David Stevenson Answers Your Frequently Asked Questions
One of the major problems in clubs is slow play and it is often difficult for a director, especially a playing director, to control it. In a number of clubs directors control the time by stopping a board part way through, usually at the end of the auction. “Don’t play it,” they say, “you are behind. Take an average.”
I have been asked whether this is acceptable or even legal. It is true that I have always been of the opinion that stopping a board part way through is illegal and have said so. However, because of this query, I have checked up with some very senior lawmakers and the conclusions they have come to are as follows.
A number of jurisdictions, Germany for example, do not permit a director to stop a partly played board by regulation. However, in the absence of such a regulation it seems to be legal under Law 81C1 to stop the board. It is universally accepted at top level as a very undesirable practice and just taking the board away and giving averages without any investigation is not acceptable. If the bidding is finished, for example, the director should normally consider assigning, i.e., working out likely scores in the contract reached with a weighting.
Even if an artificial award (“averages”) is to be given, the director must investigate to find who is at fault so as to decide whether to give average plus, average or average minus to the pairs involved. Just giving averages without investigation is illegal and very upsetting to pairs who are not at fault.
In England the advice is not to stop a board once started, while Scottish advice does allow it to happen. My earlier advice is modified. I am no longer saying it is illegal to stop a board, just highly undesirable. The director must do his job properly and investigate fault if he feels he has to stop a board and letting them play it will normally be preferable. I do suggest that Scotland might look to its advice to point out the undesirability of this practice, which players can find very upsetting.
So when can you stop a board?
If they have not started a board when the move is called then it is normal to stop them from playing it. Legally, it has started once someone has taken his cards from the board but in practice it does little harm to stop the board so long as no-one has called.
In some clubs they make an announcement about two or three minutes before the end of a round saying “No more boards to be started”. This is also a reasonable approach. If a table starts a board after being told there are no more boards then the director stops the board, gives averages and a stern warning. This is easiest where there is a timer (such as Mike Rothwell’s Bridge Timer) which can be set to make an audible alarm two minutes (or any other time) before the end of the round.
One problem with stopping a board is that the players will complain that someone else is playing, even “They have just started a board”. Be firm. The two easiest ways to lose players from a club are to allow slow play and to allow rudeness. If you allow them to play it because others are playing then they will finish late and cause more trouble. Some people believe that being firm with the players loses players from a club and they feel they cannot afford to lose any.
But slow play loses players and is probably the most common complaint in a club. If you do not keep to a reasonable time you will lose more players. So while you do not stop a board part way through, you do stop a board that has not been started if necessary.
Late Plays
In some clubs the director will allow an unplayed board to be played at the end. This is quite a reasonable approach, if it is possible, since it leads to less upset but does not delay the next round. Remember with Bridgemates to enter ‘Not played’ otherwise it will not move on to the next round, and then amend the score when it is played at the end.
However, once the bidding has started, to stop the board and allow it to be played at the end is a far more dubious manoeuvre for obvious reasons: it is quite difficult to be sure no-one has talked to their partner. Nevertheless it may cause less upset.
In general, whether to allow “late plays” as they are called is a matter of following normal club policy: if it is normal in your club then do it.
Catching Up
One reason why directors stop a board part way through is that they seem to believe that players will not catch up. In practice this does not seem to be the case. Competent directors generally move the room once fewer than one third of the room is still playing and do not worry about the playing tables. In most cases they seem to catch up: if they do not then eventually the slow pair loses a board and now catches up.
As mentioned earlier a timer with an audible alarm or one that can be seen, or both, makes it easier to keep to time since some players (not all) will hurry up if they realise they are behind.
