ALTRINCHAM BRIDGE CLUB. December 2008
A singleton or a doubleton?
I thought you might be interested in a problem taken from The Bridge World magazine. Because of length, I have shortened the problem.
North, as dummy, laid down the following hand :-
Kxxx Kxxx x AJxx
The contract was six spades and West led the ace of diamonds from AKJx. South, the declarer, lost one diamond and six spades was easily made. Later on, North/South’s team mates ( who played the hand as East/West) were positive that North (above) had a doubleton diamond & the contract went one off when West took out the ace & king of diamonds. It was eventually agreed that a diamond had been placed in the heart grouping & this had never been noticed by the four players concerned..
North/South claimed the result was valid as there was no law which said otherwise. The Director agreed with the latter part of their argument but said that ethically they should concede another trick & go one off. Cover up the answer below & then say what would have been your ruling as Director.
Answer:
Dummy committed a minor violation of Law41, which states that the cards of dummy should be sorted into suits. Assuming he acted in innocence & since it was a red diamond that was placed into a red heart suit, then no penalty would follow here.
However, Law12 covers this situation, where there appears to be no direct penalty for what has happened. The Director is empowered to adjust the score. In this case, the Director adjusts the score to one off in six spades.
Ethics do not come into this at all & should not have been mentioned by the Director.