Senior Moments

Against my better judgement I was persuaded to have a go at the Senior Pairs at Brighton. The second day was a game of two halves. In the semi-final we made a few mistakes and apparently normal results always seemed to give us a poor score, so we were consigned to the Also Rans Final. Then it was the other way round - we made fewer errors, luck was on our side, the opponents were often in a generous mood and we managed to win.

My partner is well known for her rose-tinted spectacles, so I normally bid rather conservatively to compensate. It is not usually a good plan for both partners to overbid on the same hand, but when your luck is in...



My partner did not think much of my opening bid, although it does conform to the rule of 19 and the Losing Trick Count. Ann's 2NT showed a good four-card raise in hearts (a fit-jump of Three Diamonds might have been more descriptive) and Four Spades was a Sharples game-try (you bid it and then try to make it). No worries. When the trumps broke the contract was secure and even though I mis-guessed the diamonds to make only ten tricks we still got a huge score for bidding game.

This was another hand where we were a bit fortunate. East might (should?) have bid Four Spades over the double but he fancied his chances in defence against Four Hearts.

I could have bid 3NT over the double and taken ten top tricks, but the play in Four Hearts was more interesting. East must have been quite confident when dummy went down with the top heart honours, but he was soon to be disappointed. Even after the 5-0 break is revealed, the contract is cold provided that East has at least two diamonds, as a simple elimination leads to East being endplayed. Click on 'Next' to follow the play.



At this point East could choose his poison. If he leads the spade I ruff in hand and play a diamond, forcing East to ruff and lead a trump into the KJ. Alternatively, if he leads a trump I can cash the other trump and play a diamond winner. At the table East chose to play a trump, which at least gave him the small satisfaction of only being endplayed once rather than twice.