WITNEY BRIDGE CLUB

Laws and Etiquette Reminders

You are reminded that a Convention Card will be required for all systems other than Basic Acol. This can either be filled in online - available on the EBU website - or obtained at our club. This then avoids any misunderstandings.

If in doubt about any rules please ask the Director!

For more detailed information please click on links to the EBU Information pages on the Home page.

Witney Bridge Club as an EBU affiliated club adheres to the EBU rules. This ensures that decisions and standards of play and etiquette are in line with other clubs. The following reminders may be of help.

• At least one partner of every pair should fill in a Score Card.
• Convention cards should be available to the opposition.
• Stayman and Transfers after 2NT are Alertable not Announced.
• Players should not have a card ready to play (ie perhaps lifting it a bit out of the hand) before it is their turn - this can give away information.
• Dummy should not touch a card/play a card until asked to (lots of us do this but it is wrong), nor say anything during play except to correct partner on direction of trick card - ie won/lost wrong way round (but see below as to timing) 'having none' - and 'table' or 'your hand' - is this last legal?
• A jump bid should be preceded by STOP and the next player must wait a short while before calling thereafter.
• A player who has alerted partner’s bid remains silent unless specifically asked for an explanation. This should take a similar form to "What do you understand about your partner's bid".
•  During the auction a player may only ask for a review of the bidding or an explanation of an opponent’s bid (from the person opposite the person who made the bid) when it is their turn to call, and only if the player is considering making a bid as opposed to passing. When a review is asked for, only the opponents of the person asking for a review should speak.
• Each player is only entitled to remove his/her own specific hand/curtain card from the board.
• Only North is entitled to remove the traveller from the board and is responsible for entering the score in the traveller, East/West have a responsibility to check the entry - this is always advisable.
•  Bidding cards of all hands should not be replaced until the opening lead has been made then all bidding cards should be replaced not left out.
•  Once all cards have been turned over they cannot be seen again unless a revoke is discovered later when the Director should be called.
• Anyone may now ask their partner "having none?"
• If a trick is pointing the wrong way neither Dummy nor Defender may mention this once the next lead has been made.
• The opening lead should be played before that player's score card is filled in.

Convention cards, Orange Book 2006 with 2008 Changes and Red Law Book

EBU card 20B is now the standard card and should be filled in and ideally partners should have identical cards. Copies of the Orange Book are available free from the EBU if you are a Member. The new Red Law Book is kept in the Club.

If all pass on first board - DO NOT reshuffle.

Counting and shuffling your cards

Please count your cards before you look at them and before replacing them. A new law requires you to shuffle your cards at the end of a hand.

If you are sitting out on the first round please fill in the hands on the slips if they are provided - this speeds up play for the next players.

Law & Ethics Committee

A Law & Ethics Committee has been set up in order to keep members up-to-date with current laws and ethics and with the appropriate actions allowed by a Director as published by the EBU, and to act as an Appeals Committee to hear appeals against any decision by a Director. The Committee comprises all members able to act as Director (currently Ina, Diane, Sandy and Sue) and the Appeals Committee would be any two of these who are available, excluding the Director whose decision is being appealed.

The Committee will ensure that the web site includes a note of rule changes from time to time, a note of Procedural Penalties that are allowed to be imposed by a Director under Law 90, and a note of how that Law is to be interpreted in practice at Witney Bridge Club.

Penalties can be imposed for procedural errors such as inaccurate completion of entry slips and travellers but it is understood from the EBU that in general it is common practice only to fine when it causes genuine inconvenience to other contestants (an example of which is not ensuring that the correct number of cards are replaced in the right places, a surprisingly regular occurrence which delays play considerably) or in the event of persistent offending. In this way the ethos of a friendly club will be promoted and consistency across all Directors is more likely. This is the approach now taken at Witney Bridge Club. If any players are noted by Directors as being persistent offenders the Law & Ethics Committee will warn formally those players that they are likely to receive a small penalty of 10% of a top score in the event of further violations.