was 18 and 19 when I did); 82 boards, 14 copies for a 21 table barometer.

At the Swedish Bridge Festival they have some huge tournaments; then the use semi barometer style; 1/4 of the field start with the 1st set of boards, 1/4 with the 2nd set, etc. after four rounds the whole field has completed four sets.

[jillybean]

Thanks Harald.

We are playing 3 board rounds, 7 rounds, with a 15-20 minute coffee break. We have a wide range of players, abilities and aspirations but it is a low key, social game.
We may move to 8 rounds in future. There's a trade off between coffee out in the lounge or at the tables, on the cards and bridge mates.

We have a dealing machine, we could borrow extra boards but the number of boards required for a 22 table barometer game appears to be exorbitant.

I need to think of something else to do for fun.

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2025-January-18, 14:44, said:

Thanks Harald.

We are playing 3 board rounds, 7 rounds, with a 15-20 minute coffee break. We have a wide range of players, abilities and aspirations but it is a low key, social game.
We may move to 8 rounds in future. There's a trade off between coffee out in the lounge or at the tables, on the cards and bridge mates.

We have a dealing machine, we could borrow extra boards but the number of boards required for a 22 table barometer game appears to be exorbitant.

I need to think of something else to do for fun.

The number of boards and cards is the least of the problems, the issue is reliability/speed of the dealer machine and who spends the time.
For those lucky enough to not also need braille cards.

[jillybean]

pescetom, on 2025-January-18, 17:05, said:

The number of boards and cards is the least of the problems, the issue is reliability/speed of the dealer machine and who spends the time.
For those lucky enough to not also need braille cards.

The dealing machine is new and very reliable. The cards are new, any problem decks can be replaced.
I am sure that we could find enough people to help; opening boards, removing cards, stacking cards, feeding cards, closing boards.
Time and simply managing that many boards is another matter.