In recovery

In the last week, I've directed four games without a screw-up, so I'm feeling a bit better now. The one that had me scared was yesterday afternoon. I agreed to direct the open game, covering for a guy who's out of town for a few days. Now, the 299ers that I usually direct are easy. They don't call the director too often, and when they do it is generally straightforward stuff. The open game is a different kettle of fish. The game is typically bigger, in terms of number of tables, more demanding, in terms of the cantankerous personalities involved, and more challenging, in terms of the types of calls you get (hesitations and the like).

In actuality, the game turned out to be small, relatively speaking, at 12 tables, and getting everybody seated at their favorite table turned out to be not a problem (much to my amazement). Usually, there is much foofaraw about who is sitting where. I anticipated some of it by printing out the player lists for the preceding two Mondays, which apparently gave me enough inside information to avoid any serious problem. I didn't have to play, and we played 3 boards a round for 8 rounds, which makes the timing easier (we always play 24 boards at the Manhattan). I pushed them along at 7 minutes a board for the first few rounds, handed out a couple of late plays to get things co-ordinated in the middle, and we finished on time even after slowing down a bit for the last few rounds. Very smooth. There was only one somewhat contentious ruling (well, the ruling wasn't contentious, but at least one of the players was). After an auction 1NT - pass - pass - 2S - all pass, it transpired that dummy had been asked what the overcall was and answered "natural", whereas declarer intended it as Capp, showing spades and a minor. Moreover, at the end of the auction, declarer didn't correct the mis-explanation. Now, 2S made, and the defence claimed that they misdefended because of the misinformation. This all seems clear enough, and I was inclined to award an adjusted score immediately. But it happened in round two, and I wanted to wait and see what happened at other tables, because it wasn't at all clear that the claimed damage was real. In the meantime, I talked it over with an experienced director who also happens to own the club. We reviewed the hand record, and his reaction was that they couldn't prove damage, and didn't deserve an adjustment. By the end of the afternoon, the loudmouthed bloody woman had touted her complaint to anyone who would listen for more than two hours, which was rather tiresome. But when the scores were in, 2S had been played several times and had been made only once. I took that as confirmation that damage had really occurred, and on that basis I adjusted the score. (But no doubt she thinks that she won some great victory by being a pain in the ass all afternoon.)

Anyway, now I think I can concentrate on the upcoming Regional. We want gold points!