[shevek]

Law 8 B 2 says that play continues till the score is recorded "or the Director has cancelled the play of the board".

What power does the director have here? If the club has a clock with the warning buzzer at 3 minutes, the director can announce "no new boards after the warning". Then if he sees a table starting late he can presumably take the board away and award average or 40/40 if he feels like it. Is that right?

Let's say a table starts on time but has a slow auction. The final bell sounds before dummy tracks. Does he have the right to curtail play? What can he award?
Is it different if dummy is down? With x cards remaining to be played.

I'm of the view that once they start the cardplay, they must be allowed to play out the hand, either then or later, despite complaining pairs. (Note that we don't take late plays in Australia. It's either then or never. Presumably countries that use late play don't do it when card play has started).

It's clear that allowing declarer to say "You'll have to take an average on that board you just started" is open to abuse. A pair can slow to a crawl when the auction or play has gone badly, hoping the Director will save them.

If you must allow them to play, you could be unlucky and see declarer take 10 minutes. Of course you can dop his final score a bit but affected pairs will complain. Can Discretinary Powers be invoked here?

Advice please ...

[RMB1]

Hi

Similar questions have been discussed in this recent thread When is a board "started"?

[gordontd]

shevek, on Mar 20 2010, 05:35 AM, said:

I'm of the view that once they start the cardplay, they must be allowed to play out the hand, either then or later, despite complaining pairs.

It's usual to make a board be played out once the auction has been started.

Quote

It's clear that allowing declarer to say "You'll have to take an average on that board you just started" is open to abuse. A pair can slow to a crawl when the auction or play has gone badly, hoping the Director will save them.

That's why you shouldn't cancel a board once it's been started.

Quote

If you must allow them to play, you could be unlucky and see declarer take 10 minutes. Of course you can dop his final score a bit but affected pairs will complain. Can Discretinary Powers be invoked here?

If they do take a very long time on a board, the solution is to remove a board from the next round, awarding AV-AV+, and fine them for slow play as well if necessary.

[bluejak]

In my view there is no legal basis for stopping a board once it has been started, so to do so is illegal.

However, there is some doubt - as seen in the other thread - as to when a board is started, and a practical approach is to find it acceptable to take a board away if the auction has not started, ie the first call has not been made.

If a TD tells the players to start no more boards, and a table does so, normal would be to give Ave Minus to each side plus a further DP of 20% each. But be careful to investigate: often one side is "persuaded" - even "bullied" - into doing so: they should get Ave Minus but not the DP.

[blackshoe]

David's 20% DP is I think based on common English practice where a "standard" penalty is 10%. Things may differ in other jurisdictions. For example, the "standard" penalty in NA is 25%.

[barmar]

Aren't there any irregularities that make it impossible to complete play of the board? For instance, if a pair who has already played the board walks by while discussing the hand, and the players hear it?

[bluejak]

Sure, and they are covered by Law 16C and others.

I do not see the relevance. In different situations different Laws apply: is that not obvious?