Revoke
A recent case: a kibitzer pointed out a revoke by a defender on the 11th trick.
How does one rule in this case?
There exists a possibility that if the kib hadn’t drawn attention to it the revoke may not have been discovered before the NOS made a call on the next deal or before the round ended.
Comments
81C3: "to rectify an error or irregularity of which he becomes aware in any manner," so rule as normal.
I think it's a bit like a spectator picking up a golfer's ball from a sandpit and throwing it onto the green. Totally against the rules (76B4) but you have to accept it's happened.
You can of course remove the spectator, and I seem to remember reading that if one side is responsible for the kibitzer being there, they can be fined, but can't find it atm.
The traditional way of dealing with this, if the kibitzer came directly to the TD, was to wait until it was too late for the automatic penalties to apply and only to apply 64C if there was damage arising from the revoke. It's not really possible to do this if the kibitzer tells the player who then calls the director.
The 1997 laws said:
11B. Irregularity Called by Spectator
1. Spectator Responsibility of Non-Offending Side
The right to penalise an irregularity may be forfeited if attention is first
drawn to the irregularity by a spectator for whose presence at the table
the non-offending side is responsible.
2. Spectator Responsibility of Offending Side
The right to correct an irregularity may be forfeited if attention is first
drawn to the irregularity by a spectator for whose presence at the table
the offending side is responsible.
C. Penalty after Forfeiture of the Right to Penalise
Even after the right to penalise has been forfeited under this Law, the
Director may assess a procedural penalty (see Law 90).
This no longer applied by the time of the 2007 laws, perhaps because of the difficulty of determining who is responsible, if anyone, for a spectator's presence at the table.
A few days ago when directing a club game and watching a table finishing the last board of the round after all other tables had finished, I watched declarer take a Trick 10 spade finesse of the dummy's jack which won with fourth seat (declarer's RHO) discarding a heart. Two tricks later, declarer's RHO discarded the spade queen and the defense took the last trick! Nobody noticed the revoke other than myself.
Should I, as the Director, have taken it upon myself to transfer one trick from the defenders to the declarer (revoke card did not win the revoke trick)? (An "equity" ruling would definitely not have been needed in this case.)
I was told off for "watching a table" when being TD.
You may gain some insight and avoid repetition if you can follow this link. If the link does not work, I apologise.
https://www.ebu.co.uk/forum/discussion/comment/3678#Comment_3678