Controversies
The string of Blue Team victories was also followed by some cheating allegations—mainly against "lesser" team members and none against Belladonna–Avarelli, Garozzo–Forquet, or Garozzo–Belladonna).
An unusual lead. One of those featured a deal from the 1968 Bermuda Bowl in which Camillo Pabis Ticci led the ace of clubs against a four spades contract, holding ♠ J84 ♥ 9 ♦ A10763 ♣ A986. With a singleton in partner's hand the defense won two aces and two club ruffs. According to a review by John Swanson, which gives the opponent's bidding as 1♠, 2♥, 2♠, 3♠, 4♠ and concludes that Pabis Ticci's explanation of the unusual lead was "patently absurd". However, in earlier review by Victor Mollo and Aksel J. Nielsen, where the bidding is given as, 1♥, 1♠, 2♣, 3♠, 4♠, they conclude "On the bidding, D'Alelio was hardly likely to have the ♥A or a quick entry in trumps. The best chance to best the contract was, therefore, to find him with a singleton in one of the minors, and give him a ruff. Which minor? North's 2♣ bid pointed the way." However, the contemporary Sports Illustrated article (1968) collides with the bidding given by Mollo and Nielsen: "As North-South had not bid clubs, it did not seem likely that the defense would hit on the killing club ruff." Later sources note that Pabis Ticci had no reason to tell Swanson why he made the lead, andpresumed the recorded: "Arthur Robinson had led the A♣ to defeat a partscore in an earlier session and he thought it would be nice to ‘hoist him by his own petard’" given by Swanson, failed to discern this was in jest. This source also notes the discrepancy between listed bidding auctions, but fails to resolve it.
The "foot-tapping" scandal. The best-known controversy occurred in 1975, when the Bermuda Bowl was held at its home site of Bermuda. Journalist Bruce Keidan reported that partners Gianfranco Facchini and Sergio Zucchelli were touching each other's shoes under the table in an apparent attempt to relay information about their hands. Cheating is of course illegal and normally grounds for expulsion from any bridge organization. Keidan's observations, which were confirmed by several witnesses, were presented to the presiding authorities of the event, who "severely reprimanded" Facchini and Zucchelli for their activity but allowed the players to continue competing in the event. Although the Italians were allowed to stay, the Bermuda Bowl authorities placed blocks underneath the tables to prevent any further foot contact.
An anonymous accusation. Another incident occurred during the 1962 tournament. An anonymous letter written in Italian was delivered to the American coach John Gerber. He secured a translator to read it aloud, but asked the translator to stop after the first paragraph, to deliver the letter to Italian captain Carl'Alberto Perroux, and to explain that Gerber had heard only the first paragraph. The writer had accused the Blue Team of cheating. After reading the letter to his team, Perroux suggested that the match be played with screens running across the tables (12 years before modern screens were introduced), but Gerber would have none of it. The goodwill engendered by this exchange inspired Perroux and his team to present their championship trophies to Gerber and the American team in what was described as the greatest act of sportsmanship in bridge history.
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