Announcements- more bureaucracy?

A change to the rules of Bridge will come into force with the new edition of the Orange Book effective from the 1st August 2006.

The change is the introduction of 'announcements'. Instead of an alert some bids will require the partner of the bidder to make an announcement. For example if partner opens 1nt, you will be required to say '12-14', '15-17' or whatever range you use.

Only a small number of bids require announcements by partner:

they are:

• natural opening 2 bids
• Stayman
• red suit transfers over a 1nt opener

If, for example, partner opens 2 spades you will be required to say, strong or weak and forcing or non-forcing. A full description is to be found in David Stephenson's article in the latest Bridge magazine.

My initial reaction was 'what is the point of this?'.

This was closely followed by a vivid mental picture of the reaction of the average member of my club. For example every pair plays a 12-14 no-trump and everyone else knows that. What a lot of unnecessary verbiage. It seems this might be necessary in a high-level tournament where players do not play each other on a regular basis. Is it just one more example of rules being designed for the elite in tournament at the cost of alienating the average club player?

Alan Chapman comments:

Absolutely right, designed for tournament elite, to the annoyance and confusion of Club players. We have tried these out in advance of the start date at a small Club that I run. We have concentrated on the Announcements initially, and even those are generally seen as unnecessary and without merit. If you look via the EBU's website, you will find a two-page "summary" of the changes, which I think is meant to simplify them!!!I AM GOING TO SUGGEST OUR CLUB IGNORES THEM. Anyone like to start a campaign of civil disobedience?

Joe writes:

It is interesting to get a reaction from 'real' bridge players. It confirms my worst suspicions about the 'announcements' change. I think there is a problem here though. If clubs ignore the change, will their members be disadvantaged if they attend another club which is using the new rules? I did see a suggestion that it should be possible for players at a table to 'turn off' announcements if they are fully aware what all the 'announced' bids made by opponents mean. The other problem is that these changes are made by a body that has lost the confidence of many 'local' clubs who don't wish to be members of it. Maybe we need a body to represent us which has our interests at heart (PlayBridge UK?).

Update 3rd Oct 2006

I thought it would be good to report on the 'success' of announcements! Simply, for the average club, it has been a nonsense. People simply forget to announce their partners no-trump range and, when someone reminds them, everyone just smiles. They are smiling at the irrelevance of it, since all in the room know what the range is anyway.

Some things seem a little better, such as the changed rules on when to alert a double. There is also the question of whose rules these are anyway. Do they apply in all countries? (Replies to this are welcome!). They certainly don't seem to apply to internet Bridge-there have been no changes that I can detect on Bridge Club Live.