Taken from "DAVID STEVENSON answers
questions on Bridge Laws", published in number eighty-four of BRIDGE
with the permission of Mr Bridge.
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Q |
For my sins, I am the scorer for my club.
What is the correct procedure for dealing with a traveller that has been
incorrectly completed? I have been told that it must be left as it is, but that
does not seem sensible to me. For instance, to take a simple example, if
someone scores a hand which say, should be 3Ì making by North, but writes down 140 to
East, it is clearly wrong. It will also most likely affect the scores of some
of the other players. In some cases, it could be quite difficult to work out
what the correct score should be.
Dennis
Law of Nailsworth, Glos.
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A |
If you are certain that you know what the
correct score is, then you may alter it. For example, if everyone makes 4Ì, and all
the scores are 620 except one 420, of course you may alter it. But if you do
not know what is correct, all you know is that the contract and result and the
score, do not agree, then you should always take the
score. For example, if it says 2Í, made eight tricks, +140, you should enter
140. You do not know whether the number of tricks is wrong, or the score. It is
agreed that the score is what E/W have accepted when they check. Similarly for
3Ì, making
nine tricks, +110, you should accept +110: perhaps it was diamonds: you have no
way of knowing. Two off, vulnerable, +100: leave it, perhaps it was one off.
In the example you give, how do you know it
was not 3Ì making by
East? Unless you have really solid evidence you should
just enter -140. Even if others have scored +140 in 3Ì, that is not good enough: perhaps there were two mistakes and it
should really be 3Í by East.
So you may use commonsense and change
something you really know is wrong, but that is rare. For most errors, you
cannot be sure, and then you should take the score as written and not the
contract and tricks.