Dealer: N Vul: E/W
NORTH
♠ KJ84
♥ 10
♦ Q985
♣ AJ104
WEST EAST
♠ 73 ♠ 5
♥ 8643 ♥ KQ975
♦ KJ1076 ♦ A42
♣ 62 ♣ KQ75
SOUTH
♠ AQ10962
♥ AJ2
♦ 3
♣ 983
At the recent Annual General Meeting of the Bridge Club Sandra Head was elected President in succession to Claire Duggan, whose three-year term expired. Claire was thanked for her contribution and praised for her dedication and efficiency during her time as President. Warwick Milne was elected to the Committee for the first time and has taken the first step towards becoming a tournament director.
An important question that many beginners often ask is, “What does vulnerable mean?” They will have noticed a red marker on each tray containing the shuffled cards for each player. The trays are marked according to a pattern which is the same wherever duplicate bridge is played. When a non-vulnerable declarer fails to make a contract each trick less than required incurs a penalty of 50 points. For vulnerable pairs this penalty is 100 points per deficient trick. These penalties are increased even further if the defending pair uses a bid called “double.” Let’s see how this works out in practice.
On Board 9 (above) from last Friday, the players engaged in a bidding war until North/South reached 4S, requiring ten tricks to be won. At four of the five tables, South was allowed to play in spades. At the remaining table East decided to make the sacrifice bid of 5H, which was doubled. East (declarer) failed by two tricks and, because of the vulnerability was penalized 500 points. This gave Gudrun Schmidt and Ian House a top score on this board. Because North/South were not vulnerable, the highest score that they could make was 450 even if they won eleven tricks. That overcall of 5H was therefore futile and was punished because of the vulnerability.
Results, Friday, 21/03/25 (5 & 1/2 -table Howell): N. Collins M. Simpson (58.80 1; N. Bonnell V. Prentice (57.4) 2 eq; T. Hinde J. Mobbs (57.2) 2 eq. P. Kelly D. Moran (53,7) 4. Handicap: A. Macdonald B. Reid 1; G. Schmidt I. House 2.
