By Neil Bonnell, Warwick Bridge Club
Two popular events will be held this month: the draw pairs (where partners are decided by lot) on Friday, 26th and the Australia-wide Pairs competition on Monday, 29th.
Beverly and I have been having a good run on recent Fridays, which Beverly was instrumental in maintaining by making several tight games last Friday. Board 11 (above) shows the advantage of aggressive bidding. Sitting South, she opened the bidding with a weak, pre-emptive 2S, promising a six-card spade suit and 7-10 high card points. West overcalled 3H, giving me the choice of bidding 3S or 4S. Presuming that Beverly had at most one heart, and with an eye on the bonus of 300 for making the ten tricks required, I chose 4S. With only three bids having been made, East had had no chance of bidding clubs and by now it was too late. The fate of contracts is often decided in the first trick or two. In this case, West led the King of hearts, which dropped Beverly’s Queen and brought my Jack closer to being a winner. Had West counted the hearts, West would have known that neither East nor South had any more hearts. This may have prevented West from continuing with the fatal King of hearts, which was ruffed by Beverly. Now a small spade was played to dummy’s two top spades. Both defenders followed suit, so it was time to lead the Jack of hearts, which was trumped by East and over-trumped by South. A small diamond went to dummy’s Ace, which was followed by the winning ten of hearts, allowing a club to be discarded. East could still make the King of diamonds, but the contract was made for a top score North/South.
Results, Monday, 15/08/22 (6-table Mitchell): N/S N. Collins M. Simpson (60.7) 1; R. Hart H. Price (57.0) 2; T. Hinde P. Campbell (48.0) 3. E/W P. Kelly J. Nankervis (64.3) 1; C. Duggan N. McGinness (56.7) 2; J. Mobbs D. Moran (54.7) 3. Friday, N. Bonnell B. Bonnell (69.4) 1; P. Kelly J. Nankervis (58.3) 2; N. Collins M. Simpson (56.5) 3. Jenny Smith R. Hart (54.2) 4.
