In these articles we will try to help players understand the laws of bridge. However, it does need stressing that calling the director should not be seen as a hostile act. Before calling the director a player should courteously inform his opponents he intends to do so, and proceed in a calm manner. A good director will then come to the table with the attitude: ‘How can I help?’

Why should the director be called? In practice players who try to do things themselves tend to get it wrong. For example, South makes an insufficient bid.

f he simply pulled the wrong card out of the bidding box (a mechanical error) he is allowed to change it without penalty.

If he ‘meant’ the insufficient bid because he did not notice an opponents’ bid he cannot just put it right. His opponents have the right to accept it and bid over it.

In practice, by the time the director is called the insufficient bidder has probably tried to put it right himself, wrongly and thus making the director’s task all the harder.

How do you react if the director is called to the table and ‘rules against you’? Maybe your partner hesitated and you then made a bid that the director deems inappropriate. The important thing to realise is that no moral wrongdoing is being ascribed to you. We all know the feeling of helplessness as we have a difficult decision to take which is complicated further because of unauthorised information from partner. We can only do our best, and then the director may have to decide whether 70% of players would have acted this way. Just accept that he is doing his best and that he is not trying to ‘penalise you’, just make absolutely sure your opponents get justice.  What is unhelpful is when a player can only repeat the fact that he would always make the disallowed bid. That is not the criterion by which the director must make his judgement.

The point is that bridge is a game where the players can see each other, but legal methods of communication are very limited. Inevitably things go wrong and the rules to cover the process of putting it right are necessarily complicated. Most players cannot be expected to know or understand these rules; indeed directors hardly find them easy. Do your best as a player, accept the director is trying his best, and enjoy the game. Most really good players are very tolerant of their less experienced brethren, so don’t be put off pitting your wits against them by a false belief they will spend half their lives trying to get one over you.