An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Matthew Tan & Heather Tan (BBO names MatthewTa & HeatherTa) at a hearing on 25th February.
• That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online (“BBO”) platform organised by the English Bridge Union and others from May 2020 onwards, they had knowledge of some aspects of each other’s hands obtained by illicit communication with each other.
• That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.
The defendants denied the charges. A disciplinary hearing was held. The Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play. The Committee imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 3 years.
March 8, 2021