By clive keep 05/09/99

The second weekend at Brighton is devoted to Swiss Teams - for the Four Stars Trophy (for the top eight teams at the end of the Saturday evening), the 4 stars consolation (next eight teams) and the Brighton bowl (for the rest!). I teamed up with Mike Brown and our cohorts were Nigel Wilkes and Gillian Lonsdale.

How's this for the very first board on the Friday night?

You end up in four hearts and yours and dummy's cards are-
 

	AKQ4  Q1074  Q3  973
	73  AK8532  9  K1062

A small diamond lead goes to the Ace and then the King of Diamonds - which you ruff. One round of trumps show that the hearts are 2-1. Over to you! Well as you've noticed, it is a 'book' elimination play - draw the last trump, play four rounds of spades ruffing the last, enter dummy with a trump and lead a small club. All you have to do is then cover RHO's card and LHO is endplayed. Try it!! The full lay-out was-

The next hand was exciting! What do you open vulnerable, first in hand (playing benji) with -

First, Mike and I defend 4S by West on board 17 accurately to beat it by one trick-
setting up our trick in hearts on North's opening lead before declarer can discard his loser on the club king - 5imps in.
(love all)

 We continued the roll for the first two matches on Saturday afternoon, winning them by small margins - five in a row! Next up were our local rivals from Oxfordshire (Mike Webley, Mike King, Ernest Schlesinger and Martin Lerner). Things did not go well. Board 19 was as follows-

(E/W vulnerable), dealer S
 

	102  Q98  A8654  1064
3  KJ54  KJ9  KQ852		A864  A10762  3  973
	KQJ975  3  Q1072  AJ

The bidding started 1S - double - pass at both tables, but then a divergence of opinion - Gillian bid 2H and Mike Webley 3H with the East cards resulting in 2S by S (-1) at one and 4H by E at the other table. The club position meant that 4H was a relatively easy make and -11 imps. Hand 20 was no better -

Game all, dealer West-

Hand 29, dealer North-

We had had a touch of farce on an earlier board (27) for which I was at fault.

Finally in this match - a comedy of errors! Hand 25 (E/W vulnerable)
 

	A1064  KQ8  QJ86  53
J95  A9  A109  QJ872		Q832  J765  K  K1064
	K7  10432  75432  A9

Here the contract was 1N by North at both tables. At our table Hoffman led the 5H to the ace and I won the heart return with the King. I led the Q diamonds from hand to the stiff King and the hearts were cleared. Forlornly I tried the diamond Jack, hoping for a 2-2 split and Manny Marks ducked(!!). Another diamond then left me with three diamonds, two hearts, two spades and a club for eight tricks and the opposition got their discards wrong to give me an extra spade for +150. Hoffman was beside himself - was the air blue! It's the first time I have heard four-letter words to describe one's partner!! (well at the table anyhow). Nigel originally led a spade but then switched to the king of clubs (to remove the entry to dummy!!) to beat the contract - of course! Bridge is such an easy game!  However, the two game losses amounted to a 2-18 defeat.

Match one of the evening session saw us lose another tight contest - but recovery was at hand!

As we all know, one advantage, if you can call it that, of losing matches at Swiss Teams is that one then encounters weaker opposition. Our opponents in the second match of the Saturday evening were not too strong. We were in 3N on board 12 (N/S vulnerable)

Gillian was in the hot seat at the other table. The Ace if Diamonds was led (thanks!) at trick one, followed by a top spade to the Ace and a ruff. A top heart revealed the bad news, but when a diamond was led towards the dummy, North ruffed his partner's diamond winner. Gillian then got way with losing two trumps and the Ace of diamonds for a 13-imp gain. On to the last match with a 17-3 victory under our belts!

Here there were two hands on interest - nos. 18 and 24. First hand 18 (N/S game)

Hand 24, the last board of the night (love all)

After a good night's sleep (for three members of the team!) and a brisk Sunday morning stroll we were ready to take on the field for the Brighton Bowl.

In the first match we lost by 3 imps - due mainly to our opposition playing in 3N with a 4-4 heart fit, making while Gillian and Nigel went one off in 4H. In the second we played against a 'foreign' team, whose English was a little lacking, as well as their bridge. Nigel somehow brought home 6S on the following hand (bidding not available - maybe it's as well)

Hand 9, e/W vulnerable)

We also gained on board 15 (N/S game)

In the third (close) match we won by 4 imps - due mainly to Mike and I bidding and making 4H and the opposition did not. Anyhow, we are now in the 'top row' for the final match against Rob Cliffe's team. Again this was very close, with just bits and pieces changing hands, but for a 3 imp loss, a 163 VP total and 25= out of 233 teams in the Brighton Bowl.

Mike was happy (we finished higher than the team with Debbie Roberts): Nigel was happy (our team finished higher than Mike Webley's did) and both Gillian and I were happy (about 4 greens!).

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