swanway

EBU There are a number of members in our club who have no desire to become Directors. However, they have shown an interest in learning more about the 10 most common infractions that occur in the club. I don't know why ten was the figure they decided on! I have made a list below of the ten laws that I think are the most common infractions. I would appreciate any suggestions or comments regarding this list. 1. Revoke 2. Opening lead out of turn 3. Other leads out of turn 4. Call out of rotation 5. Unauthorised information 6. Insufficient bid 7. Minor and Major cards 8. When is a card played 9. Missing cards 10. Claims I am sure there are some obvious ones that I have missed, that is why I need your help

EBU I know this problem has been on before but I cannot remember the ruling. Some players in our club have a habit of leaving the final contract bidding card sticking up in the bidding box to remind them of the contract being played. Is this illegal? Law 40C3a says that a player is not entitled during the auction and play periods to any aids to his memory unless permitted by the Regulating Authority. The club is a Regulating Authority so can the club allow this to happen?

EBU I have just posted one problem above and I am waiting for your comments. Unfortunately the following incident happened within a short time of the revoke problem. It was a bad night! Players had just finished playing a board and were still discussing the outcome when they took out the cards from the next board. South exposed all her cards assuming for some reason that she was dummy. The auction had not even started and all her cards were exposed. There were two ruling discussed. One was that the hand could not be played and an artificial score of 40/60 should be awarded. The other option was more complicated. The hand would be left exposed. The information would be unauthorised to North. North would also be prevented from bidding for ONE round. If NS became declarer then there would be no problem. However, if NS became defenders then all the cards would become major penalty cards. How these penalty cards would be played were discussed but not totally clarified. What should we have done? The player concerned has been recaptured!

EBU This incident happened recently at our local club. There was a disagreement about the ruling. Can you please help East was declarer in 3NT. Halfway through the play South played the 8♠ West (dummy) discarded the 4♥ North also discarded. East (declarer) played the 6♥even though he had the 10♠. East now assuming that he had won the trick played the 6♦ South informed him that she had won the trick. Declarer wanted to change the 6♥and play the 10♠. South said he could not change the card because the revoke had been established when he played the 6♦. Declarer stated that he had not won the trick therefore the revoke was not established. He had only exposed a card and played and out of turn. We were not sure if declarer had established his revoke by playing the diamond. Hope this is clear.

EBU North had 14 cards and, unfortunately, had looked at his hand before counting them. The extra card was the 4C and it belonged to South. The Director ruled that the hand could be played but he was prepared to give an adjusted score if N/S gained an advantage through knowing that South held the 4C. It is not until the end of play that the assessment is made and by this time it could be very difficult for E/W to decide whether N/S had gained an advantage. E/W tried to recall the line of play to see if they had been damaged but it was difficult. Wouldn't it be fairer if the 4C was treated as a major or minor penalty card. At least it gives E/W a chance to monitor the infraction as play progresses. In this case perhaps the 4C is not significant but the 9C could change the way a hand is played. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with this kind of problem?

EBU Several months ago I submitted to this forum a question about'slow play' and how to deal with it. The response from directors around the world was very encouraging and much appreciated. Unfortunately there were so many different opinions that it was difficult to decide how to confidently rule. Our club,after consultation with all the members, has come up with the following club ruling regarding slow play. Please would you comment and make suggestions. The club has a clock that warns players when there is only 3 minutes left to play the round. We have ruled that if players are still bidding they are not allowed to play the hand. The director is then called. If one pair is responsible for the slow play they will be awarded an Av- and the other pair an Av. If both pairs are responsible they are both awarded Av-. What happens if there has been a hold up at the table because the director had to make a ruling about an infraction? Do we make allowances for this? Giving them both an Av for instance. Last time some directors said it was illegal and others said they had similar rulings. Who is right? We really need precise and legal instructions to deal with this common problem.

EBU Could you please give me some advice about a problem that occurred recently in our bridge club. I was directing and at the end of the session, as we were packing up, a member came to me, quite upset, and said that another member had accused him and his wife of cheating. His wife has the habit of drumming the table with her fingers and the accuser said they were signalling each other by this method and asking for the lead of a certain suit. The accuser did not use the word 'cheating' at any time. I asked the accuser what evidence he had to justify such an accusation. He said they had done it on other occasions. I felt the accuser should have come to me privately and told me of his concerns and not blurted it out in this manner. How do I deal with this problem? What advice are directors given to deal with problems of this kind where the accuser is wrong or in some cases where the accuser is right?

EBU A scoring problem. We were playing a 9 table Howell movement. On the last round there was an arrow switch at some tables. At one table North failed to notice that there was a switch of direction and the boards were played the wrong way. It only happened at one table and on the last round. How do I score this problem? Does the score stand? Is the score cancelled and an adjusted score given? Are both pairs to blame or was it the fault of North? Would appreciate your comments.

EBU Can you please help to clarify some scoring problems we are encounting. Also some other problems regarding scoring that do occasionally occur. 1. Who has the overall authority for scoring an event. The Director or the Scorer? Sometimes the same person does both jobs so there is no problem but what happens if they are different people? Who decides if a procedural penalty is to be given and what it is? 2. This happened recently. The board was played but North did not score the result on the traveller. Do both pairs get an Average minus? E/W are also guilty of not checking the score. Should there be a procedural penalty? What would it be? In this particualr incident the Scorer knew that West always kept a score card. When contacted by 'phone he said it was +110 to North (his side). The E and W pairs were contacted but they could not remember the result. Should the Scorer be contacting players to find out what the score was or is there a standard procedure that must be followed in cases like this?

EBU In a recent teams of four competition the folowing incident happened. When first played North played in 4S making the contract. When the board was played the other way round North again bid 4S but when dummy went down it was obvious that something was wrong. Both East and North had the KH. It was then realised that North had picked up the cards from a different board. One way North had bid and made 4S and when played the other way the board was fouled. Surely North must be penalised for this infraction? What is the correct way to score it?

Thank you for your reply I use Scorebridge. My problem is I know how to change the scorer to reflect how the board was actually played. But I ended up with two pair 4's. On the score sheet of boards 7-9 I knew how to make the changes you suggested. However I had two pair 4's. 4 v 1 (wrong board played) and 4 v 2 (what should have been played) where I had to give pair 2 a score of 60%

English Bridge Union I am having problems scoring some boards in a session we played recently. Round one. Pairs 4 & 1 should be playing boards 1-3. Instead they play boards 7-9. We do not play late boards. Am I correct in saying that the scores for 7-9 stand? Pairs 4 & 1 are given an AV- (40%) on boards 1-3 because they did not play the boards? Now the problem starts. We were playing a 5 table Howell movement and there was a missing pair. Later in the evening Pair 4 is playing against pair 2 boards 7-9. These boards have already been played and scored by Pair 4. So Pair 2 should get a score of Av+ (60%). However when Pair 1 has to play boards 7-9 they have a sit out because of the missing pair. How do I score this on a computer scoring program? I just don't know how to do it. The 'HELP' section does not cover this problem. Everything I try is rejected by the scoring program. Help!!!

EBU Recently a bridge player I know referred to some bridge beginners as 'rabbits'. He certainly did not intend in any way to offend anybody. However, it got a swift reaction and several people said it was a terrible word to describe beginners. I have looked up the word in a 'Bridge Players Dictionary'. The book is very old. It is in latin!!! It clearly says that inexperienced players are called rabbits. Does anybody else use this word. I think it does sound offensive.

English Bridge Union In UK McKenney signals are used. This is a suit preference signal that is given different names in other parts of the world. A high signal/discard asks for a lead of the higher of the other two suits. Similary a low signal asks for the lower of the two suits. Quite often when opponents are asked what signals they play they just say 'McKenney' and nothing else Am I then allowed to ask them the following questions: 1. What suit does your partner want you to lead? 2. Is a 5 or 6 a high or low card?

EBU In our club we use Bridgmates. After playing a hand it is normal for North to score the hand and then show the result to East who will accept the score displayed on the screen or not accept it. Is South allowed to score the board instead of North? We have one couple who prefer to use this method of scoring. Is it a law that North does the scoring and East does the checking or can South undertake this task? Dont't even ask about suggesting to South that they play North. Been there, done that!!