I did a V game, my partner, whom was the ref, and I, the ump, had each called a foul on A2 during play in the first and second quarter. Well, another foul was called on A2 toward the end of the 2nd. quarter. The coach of A2 asked the table how many fouls did A2 have and was told 2. My partner, who is the ref in charge, went to the table and told the bookkeeper, this was A2's third foul because he recalled calling one and me calling one.My question, can a ref change fouls like he did even if he is sure of the foul situation of a player? A2 should have had three fouls in the book at that point but he only had two.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Geneva">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by feeli99 on 02-20-2000 06:42 AM
My question, can a ref change fouls like he did even if he is sure of the foul situation of a player? A2 should have had three fouls in the book at that point but he only had two.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Most definitely. Rule 2.11.11 says that the referee, who has specific knowledge of a bookkeeping mistake, should have the mistake corrected immediately. "A bookkkeeping mistake may be corrected at any time until the referee approves the final score." This would include discrepencies that arise concerning the score, fouls, charged time-outs, and so on.

This is somewhat different from the "correctable errors" (Rule 2.10) that result from a rule having beein inadvertently set aside and that have a specific time frame during which they can be corrected.

Sounds to me like your partner made the right call and decision in correcting the scorebook. (Of course, you have to wonder if another player had been a foul erroneously recorded in the book that had not been assessed. You may never be able to totaly reconstruct--and undo--the damage caused by a bookkeeping mistake!)