[blml] adjudication

[Nigel]

[Nigel]
Sadly, the EBU tournament committee gave into pressure from the
directors who who wanted more scope for judgement. The new Orange book 
has introduced director judgement into evaluating "rule of 25" (or
whatever) by adding the qualifier "or equivalent".

[Robin Barker]
As far as I know this is complete rubbish - the L&E (not the
tournament committee) did not change the regulations under pressure
from TD and TDs were not pushing for such changes.

[John Probst]
Bollox as usual, Nigel. Nothing to do with the TDs, enormous pressure 
from players who play bridge rather than count points was the reason.

[nige1]
As I remember it, David Stevenson, John Probst, Tim West-Meades and 
other directors insisted on using "judgement" or "playing Bridge" or 
whatever. One of them claimed the backing of Max Bavin and other 
prominent directors.

David Burn (& I) kept pointing out that, according to the Orange Book, 
the use judgement in the discussed contexts, was forbidden.

Perhaps Richard Hills will be able to confirm my recollection.

I wrote to the EBULEC on this issue. but, of course, my "pressure" was 
*against* the change that the committee made. I would be fascinated to 
learn from John which non-directors wrote in to back the change.

My version of what happened is hearsay but I doubt that either Robin 
Parker or John Probst attended the meeting. Minutes of meetings are 
available on line at the EBU site.

I feared that the decision made at the Jan-2006 EBULEC committee 
meeting to insert *or equivalent* was the current position but I am 
relieved and delighted to report that the Mar-2006 EBULEC meeting 
heeded wise counsel and after discussion, seem to have *removed*
the qualifier from *natural one openers*.

If players must endure such regulations, then we applaud the law 
committee's good sense to revert to simplicity and clarity without
specious reliance on director judgement :)

Thank you, LEC committee. Well done.

Unfortunately the qualifier remains in place for strong artificial 
openers :( but that is not quite so bad.

I downloaded the latest version of the Orange Book which seems to 
reflect the changes as specified in the Mar-2006 memo.

[EBULEC meeting on 11-Jan-2006]
Mr Martin, seconded by Mr Fleet, proposed that all uses of Rule of X 
in the Orange Book should be qualified by the words *or equivalent 
playing strength*. The proposal was carried by three votes to two.

[EBULEC meeting, on 24-Mar-2006]
A member of the Panel of Referees ... expressed the view that the 
current regulations were contrary to good bridge and would be widely 
ignored ... Following a discussion the matters requiring decision were 
broken down into a number of distinct proposals which were voted on 
separately.