JUNE 2000 - BRIDGE by Malcolm Simpson

Yet another simultaneous pairs event appeared on the club calendar last month – the English Bridge Union Spring Simultaneous Pairs.None of the Abingdon contestants performed well enough to appear in the top hundred places.

When the above deal appeared, both sides had a chance to shine. South started the bidding with one diamond, then West usually competed with a two-suited overcall, such as a Michaels cue bid, to show both major suits.Four spades by East was then normally the minimum contract reached, but if North-South were brave enough to introduce the club suit, then five, or even six clubs was a possible target for North-South.

In four spades, South usually began by leading the ace, king and a small diamond, putting East in a dilemma.The winning play is to ruff with the king of spades, otherwise North overruffs with the singleton queen to provide the setting trick.Not easy to find!

Should North-South be brave enough to reach six clubs, declarer should succeed by playing low to the king of clubs, thus smoking out West’s void and picking up the queen of trumps by finessing the jack.This is a logical precaution to take, because West’s major two-suited overcall indicates the hand most likely to have a minor suit shortage.After this hurdle has been surmounted, it is a simple matter to establish the diamond suit by trumping the third round.If a trump was needed at trick one to ruff the ace of hearts, then Declarer needs to risk ruffing the third diamond after finessing the jack of trumps, thus retaining the ace of trumps as an entry to hand to cash the remaining diamonds.

The Abingdon Bridge Club managed, as ever, to provide a novel variation.South opened one no-trump and West bid two diamonds, the Cansino convention to show both major suits. North bid three clubs, East bid three spades and the bidding progressed stages to five clubs, leaving West to make the next move.With a void and a strong two-suiter West elected to bid five spades, which survived, undoubled as the final contract.From his viewpoint, the opening one no-trump bid indicated likely possession of the king of hearts and any spade honour not held by East, making five spades a good proposition.

The defence started as described previously with the ace, king and a small diamond and East, the declarer, called for a small trump, nearly falling off his seat when this was overruffed with the queen, placing South with a six card diamond suit.When South subsequently ruffed the first round of hearts, the Director was called, because it is not an acceptable practice to make an opening bid of one no-trump with a void suit.South explained that she had sorted her hand assuming three of her diamonds to be hearts! The disgruntled East eventually saw the funny side and no further action was taken.Two down undoubled was an acceptable score anyway, when six clubs could have been made by North-South.

I am sure that the participants in this little saga wish to remain anonymous.Well, haven’t we all be guilty of mis-sorting our hand at some time or other?

LOCAL NEWS

Several members of local clubs took part in the Jersey Congress. Sheila Zinkin and Colin Jones (Abingdon) won the Boston Laurels. Sara Tulip and Peter Russell (Abingdon) came joint third in the Swiss Pairs.In the “A” Flight of the Winchester Green Pointed Swiss Teams, Gillian Lonsdale, Nigel Wilkes, Clive Keep and myself (Abingdon) came second, losing by a single Victory Point.A team containing John Gunn (Wantage), who partnered Lynn Kirby (Newbury), came second in the “B” Flight.