Responsibility for Board Placement on the Table
Its rather pernickety and bad behaviour in my opinion but......
We have a player at a local club who always sits North and insists that only she handles the boards herself. When my partner, picked the next board to put on the table last night, she shouted aggressively 'Dont touch the boards' in an unfriendly manner. I see from Law 8A2 thatt North is reponsible for 'moving the boards just completed....', but can you clarify whether North does have sole responsibility for placing the board on the table?
Comments
The words "shouted" and "aggressively" have no place at the bridge table. Regardless of the rights and wrongs, I, as director, would be warning her about her behaviour.
Law 7D: "Any contestant remaining at a table throughout a session is primarily responsible for maintaining proper conditions of play at the table". This includes Law 7A: Placement of Board.
There is a whole section of the White Book that deals with this:
8.7.3.1 The role of North
There is an impression amongst some players that only North is allowed to do anything. They
assume North has to score, look after the boards, put the board on the table correctly, move the
boards, and so on. Some people ascribe further responsibilities to North, such as looking after
speed of play, deciding whether the board should stay in the centre of the table, and so on. How
much of this is true?
According to the laws, only moving the boards at the end of the round is the specific
responsibility of North (Law 8). Scoring is normally done by North or South, and checked by East
or West. For Bridgemate scoring, this is a requirement, see §1.6.7 – Bridgemate protocol.
8.7.3.2 Law 7D
A contestant who remains at the table is primarily responsible for maintaining proper conditions
of play. With a Howell-type movement, that could be North-South; it could be East-West; it could
be neither. If there is a stationary pair at the table, then only that side is at fault (for the purposes
of Law 12C2) if the table plays the wrong boards.
The word ‘primarily’ (in Law 7D) does not mean that the other side is absolved from
responsibility. If the board is put on the table so that the North cards are taken out of the board
by the East player, both sides are at fault.
So the short answer is no, she is not the only person allowed to touch the boards.
I fully agree there's a shared responsibility for keeping the game moving and making sure the right boards & pairs are played, if only because that makes an error less likely. I occasionally do it if we're behind the clock, and I feel the post hand discussion should be curtailed. Having said that, if it's going to annoy a particular North it's diplomatic not to handle the boards, I'd always have a ready apology. Of course, North should also be politely reminded not to yell.
I think North should be sternly warned not to yell and also given a PP for unacceptable behaviour, maybe even referred to the club's committee for them to consider a conduct violation.
A small subset of bridge players does seem to manage to find any excuse to behave childishly!
I wouldn't condone the "shouting and agressive" manner. However, I just wonder why this member thinks this way? Is it possible that there is some "background" to this situation. Perhaps a friendly chat about it may resolve a few issues. Only a suggestion as I don't know the individual concerned or whether they are well known for doing this. That also begs the question, Why hasn't anything been done before?
CMOT_Dibbler