The Director is there to help the players in many situations as well as to look after the movement, scoring etc.

Sometimes, whilst playing at the club you don't need to call the director for minor things.  It is always best to call the Director if you're not sure, but for the following you must always call the Director.

• When a defender exposes a card (except when played legally)
• When an opponent has corrected any information he or his partner has given - this includes saying something should or should not have been alerted
• When there is any bad behaviour
• When there has been an insufficient bid
• When there is a dispute over a claim - once a claim has been made play stops - it is never correct for a player to say to another, please play the cards out
• When a player can't (or won't) answer questions about the meaning of a call/bid (or play)

What makes these six cases different is that by calling the TD immediately, you avoid many worse problems which often arise later in the hand. If you try to sort out your own exposed cards, you may well forget about lead penalties or minor penalty cards. Saying 'just put it back in your hand and forget it' may be doing the opponents an unkindness by putting them under a lot of ethical pressure.

In cases of misinformation, the TD has options to limit or remove the potential damage for both sides, but of course he cannot apply them if you don't call him until too late. Bad behaviour is best dealt with before things get out of hand, and usually can't be dealt with if it's only brought up in the bar afterwards. A good TD will be able to stop the sort of thing which turns newer players away from the game and make it clear to all how the club expects its members to conduct themselves at the table.

Players often think insufficient bids can be "made good" without penalty but the Law is far more complex than that. Claims are a matter for the TD anyway, since if there is any objection, all play stops and only the TD can act fairly to both sides. As for questions about a call or play, again the TD has options, which will help both sides, so he needs to be there.

The EBU are suggesting that players should be using their common sense and not calling the TD all the time, but expect that the six areas above should nearly always lead to a Director call. Make that call a friendly one, 'Director, please', or better still, let the player who has caused the problem be the one to summon the TD. We all enjoy our game much more when the Director is called when he should be, and not when he isn't needed.