[blml] claim

[Koen Grauwels]

Yesterday I was called at the table for the case described below. Both West and I are (inexpereinced and playing) Club directors. West did send me a mail to ask to review my decision. West is the best player at the table, the other 3 players are at best intermediate.
Mail be West:
"These were the hands when North plays a small club in a NT contract. South (dummy) has only small cards left, but no Clubs.
North       East       South      WestC:Jxxx      C:Q10      dummy      H: A            H:xx                  D: 1098
North plays a small Club and East shows his cards and says: "Two clubs for me and the rest is for you". West immediatly protests because he still has Heart Ace and 3 free diamonds (all higher diamonds are gone).Now there follows a lot of rumour/discussion at the table because of the protest of West (unauthorized information?), after which some of the cards come on the table. West is not sure in which sequence the cards come on the table; according to North first club Queen and then Club Ten, so North now asks 3 tricks. The sequence of club Queen followed by the Ten is not important because further play after the claim should be cancelled.The Tournement director now has to decide how many tricks E-W make in case of normal completion of the play. It is clear that East will make his 2 tricks (club Ten followed by the Queen) in case of normal play. Other play by East would be unrealistic and should therefor not be taken into account according the rules. Because East now has left only Hearts, West will make the remaining tricks. There are no other possibilities.
I rememeber that some years ago there was a similar case at a World championship. Declarer claimed and would make his contract. The opps protest and demand to continue the play. When continuing the play the declarer makes an error (caused by the rumour at the table) and goes down. The TD has given the claimed tricks to the declarer as normal play and has cancelled the play and error that happened after the claim at the table."
My comments:- East confirmed that he did first Club Q on the table (that was after the claim and after the dicussions at the table).- If East does not know that North still has Club J then it is not unrealistic that we would play Club Q instead of club T? I agree that play can not continue after cards are shown, but the 'play' of the club Q indicates that it is a possibility? Also the claim in itself indicates it because East did not know that West could still have Heart Ace.- I ruled 3 tricks for N-S (Club Q followed by club T). I'm not 100% happy with that ruling as I don't want to discourage claims and probably West has a point that the 'play' of club Q can have been caused by the rumours at the table.
Your comments?Thanks a lot!Koen
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