Scoring a board played out of turn
Last night at my club, we played one board out of turn. It was incorrectly brought to our table (as it happened by the TD!) and played as both sides failed to notice it was not in the current round. Eventually the score was recorded according to the actual result for both pairs - this was done at the end of the evening in the scoring programme.
In the event, this score for us (22%) was much worse than an average minus and much better (78%) than average plus for our joint offenders. The two pairs that were due to play the board later and thus unable to do so were given an average plus (60%).
So even though we and our opponents were jointly at error for the mistake, we were doubly punished and our opponents very substantially advantaged.
Can this be right?
Comments
I have subsequently been informed by a senior TD that Law 15B covers this and was correctly applied. However, it still feels a touch hard on my partner and I and unwarrantedly generous to our opponents.
Who knows what our respective scores would have been had the board been correctly played against those pairs now getting AVE + of 60% ? Perhaps they might have been roughly treated?
While I have known a player upset at getting an average plus because they expected a good score against the pair they would have played, it is set up so that it can't reduce your score. It's not ideal how this rule works, with two pairs unable to play the board later. I would observe, however, that damage has been done regardless -
I can see the logic in not throwing out the bridge result obtained on the deal - I don't think this should be seen as a punishment. If the TD were inclined to punish, that would be via procedural penalties. Which I would be inclined to use here, if only as a gentle reminder to players to please check the board numbers :).
I had to rule on an identical case a couple of weeks ago and, as you, one of the pairs who played the board scored around 20%. There has been an irregularity and yet each of the two pairs who played the board had the opportunity to attain a good score. One of them did and the other one didn't. The two pairs who were denied the board have lost the opportunity to secure to a high score against their opponents and they have to settle for an artificial score of Ave+, which will be their session score if that's higher than 60%.
As for whether it's fair on you and your partner or generous to your opponents: you had the chance to play the board and thus the chance to have a good score on it. This is more than the pairs had who had the board taken away from them due to your irregularity. The Laws didn't give you a bad score on the board, your opponents did that.
The new Law 15B does not work well (especially in clubs). Nevertheless, if the board is played to completion, under the new laws or old, there is nothing to be done but let the score stand and award appropriate artificial scores (AVErages) to pairs who can't play boards. If pairs play a board (which neither has played before) they should expect the score to count.
I saw an even worse variation on this. The wrong board came from a relay table. When the board eventually reached a N/S who could not play the board because E/W had already played it, the N/S AVE+ could not be entered into the scoring program (Error = Duplicate pair number). Some directors try to match up pair numbers of adjusted scores against each other. This could not be done here. In the end I had to accept the 2nd AVE+/AVE- result and throw away the 1st non-scheduled to be played result.
I'm probably missing something but wonder why couldn't it be done?
Assume EWA play board 1 against NSA when they were not scheduled to do so.
I'd have thought there were two cases:
Case A
a) EWA and NSA were both due to play board1 later against different opponents.
Let's say EWA were due to play it against NSB, and NSA were due to play it against EWB
In the Score Table you have two rows: NSA vs EWB, and NSB vs EWA
You overwrite NSB with NSA in the first record and NSB with NSA in the second.
Then record actual result against NSA EWA and Ave+/Ave+ against NSB EWB to give:
NSA EWA 'Actual Result'
NSB EWA Ave+/Ave+
Case B
EWA was due to play the board later, say against NSB
BUT NSA were not scheduled to play the board at all.
This time you have only one row available to use in the Scoring table
NSB EWA
You overwrite NSB with NSA and record the actual score to give
NSA EWA 'Actual Score'
You have no way to give NSB their Ave + on the board they've been unable to play through no fault of their own
But you can work out and apply an adjustment to their final score that would achieve the same result
Peter Bushby Suffolk
It is non-trivial to work out the adjustment to apply to give a pair an Ave+ on a board where there is no line to enter it. But ** [Name & original comment removed at contributor's request]** is right it is more straightforward to apply the adjustment in EBUScore. The adjustment to be made has been discussed before in this forum here https://www.ebu.co.uk/forum/discussion/comment/1716/#Comment_1716