Mark James Boyd wrote:

But I'm not sure "5 hours"
is a magic number.

It's not. A neighbour club asks for "either once 5 hours or twice 4
hours", and I'm certain that other clubs have even other rules. Our club
happens to require 5 hours, and this is neither better nor worse than
other rules.

The point is, in a real world club, you need strict rules. Otherwise it
will be the source of eternal discussions ("why is he allowed and I'm
not"). Yes, there are good times when everything works well and it would
do so without rules. But unevitably there will be bad times, and all
those rules are for those times.

I live well with our rules, if I were in an other club, I supposedly
would live well with their rules.

Stefan