Late comer plays as Skip (Issued on 8/9/15)

The League panel investigated the case and subsequently ruled that such action has violated Law 11.2.3 and 33.4. Two points was deducted from the default team and awarded to the opponent, who was originally lost in the game.

Law 11.2.3 stated that ““The positions of players within a team must not be changed after the first end has been completed unless the change is necessary because a substitute is introduced as described in law 33.” While Law 33 governs the introduction of substitutes during a game, in 33.4 it is specified that “The substitute must play in any position other than skip, and the other members of the team can rearrange their positions as necessary.”

 

It is common knowledge that any player comes in late will be treated as substitute and they can play in any position other than skip. The default side will forfeit the game to the opponent.

In defense the default team quoted bye-law 2.5b Once the draw for rinks has been completed, no player changes between or within teams of the same side shall be permitted. and claimed that they just followed the original lineup when the skip arrived. Please note that the objective of this rule is to restrict players from changing position or moving between teams. When unforeseeable situation happened such as players being absent or late, the card need to be updated with the new lineup before start of the game. So the original scorecard should have been updated with the new lineup of three players thus this argument is no longer valid.