Removal of a Board
Based on slow play, when has the board "started" and therefore should not be removed? What is the latest moment at which the TD may remove the board and assign adjusted scores? Assuming that the TD has called the movement, if the players have already removed their cards from the board pocket and seen them is that sufficient for the board to have been started?
Comments
"I've started so I'll finish". The EBU regard a hand has been started once the auction period commences for either side - i..e one of the players has taken out their cards.
EBU White Book 8.81.4.1
"The TD should not cancel a board because the table is late, once the auction period has
commenced. If the table is told not to play the board before it is played, the board is cancelled
and an artificial adjusted score awarded (Law 12C2). If the table do start to play the board,
having been told not to, the board is cancelled and there should be procedural penalties for
ignoring the TD's instruction (Law 90B8)."
Other RAs can select their own rules no doubt - a common one is that the play period must have started i.e. a card has been faced.
Since it's a matter of law, I don't think they can and I have never heard of such a rule.
Well I would agree - but certainly in my club we used to remove the board if the play hadn't started. Maybe just confusing the issue as I wasn't a TD then.
I can't find this law. The closest I can see is 81C1: "...to ensure the orderly progress of the game."
The point I'm making is, of course, that the White Book does not contain laws, it contains interpretations and conditions of play, which clubs may choose to accept or not.
I can see nothing in the laws that would prevent a board being cancelled at any point - although I may have missed something obvious.