Laws & Ethics
by Jeremy Dhondy

At its May meeting the L&E consider any requests for new agreements to be approved and updated versions of the Orange and Tangerine Books come out with any newly approved agreements and any other changes to take effect from August 1st. These days there are not many requests and the books do not change a lot from year to year. The latest version will be found online. There are no longer printed copies.

Also on 1st August a revised version of the White Book is issued. This is more for the use of clubs and tournament directors but is freely available on the EBU website.

One technical nicety to be considered results from the decision of the Tournament Committee that it will be possible to see results on the Bridgemates at EBU congresses from now on. A lot of players have requested this; however, it will result in a problem if the wrong board number is entered and thus scores are seen for a board not yet played. Now the board may be unplayable and a decision will need to be taken on how to score this board and whether there will or will not be penalties assigned.

The World Bridge Federation has recently started a consultation period for the next edition of the laws. These won't appear before 2017. Each national organisation is invited to respond with anything they believe should be altered, deleted or added. The L&E will be responding later this year.