[bduddy]

At the St. Louis Regional, I (as field reset) was originally told that while the balls on all three bridges had to be fair to both sides, there was no requirements for them to be in any particular position (although in general I tried to put them on the two "center" spots). I assume that was the original assumption your ref was operating on, as there was nothing in the rules about it... and if the GDC intended for there to be, they really needed to put it there. You can't have "unwritten rules" in games that no one has played before...