[blackshoe]

Last Tuesday was a Swiss Teams event at the club. Playing North, on the first board of the first match (21, game all), I dealt and opened 1♦ on a 5-4 diamond-club 14 count. LHO bid 2♦. Partner passed. RHO put 2♥ down, and without taking her hand off the bidding cards asked "can I change this?" I said "Call the Director", which she did. The TD arrived, said she could correct an inadvertant bid, she put down 4♥. TD then said something to the effect that she was not allowed to change her mind (about the 2♥ bid). 4♥ was passed out. Making. At the end of the hand, she said "it was a change of mind". I called for a TD. Different one. Explained the situation. He said "Hm" and walked away - I presumed to consult. During the session, I asked a couple of times if we were going to get a ruling, got no answer. At the end of the session, I asked again. At this time, the original TD, who'd responded to the first call, was entering scores. The other one was running around picking up boards and such. #1 called to #2, they came together to consult. It turned out we were tied for second place. We had lost this match (the only one we'd lost) by 9 IMPs, 8 of them on this board. Finally, Director #2 said "give them 1 more VP. That'll break the tie". That put us 4 VPs behind the first place team. I don't think we'd have gained that many VPs on a different ruling, but I could be wrong.

Recap of the bidding:

W.....N.....E.....S
-.....1♦....2♦....P
2 4♥..All Pass.

I would have competed with 3♣ over 2♥. NS at the other table got to 5♣, down 1, though I don't know how the bidding went. The final ruling was not contested.

Comments?

[bluejak]

Good g*d.

Do these TDs know that giving rulings is part of the job?

[blackshoe]

Yes. In theory, anyway.