Wording of a claim
Trick 12 in a D contract
Declarer, on lead, has the last 2 hearts (small ones)
Dummy has the last diamond (trump) and a spade (not the highest after several high ones have been ruffed)
Declarer leads a heart and says "ruff it and oh wait" and doesn't want to ruff. He tells the director his claim wasn't complete and he wishes to change it.
Ruling was that once he said "ruff it" dummy's card was designated so no change allowed.
a) Correct ruling ?
b) If so had declarer said "I'm going to ruff a heart and oh wait" would that constitute an incomplete claim he's allowed to change.
Declarer, on lead, has the last 2 hearts (small ones)
Dummy has the last diamond (trump) and a spade (not the highest after several high ones have been ruffed)
Declarer leads a heart and says "ruff it and oh wait" and doesn't want to ruff. He tells the director his claim wasn't complete and he wishes to change it.
Ruling was that once he said "ruff it" dummy's card was designated so no change allowed.
a) Correct ruling ?
b) If so had declarer said "I'm going to ruff a heart and oh wait" would that constitute an incomplete claim he's allowed to change.
Comments
It doesn't sound to me as though he has made a claim. He has designated a card in dummy and since it doesn't seem to be unintended, the card must be played.
Law 68 (preamble)
For a statement or action to constitute a claim or concession of tricks under these Laws, it must
refer to tricks other than one currently in progress. If the statement or action pertains only to
the winning or losing of an uncompleted trick currently in progress, play proceeds regularly; cards
exposed or revealed by a defender do not become penalty cards, but Laws 16 and 57A may apply.
"Ruff it and oh wait" doesn't seem to quite fit the bill.
I am not entirely sure what happens if the claimer changes horses in mid stream - it might depend on whether he sees that his original line will fail - or whether he suddenly spots a distribution that needs additional explanation as to how he will cope if they were to occur (and they do). Anyway the claim should be accompanied by a clear statement - and waffling around and changing intention is hardly clear.
He called for the ruff. TD's ruling stands.
Had he started with "I'm going to ruff it and..." then I would view it as the start of a claim statement in progress and might allow a change, assuming there has been no further input from anyone else.
What other have said ... without a statement of how many tricks or what will happen on subsequent tricks, this is not a claim, just a call of a card from dummy and a change of mind (a 'reconsideration of action' in the words of the law).