ALTRINCHAM BRIDGE CLUB.
Home page Directors DiaryDIRECTING TEASERS -- AUGUST 2002.
Try the following two directing problems and give your answer before you look at the bottom of the page !
1. Declarer is in 6NT and loses one trick early on. At the 9th trick, he puts his hand down & says that he will lose one more trick and go one down. As he immediately explains his play of the remaining tricks, it transpires that he has forgotten a key card played earlier on by the opposition and, as dummy points out, there is no way the defence could possibly win a second trick.
Declarer then claims the slam, saying that his comment about losing a 2nd trick is invalid. The defence says that since he has made a claim for one down, he must stick by this claim and go one down.
What does the Director rule?
2. East is declarer and South leads the first card and West puts his hand down on the table as dummy. East, without reference to any other player, then moves the board very close to his side of the table and also picks up dummy's cards & brings them much closer.
North objects & points out that the board should not be moved from the centre & that East should ask for permission from the opponents before he moves either the board or dummy's cards.
Earlier, during the bidding, East did not express any difficulty in reading the bidding cards of his partner at the far side of the table.
ANSWERS.
1. If it is not possible for declarer to lose a trick on any (rational) normal play by the defence then, despite conceding as one down, he still makes the slam. Law 71 says that he cannot concede a trick if his side could not have lost it by any normal legal play of the remaining cards.
Fortune has smiled on declarer!
2. The Law book states that the board shall remain in the centre of the table until the hand has been played.
Therefore, I would expect East to first have the courtesy to ask North if he minds the board & dummy's cards being moved. If, at the same time, East had told North about his poor eyesight, then I would expect North to accommodate him. A matter of table manners!
The words on the bidding cards are by no means large & the bidding cards of East's partner would have been further away from East than dummy's faced cards. Furthermore, only a small part of each bidding card shows as the bidding proceeds. However, East's failure to initially warn the opposition about his bad eyesight is not the main concern in this case.
( I wonder if East finds it difficult to read the cards as players play them? All the cards are faced at the side edge of the table & this is further away than dummy's faced cards. I comment on this because it may be that East needs additional help).
Peter Dawson ( August 2002 )