A traveling sheet (also called a traveler) is a form used for recording individual results during duplicate bridge tournaments. In pairs tournaments, every deal is placed into boards and played several times by different competitors, unchanged. The results are entered into the traveling sheets, which are placed in board pockets. At the end of the tournament, the traveling sheets are gathered and the tournament results are calculated. A traveling sheet usually has the following entries, that should be filled in by competitors:
- Board number
- Card diagram, which should be filled in only by the first pair who played the deal. Presence of diagram is not mandatory, but it can help reconstruct the deal if the cards are corrupted by careless players.
- A number of rows (typically 8-16, depending on the tournament size), where data about every score are entered, each having the following columns:
- NS and EW pair numbers
- Contract
- Declarer (optional)
- Number of tricks made
- Opening lead (optional)
- The score
- In addition, 2-4 more columns can be present, where the calculation staff can put the total scores for the board (especially if the calculation is performed manually rather than by computer):
- Number of matchpoints awarded at each table (for matchpoint scoring), or
number of IMPs awarded (for IMP scoring) - Sum of matchpoints or IMPs per match.
- Number of matchpoints awarded at each table (for matchpoint scoring), or
Example
A traveling sheet on a 5-table matchpoint tournament, on board no. 1. Entries filled by competitors are colored blue, and entries filled by the calculating staff in red:
| NS | EW | Contract | By | Made | Lead | Score | MP/IMP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NS | EW | NS | EW | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 4♠ | N | = | ♥x | 420 | 5 | 3 | |
| 5 | 4 | 4♠ | N | -1 | ♦x | 50 | 0 | 8 | |
| 4 | 2 | 3♠ | S | +1 | ♥K | 170 | 2 | 6 | |
| 3 | 5 | 4♥! | W | -3 | ♠A | 500 | 8 | 0 | |
| 2 | 3 | 4♠ | N | = | ♣J | 420 | 5 | 3 | |
