All News

and care!

Doubling the new…. and the less new ones, too!

There is a debate going around parts of the Waikato Bays Region about whether one should be instructed not to double inexperienced pairs just out of classes for penalties, on the basis that being doubled does demoralise the new players. The assumption is that the new player will fail in their contract and not enjoy the experience.

While I would challenge that that will always be the end result( what a nice feeling it is to make a doubled contract) , I do agree that doubling new players just for the sake of putting one’s opponent off should be discouraged. Interestingly, does that mean you should be banned from making pre-emptive jumps and openings too? I hope not.

There are times when failure to double spoils the game and just like when a director is called, a newer player needs to understand that it is not a slur on them if they are doubled. So, generally, I am not in favour of such a blanket ban.

One pair discovered that doubling a player neither new to the game nor young in age is not always a great idea. I noticed the following from last Friday’s Auckland inter-club where West was a player whose 100^th birthday we celebrated last year.

So, you are confronted with this auction as North:

 

What does double mean and what should North bid? North’s trumps should have given them a clue that this was not a penalty double. Even if South had a really strong hand (West could even be weaker than North), they could not have more than 2 hearts. Whatever South meant, 3 on those North cards seems sensible even if North claims that they had already shown 5 spades by bidding 1… true for many though one can play a double of 1 to show 4 hearts in which case 1 may be just a 4-card suit.  It would be hard to believe that South held less than 3 spades if they held only 2 hearts….so maybe 3 it should be.

However, Arch Jelley, West, was left to play in 3 x. Understandably, North chose to lead their singleton….and although there is no legitimate way to beat 3, that was certainly not the killing lead.

 

Playing in spades, a heart lead and two more rounds will hurt even 3 played by North trapping declarer in the South hand. Even if declarer discards on the third round, they will lose a trump, 3 hearts and A.

However, the diamond lead did not hurt Arch in 3x. He won the ace and played K and then low to his ace. He exited then his losing diamond. It mattered not whether North ruffed or discarded (they chose to ruff and switched to a club…Arch lost just a ruff and 2 clubs for a nice score of 930) but the East hand was now set up. Had North discarded, West ruffs the third diamond high and draws trump finishing in dummy.

If North can find a club lead and South takes two rounds and switches to A, West must be careful. If they take three rounds of trumps, they will certainly be down but even two rounds of trumps is one too many as long as South continues spades when in with K. That traps declarer in the East hand with only diamonds  and one trump still out.

However, that’s a big “if” for the defence and North would not even mind failing in 3 rather than conceding a doubled part-score.

So, do not overdo your penalty doubles of new players and be wary of them against the “not so new ones” as well. Good on you, Arch. 13 imps obtained on this board (3 did fail at the other table.) saw your Mt Albert team to victory in this match.

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items