Club Matters

At our recent meeting we discussed a number of items that are of interest and relevance to those who play mainly in clubs.

Doubling and Alerting

The L&E have had a number of comments about alerting of doubles since the last set of changes in August 2006. We decided to ask the Club Committee what it thought of the present arrangements and a number of possible changes. They consulted amongst the clubs and the message came back loud and clear that:

1. Further change would be unwelcome.
2. The current regulations are not perfect but the club committee would like an effort to be made to help educate players as to what they are.

The L&E accepted the recommendation to leave the regulation alone and will be producing some material to help in the coming months.

The Orange Book

It’s long and, in clubs where most players play a simple and similar system, it can be over complicated. The L&E have started work on what is being provisionally called the "Tangerine Book". This will be a drastically shortened book for clubs and club players and will be available by April 2010 (to coincide with the introduction of pay to play). This will give time for the Club Committee to be consulted on the draft content.

Rather than print large numbers of copies it will be available electronically. Those who want to see the full detail can continue to look at the Orange Book.

The Law

A new law book comes along approximately every 10 years. It’s a common misconception that the Laws are produced by the EBU. They aren’t. It is the World Bridge Federation that does this job and the game we play is regulated by these Laws. There is a small element of choice in the latest version so the EBU decided, for example, to permit players to ask their partner the question they used to ask: "No hearts, partner". It is legal to do that now but must be done in a neutral voice to avoid giving information to partner. A shocked tone indicates it was a touch unexpected, for example. The next set of laws will not be produced for another decade or so. I’ve been given a number of laminated cards which explain common laws (revokes, leads out of turn etc) to help club directors. These are now out of date but the L&E is looking at updating and producing them for clubs. Any opinions on the most valuable ones to be done first are welcome.

Welcome to the L&E Blog

Welcome to the first post for the Laws & Ethics Committee blog.

Details of what the L&E does, and the publications can be found on the relevant part of the EBU website - use the links to the right. The official minutes from L&E meetings are also published here, along with minutes from all the other EBU bodies. The minutes can take a while to be agreed, so I shall update the blog after each meeting with anything that seems of general interest.

We try to be responsive to the EBU members, if you want to ask any member of the L&E something, there are lots of ways to get in touch:

• Jeremy Dhondy (jeremy2), David Stevenson (bluejak), David Burn (woubit), Mike Amos (mikeamostd) & Frances Hinden (frances) post regularly on the International Bridge Laws Forum, http://forums.bridgetalk.com and are happy to answer questions on the laws or on any rulings in public or private
• the secretary, John Pain, can be contacted by letter, telephone or email at the EBU. He is extremely helpful himself, and can also pass on messages to anyone you want to get in contact with.

For the time being, I thought I'd explain a couple of things that I sometimes get asked, which seem to be common misunderstandings.

Club System and Alerting Regulations

Individual bridge clubs can decide on any regulations they like for what methods can be played, and/or what alerting and announcing regulations to follow. In practice, most clubs tend to use one of the 'Levels' (2, 3 or 4) defined in the Orange Book, and also use the EBU alerting & announcing regs. However, there's no compulsion to do so - certainly there are a few clubs around who write their own regulations. Two examples I am aware of are a club that plays Level 3 but does not allow the Multi, and a club teams league that allows people to play whatever they like, including highly unusual methods such as forcing pass.

We do think it's a good idea to follow the EBU alerting rules, because otherwise it becomes very difficult both for visitors to the club to know what to expect, or for any club members to play elsewhere without getting confused or causing problems for others. Even if you don't like the rules, I promise that life would become much more difficult if you had to follow different rules depending on where you play!

Disciplinary Actions

When it comes to disciplinary cases, the L&E acts somewhat like the crown prosecution service - we decide whether to go ahead with a case, and we will present the case. However, it is the disciplinary panel who decide if the case is proven or not, and who decide on the appropriate punishment. The panel is drawn from a group of volunteers, who have received some special training.