The Screen Fix

The Screen Fix

The scene is, as ever, the smoky basement card room of a club somewhere in Earl's Court London. The event, however, is the Premier League and this one is all the business; complete with screens and bidding trays to slide the bids under the screens. As in all good movies we will start with opening shots of 8 tables with screens and the backs of the heads (you can't see the faces they're hidden by screens and that is no bad thing) of the leading UK players.

As the credits start to fade you see a player rise to his feet and summon a creature in a crimson/purple carapace, carrying a green Volume of Sacred Law to the table. The creature shuffles over. "You called?" it says. "I think I've been damaged" says Steve Lodge. Keeping its views about this statement and its application to bridge players entirely to itself, the creature remains silent, making a small frown as if to say "Please continue". Ignoring the silence Steve continues "The bidding went 'Pass, 1 diamond ...'" [the scene dissolves to a games table set up with warring Kings and Queens and various barriers erected across the table]

Board 23 Dealer: South Vul: All	A Q 10 x J 7 x 8 K 10 8 7 x
8 x A 9 x x Q J 10 x A J x		K J 9 x Q 10 x K 9 x x Q x
The screen runs from the NW to the SE corner	7 x x K 8 x A 7 6 x 9 6 x

WEST			NORTH		EAST			SOUTH
David Burn			Steve Lodge		Joe Fawcett or Brian Callaghan			Peter Crouch
									pass
	1	¹		pass		1			pass
	1 NT	²		pass		2 NT	³		pass
	3			pass		3 NT			pass
	pass			double		all pass

1. precision, 13 cards 2. Natural 11-14 3. At this point things went awry

On the lead of the Ace of spades and a diamond switch the contract makes perhaps even with overtricks. The scene dissolves back to the cardroom where the creature (wondering how players of this quality can bid 23 point games with no shape) is seen to be asking questions. Dear reader, bear with the creature, he has to find out from each side of the screen what went on. I will allow you to make the wish that the two sides of the screen are displayed side by side for comparison.

Question?	SW corner	NE corner
1D?	13 cards, Precision	13 cards, Precision
1S?	Natural	Natural
1NT?	Natural 11-14	Natural 11-14
2NT?	Transfer to clubs	Natural game try
3C?	As requested	Attempt to play there
3NT?	Maximum	Not with two small
Dble	Not applicable	Clubs well placed, and two minimums

The movie stops and displays a message: "How do you rule?"

Without screens even the caddy pack (unruly bunch of caddies frequently seen at London events, generally wearing black short sleeved carapaces) would rule this correctly. North would have been told that the explanations by one player or the other were incorrect before the opening lead, he would have reserved his rights, and the Director would have adjusted the score back to 3NT just made on the premise that some damage had occured. (Try defeating it on a small heart to the 9, after an opening club lead. North would almost never switch to his stiff diamond).

The situation is very different when a screen is involved. Damage occurs only if a player is given mis-information. The creature is seen to inspect the WBF convention cards. The EBU 20A convention card is a Dick Francis novel compared to the Chaucerian aspects of the WBF card. It becomes evident that the players methods are those explained by Eas, so there was no damage nor mistaken explanation to North.

What was West up to? Well because of the screens the Chairman of the Laws and Ethics Committee couldn't remember which partner was sitting the other side, and his explanation was for the Fawcett system, not the Callaghan system, but despite this no damage had occured his side of the screen, although he had made a mistaken explanation. (In essence he'd psyched 3 clubs).

So the creature ruled the result stood. Ridiculous you say. Not really, because whilst screens solve a lot of problems they create a few new ones, and this is one of them.

Personally, I felt very sorry for Steve Lodge who was absolutely fixed.

John Probst 1996