Board Reports

This guide is for those who have already seen Running an event. After you have looked here, at this chapter, we recommend that you look at these chapters:


The Board Report allows a director to see the timing of each action on a board, and the total time taken by each player. It is useful for directors in determining:

  • The facts about tempo variations
  • The timing of alerts and explanations
  • Responsibility for slow play.

Revised 30 October 2023


Generating a Board Report

You can generate a Board Report from two places:

  • At the table during the board, from the director's seat.
  • In the scores window, when reviewing the bidding and play for a board that has already been played.

To use this feature, you must be logged in as a director.

To generate a board report, click the button. This copies the Board Report to the clipboard. You will see this message:

To view the report, open Notepad or any other text editor (or Excel or Word), and paste the report there.

The report uses fixed-width columns. In a text editor the report should appear correctly formatted in columns. In Word or another word-processor, change the font to a fixed-width typeface like Courier. In Excel, use Excel's "Text to Columns" feature.

Examples of Board Reports

Using standard alerts Using self-alerts

Contents of a Board Report

A Board Report has four parts:

  • The names of the players
  • The hand-diagram
  • The auction and play, with timings
  • Total time used by each player

Auction and play section

The report shows the time taken for each of these actions:

  • Bids, together with any alerts (and explanations, if the session is set up to use self-alerts)
  • Plays
  • Undo requests
  • Acceptance/rejection of an undo
  • Claims
  • Acceptance/rejection of a claim

Each line represents a single action. It has up to six columns. The columns are:

Column Contents when using normal alerts Contents when using self-alerts
Player Player who took the action Same
Action The bid, play, undo request, claim, etc. See below for a list of things that can appear in this column. Same
Time Time taken in seconds. This is the time that elapsed between the previous action and this one. (For the first action on the board, it is the time elapsed since the cards became visible.) Same
Alert If a bid was alerted, contains "(*)". If a bid was alerted or had an explanation added, contains "(*)".
Alert time If a bid was alerted, the time elapsed from the bid to the alert. If a bid was alerted or had an explanation added, the time elapsed from the bid to the alert or the explanation.
If this is blank, it means that the alert or the first explanation was made with the bid.
Expl Not present If a bid had an explanation added, the text of the explanation.
This is the same as what you would see at the table, or in the results window if you clicked on the bid. If some or all of the explanation was added after the bid, this shows the time when each part was added (relative to when the bid was made).

The action can be one of the following:

Action Meaning
A bid  
A play  
UNDO  Request for an undo
UACC  Undo accepted
UREJ Undo rejected
CL number Claim a number of tricks. The number shown is the claimed total for the declaring side.
eg Declarer has made 8 tricks, the defence has made 1 trick, and a defender now claims 2 more. The text will be "CL10".
CACC  Claim accepted
CREJ Claim rejected
UPLY Undo all the play (by the director)
UALL Undo the bidding and play (by the director)

Notes

Alerts when using normal alerts

If the session uses normal alerts, the Alert column shows whether the bidder's partner alerted the bid.

The Alert time shows the time that elapsed from the bid to the alert.

Self-alerts and self-explanations

If the session uses self-alerts, the Alert column shows whether the bidder either alerted the bid or added an explanation.

The Alert time shows the time that elapsed from the bid to the alert or explanation.
If the bid was initially alerted, and explained later, it shows the time of the initial alert.
If the bid was initially explained, then a further explanation was added later, it shows the time of the first explanation.

To see when each part of the explation was added, see the Expl column.

Timings following an alerted or self-explained call

The time shown for next player's action is calculated from the time of the bid, not from the time of the alert. In the examples above, North's 4♠ was bid 14 seconds after West's 3♢.

Acceptance/rejection of claims and undo requests

After an undo request during the bidding, or an undo request by declarer during the play, or after any claim: two players have to accept the claim or undo request.
If both players accept, the time shown is for the second acceptance.
If either player rejects, the report shows the time for the rejection. Even if the other player accepted first, this is not shown.

Actions by the director

If the director makes a bid or play on behalf of a player, the action is attributed to the player.
If the director undoes a single action, it is shown as "UNDO", with "DIR" as the player. There is no subsequent UACC or UREJ
If the director undoes all the play, it is shown as "UPLY", with "DIR" as the person who did it.
If the director undoes all the play, it is shown as "UALL", with "DIR" as the person who did it.

Total time used by each player

This section shows the total time used by each player.

Time is attributed to a player if either:

  • It is the player's turn to bid or play, or
  • Someone has claimed or requested an undo, and the player is the last one to accept or reject the claim/undo-request. In the examples above, the 8.9 seconds between East's first claim and South's rejection is attributed to South.