Game All
Dealer West
 

	NORTH S:10 H:103 D:KJ103 C:AKJ965
WEST S:AQJ9653 H:K752 D:Q C:4		EAST S: 7 H:AQ86 D:9742 C:10732
	SOUTH S:K842 H:J94 D:A865 C:Q8

Edna Gillett (who has been playing bridge even longer than me) could never have been described as an underbidder and age does not seem to have moderated her bold approach to the game. She and her husband Trevor were "leading lights" at the Wallingford Club when my wife and I first joined a very long time ago. Last month, at an Abingdon teams-of-four evening, playing with Dorrie Viney, who is another longstanding member of the Wallingford Club, she found herself opposing a team of regulars from the Abingdon A team, who were limbering up before their return to Division One of the Wessex League at the start of the new season.

West, heeding advice from numerous textbooks about not pre-empting three or four spades with a seven card suit when the hand also contains a four card major suit, opened with a gentle one spade. When North overcalled three clubs, East could only pass with his paltry six points and Edna, sitting South, bid a bold three no-trumps, trusting that there would be an opening spade lead and the heart suit would look after itself. West decided to take his chances in defence and elected not to bid four spades. A heart lead would have guaranteed the first six tricks for the defence but West was unaware that East had the ace of hearts and could have returned a spade through declarer to his ace-queen. After some deliberation, West led his queen of spades. Edna was now able to take with the king of spades, play West for the queen of diamonds and make eleven tricks.

At the other table the opposing West ended up in four spades, doubled and making. This result produced a massive swing for Edna’s team of 16 international matchpoints.

While West was following the advice of many experts with his opening bid, I feel that when the long suit is the other major, it is often better to make the pre-emptive bid, which forces the opposition to remain silent or bid their minor suits at the four or five level. While 4-4 suit fits can produce critical extra tricks, this is seldom the case when one of the two hands contains a second suit of seven cards in length. With a long minor suit, the situation is different, because a pre-emptive bid now nearly always precludes the cheaper major suit game when a 4-4 fit is available.

Should West have found a better lead? I suggest that, if he was prepared to defend rather than bid four spades, then he should have taken his chances with a red suit lead, which, if he chose correctly, would have enabled partner to lead through declarer’s slender spade holding. But which red suit do you choose? Because he had no clear defensive plan available, West should, perhaps, have chosen to take the "softer option" and bid on.

I’m glad to say that the team of Abingdon hopefuls were the eventual winners of the competition, but are keen to keep such disasters off their card during the season ahead.

LOCAL NEWS Wallingford Local pairs performed well at the recent Guernsey Congress. Debbie Roberts & Geoff Nicholas came seventh in the Swiss Pairs and Elizabeth Yearling & Mike Brown came fifth in the Seniors Pairs. Abingdon The Autumn Cup was won by Alan Bryden and Peter Litchfield.

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