[bali 2]

East opens 1 NT, S bids 1♠, N looks at him and says "oops" ; South realises and corrects to 2♠, saying that he took the wrong bidding card. But West doesn't agree and tells him that he wishes to accept the I.B. of 1♠ ( he has a suit to show at the 2 level ), and that S is actually changing bid, which is not allowed by law 25.

South says that he didn't intended to bid 1♠ and calls the TD.
This is South's hand :

---

What should be the ruling ?

Many thanks in advance
Al. Ohana

PS. 2♠ is natural over 1NT ( checked on C.C. )

[RMB1]

It appears that 1♠ was not the intended call, but the TD must decide.

As described, the change was in time: there was no pause for thought.

The fact that North's "oops" caused South to realise his error does not prevent the change (see another thread: Mechanical error). North's "oops" was not illegal communication with partner but legally drawing attention to an irregularity.

West is not allowed to accept 1♠, Law 25A applies and the correction to 2♠ stands.

Robin

[bluejak]

I would tell West not to make rulings at his table, especially wrong ones.

[Chris3875]

What would you tell South about changing his bid before the TD is called?

[RMB1]

Chris3875, on Oct 22 2009, 10:16 AM, said:

What would you tell South about changing his bid before the TD is called?

I don't think Law 25A requires the presence of the TD.

Robin

[bluejak]

I hope it doesn't. I am very poor at getting the correct card out of the bidding box, but have taught myself always to look at it after I have taken it out of the box. I reckon I personally make about 15 Law 25A corrections per session!

[lamford]

Is there not some danger that the TD may deem you to be in breach of 74B1 after the 12th or 13th law 25A change?

I presume that even though it begins "as a matter of courtesy", the director has some powers, even though I don't think under the laws you have committed an infraction.

[bluejak]

I am paying sufficient attention, thank-you. I am merely not very good with bidding boxes.

[lamford]

Can't you persuade the TD to give you one of those boards with all the bids on where you slide a coin to the bid of your choice?

[bluejak]

I would sue him.

[Chris3875]

We use written bidding not bidding boxes - is this something particular to bidding boxes. We would certainly NEVER change a written bid without calling the director.

[bluejak]

One of the differences with bidding boxes as against most other forms of bidding is that mechanical errors are far, far more common. As a result, Law 25A changes are very frequent and normally done without the TD. Of course Law 25A changes are legitimate with other forms of bidding [my wife famously allowed a Law 25A change of a spoken call after the next player had called, and that caused a lot of discussion] but it is also true that such changes are not just rarer but less likely to happen without the TD.

But my guess is that they sometimes do. If you write 2H on the pad and as you finish say "Sorry, I meant spades" and change the H to an S I expect often enough no-one will worry - yet legally that is a Law 25A change.