4 club bid by original declarer who passed initially
P - 1H - P - 1 S
4C - PAUSE to check points and partners - no more than 5 seconds
LHO then states you have to pass due to hesitation, " I am allowed to check my hand and think due to the unexpected 4C bid.
Your hesitation relayed information to your partner so we should call the director. "OK - director please" he did not hear but LHO said never mind the director, you have to pass and your partner cannot bid"
The LHO being a grand master was taken seriously so 4C became the contract.
The opponents were basic players and after the round, felt they were bullied. 4C went down one trick.
Any recourse for the defenders? comments appreciated
Comments
Alan
I don't see why an assigned score shouldn't be given. I would need to know more about the hands and the meaning of 4 C before assessing the situation.
Alan
While the description is unclear, what is clear is that someone behaved very badly indeed, bullying his opponents while misinforming them, and he should be brought to account by someone in authority in the club.
I think if you assume "declarer" is a typo for "dealer" it makes sense
1) To state the obvious, 4C is a jump bid, so next player has to wait an obligatory 10s before calling.
2) Definitely bullying, covered under BB@B
Looking at the misinforming of the opposition as to the laws:
3) Law 81C "The Director (not the players) has the responsibility for rectifying irregularities and redressing damage") allows rectification for the opponents.
4) Misinforming the opponents about the law is covered by WB 2.8.2, Table of Penalties x: "Not calling the TD once an irregularity is pointed out/making up your own ruling"
Agree 100% with Gordon and would add that this kind of behaviour must be stopped as it drives people away from Bridge clubs. I've attached a couple of cartoons which we ran as moving strips on our Suffolk website to encourage people not to allow bullies to act as their own directors.
Peter Bushby Suffolk
Helpful. I’ve copied the cartoons for our club website too.
There's little question that there's a PP due but can the director give an assigned score by way of rectifying an irregularity if the behaviour has given the offending side a good score? If 4C-1 gives a top then they might still be in profit after a penalty of 25% of a top.
You can usually increase the standard procedural penalty due to aggravating (or reduce it for mitigating) factors - but you cannot increase it merely because the opponents still got a very good score. You can, however, apply Law 11.
A. Action by Non‐Offending Side
The right to rectification of an irregularity may be forfeited if either member of the non‐offending
side takes any action before summoning the Director. If a side has gained through subsequent
action taken by an opponent in ignorance of the relevant provisions of the law, the Director
adjusts only that side’s score by taking away any accrued advantage. The other side retains the
score achieved at the table.
So although the NOS has been bullied, it would seem they keep their (poor) score. The OS lose their advantage AND get a PP.
Thanks, @weejonnie; that seems to do the trick. From a purely Bridge perspective, I have little to no sympathy for the NOS, simply because they didn't call the director. Maybe they would in future.
I read the OP as saying they did call the director who didn't hear at which point LHO said 'never mind the director' and talked them out of it.
Whoever did call the director the NOs are 'basic players' being told (wrongly) by a Grand Master what they must do. In my view they need all the support and encouragement they can get when faced with such intimidation.
Peter Bushby Suffolk
I do wish sometimes that each table came with a big button in the middle for calling the TD, and that once pressed only the TD could cancel it, a bit like the call cords in hospitals. It would certainly reduce a lot of these problems!
What a great idea Mark!
Peter Bushby Suffolk
Peter, you missed out the rather important words, "From a purely Bridge perspective". Of course, I sympathise with them for the situation they found themselves in but they do need to learn to call for the TD (and get his/her attention) when anything is or seems wrong at the table.
There are TD-pagers available but they are triggered from the Bridgemate, rather than a large, convenient button within easy reach of all.
I wasn't aware of the TD pager on Bridgemates, maybe it is not available (or activated) on the Bridgemates we have.. Does this page the director's table if he is playing or only the server?
There's a small pager for the TD to have with him. There's also a transmitter which plugs into the USB port of the computer and then one of the buttons on the Bridgemate becomes "Call TD". If that is pressed then a signal arrives at the pager, thus notifying the TD that there's been a call. The pager holds onto the calls and the TD can scroll through them, as needed.
We've been using it for a couple of months and it works well. It reduces disruption to the room from loud bellows of "Director, please!" and it's also less intrusive on the TD's concentration, at least I find it so.
Here's a link to the pdf manual... http://www.bridgemate.com/resources/documents/BMPagerManual.pdf
Here's the bumf... http://www.bridgemate.com/product/bridgemate-pager/
It looks interesting - but having to fork out the best part of £200.00 is quite a lot for a small club with (for example) ten tables meeting once a week.