Club Management Focus: Summer 2012

Scorer's Corner

by John Pain

Here follows some advice on how to score boards when the movement has gone wrong. Movements go wrong for a variety of reasons.

Simple problem

Frequently the error is a simple one which, although annoying, doesn’t actually cause any damage. The most common mistake is not to arrow-switch when told to do so. There may also be times when the TD wants to force an arrow-switch because of some problem (Law 16C2a allows this). Scoring programs usually have a simple function button which allows you to reverse the pair numbers which sorts it out.

More serious problems

Other problems are more serious resulting in a break-down of the movement. Perhaps the TD puts the boards out incorrectly – maybe he puts the relay boards in the wrong place or perhaps he forgets to put boards on the sit out table. Sometimes it is the players who cause the error by playing the wrong boards because they have moved to the incorrect table or bypassed a relay set of boards.

Most movements can be recovered. For example if the TD puts the relay in the wrong place there is a rescue mechanism published in the Manning Movement manual. If the players play the wrong boards because they move incorrectly or maybe don’t move at all then it is usually still possible to recover and get a result. Player comparisons might be more unbalanced than they should be but that doesn’t invalidate the results.

Common situations where players play the wrong boards include passing the boards through a relay table without stopping or failing to move correctly in a hesitation Mitchell.

All these problems will involve you altering the movement that you have put into the computer.

Illustration of the problem

I’ll illustrate the problem with a normal relay and share movement for 8 tables. Using the notation from the Manning Movement manual the left number represents the NS pair, the right number represents the EW pair and the letter between them represents the board set (so A is 1-3, B is 4-6 etc) the full correct movement matrix is

Round	Table 1	Table 2	Table 3	Table 4	Relay	Table 5	Table 6	Table 7	Table 8
1	1 A 9	2 B 10	3 C 11	4 D 12	E	5 F 13	6 G 14	7 H 15	8 A 16
2	1 B 16	2 C 9	3 D 10	4 E 11	F	5 G 12	6 H 13	7 A 14	8 B 15
3	1 C 15	2 D 16	3 E 9	4 F 10	G	5 H 11	6 A 12	7 B 13	8 C 14
4	1 D 14	2 E 15	3 F 16	4 G 9	H	5 A 10	6 B 11	7 C 12	8 D 13
5	1 E 13	2 F 14	3 G 15	4 H 16	A	5 B 9	6 C 10	7 D 11	8 E 12
6	1 F 12	2 G 13	3 H 14	4 A 15	B	5 C 16	6 D 9	7 E 10	8 F 11
7	1 G 11	2 H 12	3 A 13	4 B 14	C	5 D 15	6 E 16	7 F 9	8 G 10
8	1 H 10	2 A 11	3 B 12	4 C 13	D	5 E 14	6 F 15	7 G 16	8 H 9

But suppose at the end of Round 1 table 5 pass their boards straight through to table 4, leaving set E in the relay. The green shading represents what went wrong during Round 2.

Round	Table 1	Table 2	Table 3	Table 4	Relay	Table 5	Table 6	Table 7	Table 8
1	1 A 9	2 B 10	3 C 11	4 D 12	E	5 F 13	6 G 14	7 H 15	8 A 16
2	1 B 16	2 C 9	3 D 10	4 F 11	E	5 G 12	6 H 13	7 A 14	8 B 15
3	1 C 15	2 D 16	3 E 9	4 F 10	G	5 H 11	6 A 12	7 B 13	8 C 14
4	1 D 14	2 E 15	3 F 16	4 G 9	H	5 A 10	6 B 11	7 C 12	8 D 13
5	1 E 13	2 F 14	3 G 15	4 H 16	A	5 B 9	6 C 10	7 D 11	8 E 12
6	1 F 12	2 G 13	3 H 14	4 A 15	B	5 C 16	6 D 9	7 E 10	8 F 11
7	1 G 11	2 H 12	3 A 13	4 B 14	C	5 D 15	6 E 16	7 F 9	8 G 10
8	1 H 10	2 A 11	3 B 12	4 C 13	D	5 E 14	6 F 15	7 G 16	8 H 9

Let’s suppose the TD or the players pick up the error at the end of Round 2. This means Table 4 has played the wrong boards. The TD puts the boards back into the correct order for Round 3, but you can see the problems which will follow in later rounds highlighted in red.

First we have results on board set F for 4 v 11, that we should not have. These results must stand. Law 15A of the Duplicate laws says that if players play boards they shouldn’t play the TD should normally allow the results to stand. Problems arise on Round 3 at Table 4 when NS4 meets EW10 and on Round 6 at Table 8 when NS8 meets EW11. Since NS4 and EW11 have already played the boards EW10 and NS8 are deprived of the chance to get a valid score. Second we are missing results from Table 4 on board set E, which remained in the relay for 2 rounds.

Solving the problem

So how should we score all of this? It is easy to deal with EW10 and NS8 – they get 60% (Average +) for the boards they could not play.
The TD must decide who was at fault at table 4 where NS4 and EW11 played the incorrect boards as he has to decide what to give them on board set E which they now cannot play. If he decides both sides were equally at fault he will give both pairs 40% but if he is lenient he will give both pairs 50%. 60% is not at option.

The computer program will be expecting the following results for boardset E	When it actually has the following
Board set E			Board set E
NS	EW	Score?		NS	EW	Score?
4	11	NO	4	11	No score	Enter Ave or Ave-
3	9	Yes	3	9	Yes	Match point as normal
2	15	Yes	2	15	Yes
1	13	Yes	1	13	Yes
8	12	Yes	8	12	Yes
7	10	Yes	7	10	Yes
6	16	Yes	6	16	Yes
5	14	Yes	5	14	yes

Board set F is more complicated!

The computer program will be expecting the following results for boardset F	When it actually has the following
Board set F			Board set F		Match point the amended traveller
NS	EW	Score?		NS	EW	Score?
5	13	Yes	5	13	Yes
4	10	NO	4	11	Yes the wrongly played ones
3	16	Yes	3	16	Yes
2	14	Yes	2	14	Yes
1	12	Yes	1	12	Yes
8	11	NO	7	9	Yes
7	9	Yes	6	15	Yes
6	15	yes	8	10	None possible	Enter Ave +

So you have to modify the traveller to put NS8 v EW10 even though they can never actually play each other and give them both Ave+.

In order to score the modified traveller you will need to use the facility within the program to edit the pair numbers to achieve the traveller pattern actually obtained. In ScoreBridge you do it by editing the travellers using the ‘score sheets’ function.

Using Jeff Smith you can highlight the pair numbers you want to change and edit them directly on the score entry page.

Other scoring programs may have their own variations of this. But whatever you do you need to be careful that you don’t edit the wrong information as there may not be any checks made at this point.

You will then be able to matchpoint in the usual way and produce your results! Then go and lie down in a dark room with a stiff drink!

Each problem will need its own solution and you may well have to sit down with the movement matrix and work it out from first principles. If the error remains unresolved for longer it becomes increasingly complicated to resolve until, eventually, you reach the point of no return and you will have to abandon your session.

Electronic scorers

If the club uses one of the makes of electronic scorers then the problem will mean changing the movement sent to the scorers. This is not a good idea. It is best to leave the movement as it is for the duration of the movement, putting in Ave for boards not played or played by incorrect pairs and then alter the travellers later on once the event is finished. You will need to keep a careful note of valid results obtained but not entered so you can edit everything afterwards.

John Pain