[wendypmi]

Last Sunday at a small 4 table game at our club, one player walked out after playing 11 of the 24 boards. She left because she was cross with her partner.
The director was playing, so there was no-one to take her place.
A few senior club members have decided that we need to have in place agreed sanctions for players who depart in the middle of a game (unless due to ill health or other emergency). I personally would like to suspend them from the club for say 4 weeks. I would want the director to follow them when they walk out, to remind them of this sanction, and suggest that they should sit quietly for the rest of the current round, to consider their position. I would award 60/40 to their opps for any unplayed boards. If they still want to leave then they will be suspended.
Is this a reasonable course of action? What do other clubs do?

[helene_t]

Hola Wendy, welcome to the forum!

I think your proposal is about right.

[pescetom]

wendypmi, on 2018-November-22, 15:48, said:

Last Sunday at a small 4 table game at our club, one player walked out after playing 11 of the 24 boards. She left because she was cross with her partner.
The director was playing, so there was no-one to take her place.
A few senior club members have decided that we need to have in place agreed sanctions for players who depart in the middle of a game (unless due to ill health or other emergency). I personally would like to suspend them from the club for say 4 weeks. I would want the director to follow them when they walk out, to remind them of this sanction, and suggest that they should sit quietly for the rest of the current round, to consider their position. I would award 60/40 to their opps for any unplayed boards. If they still want to leave then they will be suspended.
Is this a reasonable course of action? What do other clubs do?

I'm rather surprised that you even ask the question or consider it a club matter. This action is unfair to all the other players and is considered a serious offence by most RAs. Under our national regulations the director would be bound to report it and the player would probably be suspended for a month.

[eagles123]

can't u just ban this silly woman from your club permanently? walking out in the middle of a game totally screwing the whole evening for everyone else is just awful behaviour.

[PeterAlan]

On a detail, EBU's regulation is that where (as here) less than half the boards are played by the withdrawing pair, that pair's results are cancelled (White Book 2018 section 2.4 for more details).

[helene_t]

PeterAlan, on 2018-November-22, 17:42, said:

On a detail, EBU's regulation is that where (as here) less than half the boards are played by the withdrawing pair, that pair's results are cancelled (White Book 2018 section 2.4 for more details).

That sounds sensible (although of course we could always debate if the cut-off should be exactly "half" or something else).

[blackshoe]

If your club is affiliated with your National Bridge Organization (for example, is sanctioned to give their masterpoints) you might want to check their regulations regarding this. In any case the club should certainly have a regulation in place to deal with this should it happen again.

Rather than have the director chase folks when they leave, just publicize the regulation, perhaps for a time (and maybe from time to time after that) remind folks at the beginning of the session of the penalty. Then, if they walk out, that's on them.

[wendypmi]

helene_t, on 2018-November-22, 15:54, said:

Hola Wendy, welcome to the forum!

I think your proposal is about right.

Thanks Helene

[sfi]

eagles123, on 2018-November-22, 16:02, said:

can't u just ban this silly woman from your club permanently? walking out in the middle of a game totally screwing the whole evening for everyone else is just awful behaviour.

That's a bit harsh - it's a club game. Everyone has bad days in their life and this may have been one for this person. The ban would certainly increase for repeated occurrences though.

[Chas_P]

wendypmi, on 2018-November-22, 15:48, said:

Last Sunday at a small 4 table game at our club, one player walked out after playing 11 of the 24 boards. She left because she was cross with her partner.
The director was playing, so there was no-one to take her place.
A few senior club members have decided that we need to have in place agreed sanctions for players who depart in the middle of a game (unless due to ill health or other emergency). I personally would like to suspend them from the club for say 4 weeks. I would want the director to follow them when they walk out, to remind them of this sanction, and suggest that they should sit quietly for the rest of the current round, to consider their position. I would award 60/40 to their opps for any unplayed boards. If they still want to leave then they will be suspended.
Is this a reasonable course of action? What do other clubs do?

Our club, of which I am the manager, has a Zero Tolerance Policy and behavior such as this is specifically mentioned. Here's the Policy fwiw.

[pescetom]

Chas_P, on 2018-November-23, 08:55, said:

Our club, of which I am the manager, has a Zero Tolerance Policy and behavior such as this is specifically mentioned. Here's the Policy fwiw.

Quote

Here are some examples of behavior which will not be tolerated.
• ...
• Negative comments concerning opponents’ or partner’s bidding or play

Is this example your own choice, or part of the ACBL rules?
I would never tell my partner "that was an awful choice of lead", or something similarly negative, but I think to disallow it would be going too far. I know some partnerships that have hard-hitting post-mortems yet still get along and do not disturb others.

[gordontd]

pescetom, on 2018-November-23, 10:51, said:

I know some partnerships that have hard-hitting post-mortems yet still get along and do not disturb others.

I think they often disturb others far more than they realise or acknowledge.

[Chas_P]

pescetom, on 2018-November-23, 10:51, said:

Is this example your own choice, or part of the ACBL rules?
I would never tell my partner "that was an awful choice of lead", or something similarly negative, but I think to disallow it would be going too far. I know some partnerships that have hard-hitting post-mortems yet still get along and do not disturb others.

The key words here are "disturb others". If a player wants to browbeat his partner in private that's fine. But nobody else wants to hear it. The two players in our club with the most masterpoints are a husband/wife pair. For years he verbally beat her up. She just sat there and took it, but it's unpleasant for everybody else within earshot. He was warned twice to cut it out and chose to ignore the warnings. So the Board suspended him for 30 days. He may still be beating her up after they get home, but he doesn't do it at the club anymore.

[RMB1]

gordontd, on 2018-November-23, 11:27, said:

I think they often disturb others far more than they realise or acknowledge.

Worse still are the life/bridge partnerships who criticise each other when they know it disturbs others and disconcerts opponents.

[pescetom]

Chas_P, on 2018-November-23, 11:28, said:

The key words here are "disturb others". If a player wants to browbeat his partner in private that's fine. But nobody else wants to hear it. The two players in our club with the most masterpoints are a husband/wife pair. For years he verbally beat her up. She just sat there and took it, but it's unpleasant for everybody else within earshot. He was warned twice to cut it out and chose to ignore the warnings. So the Board suspended him for 30 days. He may still be beating her up after they get home, but he doesn't do it at the club anymore.

I'm comfortable with that. But we have a pair who are at the top on points and lay into each other constantly, yet still play happily together. That might do some harm all the same, but then we have people who do clearer damage by being severely unpleasant to partners outside of earshot. A borderline case that bothers me is a visiting pair who are experts well beyond our club level but bicker noisily and constantly - recently they were warned, and haven't been seen since. On the one hand I agree with the warning, on the other hand I'm troubled that we may lose a valuable learning opportunity and critical mass. I just hope we would have been equally severe if they were locals.

[Chas_P]

pescetom, on 2018-November-23, 13:36, said:

I'm comfortable with that. But we have a pair who are at the top on points and lay into each other constantly, yet still play happily together. That might do some harm all the same, but then we have people who do clearer damage by being severely unpleasant to partners outside of earshot. A borderline case that bothers me is a visiting pair who are experts well beyond our club level but bicker noisily and constantly - recently they were warned, and haven't been seen since. On the one hand I agree with the warning, on the other hand I'm troubled that we may lose a valuable learning opportunity and critical mass. I just hope we would have been equally severe if they were locals.

All I can tell you is what we do at our club. The guy I mentioned in my previous post sat out his 30-day suspension as did his wife, then they came right back to playing four sessions/week just like before but without the unpleasantness the other players were putting up with before.

We have drifted away from the original question in this thread which asked how would you discipline a player who walked out of a game thereby ruining the whole session for 15 other people. In our club's case it would be up to the Board of Directors who would probably award the offender with a 30-day suspension which would be richly deserved. We don't suffer jerks very well.

[blackshoe]

Quote

Law 91
A. Director’s Powers
In performing his duty to maintain order and discipline, the Director is empowered to assess disciplinary penalties in points or to suspend a player or contestant for the current session or any part thereof. The Director’s decision under this clause is final (see Law 93B3).
B. Right to Disqualify
The Director is empowered to disqualify a player or contestant for cause, subject to approval by the Tournament Organizer.