Back in the Day

The Knight Cup is the Dorset county pairs championship, a one day event where nowadays it is a struggle to get more than eight tables. Back in the 1980s it was a different story; the local EBU county (Southern Counties) covered Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, and the Knight Cup involved heats at local clubs and two semi-finals before a ten table final. Just reaching the final was no mean achievement. 

In 1983 Graham Pearce and I qualified for the final for the first time. We were minnows amongst sharks but it was one of those rare days where we could do no wrong so I was hopeful of a good result. Back then there was no instant computer scoring or internet so you had to wait until the following evening and phone the scorer to find out the result. I remember him telling me that we had won by 'a considerable margin'.

When clearing out my loft recently I discovered a tatty old notebook where I used to record interesting hands. This was an example of our good fortune from that Knight Cup final.  

In those days we included strong 4441 hands in our Multi 2♦ opening, so 3♣ showed this type of hand with a singleton diamond. I had a little to spare but 4♥ was a bit of a punt. West had read the textbook that told you to lead a trump after this auction, but mistakenly chose to lead the nine of hearts. Graham won, cashed the top spades, ruffed a spade, then played a diamond to the ace and ruffed another spade. Meanwhile our friendly West discarded two clubs. When declarer led a club West took the ace and exited with a diamond, but now dummy was high so we made 12 tricks for a rather fortuitous top. 

Strong 4441 hands are pretty rare and including them into a Multi has now gone out of fashion, but a similar hand came up in the Knight Cup semi final the following year. 

On a club lead I won the ace, ruffed a club and led a heart to the queen and king. On a diamond return I was able to ruff two more clubs in hand and make 12 tricks when both major suits broke 3-2. This was a hand from the 1984 final.

In the 21st century I would make an immediate splinter bid 4♣ over 1♠, but back then we played it as some form of Swiss. It didn't matter as I was able to show my hand type on the next round. I should have redoubled 4♣ to show first round control, but we ended up in the right spot. The slam made with an overtrick for an outright top and helped us to keep the cup.

Tollemache Final 2026

Last November Dorset did exceptionally well to win their group and qualify for the Tollemache final, no doubt helped by the fact that Ann and I were not playing. We were added to the team for the final to make up a team of 10. It was a nice change to play in a high level face-to-face event, but results were rather disappointing and we finished 7th out of 8. Ann and I held our own on the first day, but were out of form and luck on Sunday. This hand was a typical example.

Ann won the spade lead in dummy and ran the eight of clubs to West's ten. West defended accurately by returning a trump. After drawing trumps, West won the first round of diamonds and when both defenders kept their clubs there was no way home. 

The hand record showed that ten tricks could always be made, but we had to put the deal into Deep Finesse to find the winning line. The key play, not at all obvious, is to ruff a spade at trick two, and eventually West can be endplayed to concede a second club trick. You can follow the play by clicking Next on the diagram. Four hearts was the contract at 11 of the 16 tables, but was only defeated twice. I would be willing to bet that the other declarers succeeded due to a friendly defence rather than finding the double dummy line.