Ailleacht

Hello Again People, I live in Ireland and it was the Irish intermediate national teams. South was playing weak no trump. The person took his time thinking about what to bid. He took his time thinking and then took out the pass. I was thinking Ok you are not going to bid, fine and I tapped my pass on the table. the TD seemed to accept that the pass was not put there by the player but somehow appeared there and did not accept what i said that he put the card down and that i subsequently passed after this. I do not have the sheet of the hands played. i took the wrong sheets home with me. But he did have at least 11 points and 4 hearts. Yet again I just do not think the bid was fair! ....PB

Hello All, thanks for the comments. Have been talking about it with some of the TD's in my club. If the auction ends before the player's partner has a chance to call (as it would here) the player has until the opening lead is faced to change his unintended call. This is what the overall TD confirmed on the Sunday. It just seems a little unfair to me. It is not right. The pass was placed down and that is when I tapped the card. He tried to explain that it came out in the one movement. I saw the pass was down and i tapped. (I will not do it anymore!!!!) He did not give out to me about bidding out of turn. He also made no effort to use the stop card as etiquette requires. In summary I think the person was probably tired. I do not think there was any intention to "trap" me into bidding. And of course they made 3NT and my other pair went down 1. And of course we lost the match 25-0. A disaster....

Hello All, I was playing in a national teams competition over the weekend. We were playing 4 board games and the team we played against had just got 2 good scores. I was the opener, east. Pass 1NT from south Pass from west and after a delay Pass from north. I thought fair enough you are not going to bid and I tapped my pass card that was on the table to finish the auction. Or so I though. North woke up. He said 3NT and then proceeded to take out the 3 NT bid. I called the TD and explained what happened. The TD was not very sure and believed North despite me describing what had happened. North had about 12 points and 4 hearts to the AQJx. he did not use Staymen. He tried to say that the Pass card came out separately. It did not. he passed and I tapped to indicate the auction was over. he had paused long enough and well if you are not going to bid, fair enough. then he tried to bid. i was not happy with the ruling. North was being believed by TD and my partner more or less said forget it just play on. It was late. The TD then said OK and because my partner said play on that finished it. I queried the call after the session (this was the last round) and on the sunday at the end of the competition. i was then told that until the lead is on the table anyone can still bid. I dont think it is fair because.... If someone is non vul V vul and had 11 points plus they can pass and see if they can trap the opponents to make an over call. And if the opponents pass they can then bid 3NT. What do you think? Was it fair? Was it right?