Validating Board Order
There was (I believe) a discussion a while back about whether boards could be marked on the side so as to make it easy to verify they were in order from the side of a stack.
The point as made that as organisations (especially the EBU) use many sets that tend to get mixed up, so a simple diagonal stripe (or similar) wouldn't work.
Today I used a set marked with numbers on the edge. It is incredibly easy to identify when they are out of order without "flipping through" them, and (providing the numbers are always put in the same place), it doesn't matter if board sets are mixed up.
I'm sure others have their own methods, but when I think how many hours I have spent verifying board order in Swiss events...
Comments
I see you have blue in odd numbered boards and red in even. At Sheffield BC, we do the other way round! I put the side numbers down in diagonal stripes, but the pattern is the same for all our sets so if boards get mixed between sets of the same colour, we wouldn't normally notice. Stuart Davies has an even better system for Yorkshire CBA's boards which are also used for a number of EBU events. Each set is identified by a letter or two letters in addition to the board number on each side stickers. Thus the sets have side stickers eg A1 to A49, M1 to M49, AG1 to AG49. Time is saved when checking boards before an event even though it takes a little extra time when returning boards to their cases at the end of an event.
Barrie Partridge - CTD for Bridge Club Live
Until the labels come off and someone puts them back on the wrong board!
All I am saying is that it does take some work and diligence to make these schemes work.