[blml] Law 27 repair

[Guthrie]

Law-makers seem to pander to directors with scant regard to the 
interests of players :(

There are simple remedies for the nuisance of insufficient bids that 
might curtail the latest BLML feeding frenzy :) For example ...

[A] Mandate the use of a bidding box -- only *one* per table -- but 
otherwise used in the ordinary way. It would be harder to make an 
insufficient bid if it was no longer available in the communal bidding 
box. Obviously, players would have to take some care when returning 
their bids to the box.

[B] Achieve the same end with an electronic device, for example a 
Bridge-mate or a hand-held networked computer, with a display flat on 
the table. This would have other advantages: it would permanently record 
the auction. It would even provide an objective measure of tempo breaks 
so that the director could better judge the perennial "Opponent 
hesitated for 2 minutes" vs "Partner bid in normal tempo" dispute.

[C] Failing [A] or [B], the director should allow the offender to 
substitute any call. The insufficient bidder's partner is silenced for 
the rest of the auction with the insufficient bid being unauthorised 
information to him. If nobody draws attention to the insufficient bid 
and the next bidder condones it, he does so at his own risk but nobody 
may agree special methods to take advantage of the insufficient bid. If 
the insufficient bidder profits by what may have been a cunning ploy, he 
is deprived of his (putatively) ill-gotten gains.

Roll on 2018 :)