[mr1303]

Playing in a handicap teams event the following occurs

You overhear one of your (experienced in terms of years playing the game) opponents telling one of your team-mates (who are both new beginners) that they can't make a bid after a hesitation.

When scoring up, you ask them what happened, and they say that after the opponent said that, they replaced the bid that they had made with a pass.

Apart from telling my team-mates never to listen to "advice" like that given by an opponent and to always call the director in such instances, is there anything else I can do?

Can I call for a director's ruling myself, either at the time I overhear the opponent's comment, or now when scoring up? Can they now call the director to report it once they have been advised by me to do so?

[RMB1]

mr1303, on Jan 31 2010, 11:05 PM, said:

... , is there anything else I can do?

Can I call for a director's ruling myself, either at the time I overhear the opponent's comment,

Technically, you are in receipt of extraneous information from the other table. So you could call the TD at the time. But to do so in order to get a ruling at the other table is likely to be seen as an abuse of your rights.

mr1303, on Jan 31 2010, 11:05 PM, said:

or now when scoring up? Can they now call the director to report it once they have been advised by me to do so?

Better to wait until you score up and get team mates to call the director. They should simply tell the TD what happened: "... the opponents told me I had to pass, so I changed my bid to a pass. But now a team mate tells me that what the opponent told me was not necessarily true." The TD will probably accept this as honest, and timely, and consider ruling (under laws 9, 10, 11).

Robin

[ggwhiz]

This is a violation of the zero tolerance and the conduct and ETHICS statutes in place in most jusrisdictions.

Not to mention experienced player(s) making their own ruling when the Director should clearly have been called to the table.

I would hope that the Director would deal with this after the fact with severe consequences to the offenders. Let them try to find any sympathy on appeal.

[mrdct]

In some jurisdictions their may be a Recorder to whom you can report the matter also.