[blml] When to late

[Eric Landau]

At 04:14 PM 1/3/07, Sven wrote:

> > On Behalf Of Eric Landau
> > At 10:02 AM 1/3/07, Sven wrote:
> >
> > >And exactly how does ACBL expect their directors to handle cases where
> > the
> > >alleged offending side "swears to God" there was no BIT five 
> minutes ago,
> > >and had they known that the other side eventually would have 
> claimed BIT
> > >they would immediately have summoned the Director to have that 
> question
> > >clarified?
> >
> > The same way, one supposes, that they would have had they been called
> > five minutes earlier, and the alleged OS had sworn to God that there
> > was no BIT fifteen seconds ago.  They either believe them, or they
> > don't.  Indeed, either the alleged OS is telling the truth, or they're
> > not.  But the truth won't change during the five-minute interval, and,
> > the ACBL presumably assumes, neither will the alleged OS's story.  ISTM
> > they're probably right about that.
>
>Oh yes, it will! You would apparently be amazed (or preferably 
>shocked) from
>our experience of how quickly memory can change and "facts" be colored by
>subsequent events.
>
>On the very scene we usually get the correct impression of what really did
>happen; already half a minute later may be too late and at the end of the
>play most certainly will be too late. And this is not people knowingly 
>lying
>to us as directors, they really believe in what they tell us.

Since I have never played or directed with "reservation of rights" 
enabled, I am inclined to defer to Sven's first-hand experience.  Has 
anyone out there directed both with and without the election?  I'd be 
interested in what they have to say.  Does the additional difficulty in 
sorting out whether there was or wasn't a BIT after the hand is over 
outweigh the disadvantage from the additional empty ("call me back at 
the end of the hand if you think there's a problem") director calls?


Eric Landau                     ehaa at starpower.net
1107 Dale Drive                 (301) 608-0347
Silver Spring MD 20910-1607