[blml] How do you deal with this mess?

[Alain Gottcheiner]

Guthrie a écrit :
> [David Barton]
> I received a phone call to give a ruling from a team match being 
> played privately. The auction had gone
> 1N(1) _X(2) _P(3) P
> 2C
> XX(4) _P(5) _P    2C
> X     AP
> (1) 12-14
> (2) Penalty
> (3) Alerted - forces partner to redouble (to play or single suited escape)
> (4) Momentarily confused about his agreements, 2C is removed from the 
> bidding box. Before it is placed on the table his LHO asks about the 
> alert of the pass. Coming to his senses he correctly explains the
> agreement, returns the 2C to the bidding box and substitutes redouble.
> (5) "Reserves his Rights" before passing.
>
> Result was 2C minus 4 for 1100 penalty.
>
> Regulations state "A call is considered to have been made when the 
> call is removed from the bidding box with apparent intent." It was 
> accepted that the 2C was removed "with intent".
>
> Do you allow the result to stand? What is the basis for your ruling?
>
> {nige1]
> I hope that John Probst and Adam Beneschan are wrong.
>
> When opener changed his bid from 2C to XX, the next player "reserved 
> his rights". In a private match, played at home, can you treat this 
> this as the attempted equivalent of a director call?
>
>   
The conditions of contest should specify this, but I hope we can. That's 
more or less the way Belgium T4 matches are played below 1st division level.

One could perhaps suggest that each team own a copy of TFLB. L25 is not 
very intricated and they could perhaps heve solved it right then.

But, apart from that, I'm indeed tempted to understand "I reserve my 
rights" as "I do something to let the match go on, but I'd like an 
external TD to look at the deal and tell what would have been the most 
probable result of a TD call".
IMHO, there are two possibilities :
1) 2C is cancelled by LHO, opener choses to pass nevertheless (L25B2b2) 
and the result is split : -1100 for the doubler's side and -3IMPs for 
the opener's. Then the COC tell us whether the results are averaged or 
whether the total score is less than 30 VPs.
2) 2C is accepted and becomes the final contract, as partner is barred.

We know that 2) would have been more successful for the NOS, from the 
table result, but we don't necessarily need to state it would have been 
the NOS's decision.

Best regards

    Alain