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     India Revisited.

Before we move on to Day 4, there were some unusual happenings going on in the final match of Day 3 which deserve a mention. Only the Bridge Ferns and Bridge Masters played these boards. East-West in the other two teams would have been sad to miss out this set as there were two small and one 31 hcp grand slam to be bid. Jenny Wilkinson and Shirley Newton bid all 3. India did not bid any of these losing 40 imps in the process. 

However, 2 other boards from this match are worthy to be reported.

 

 

Jane Lennon (North) was on lead to the normal 4 contract and started with the A. Her partner contributed 4 and declarer the Q. While there is always a chance that the declarer was false-carding, Jane decided to take the queen at face value. Therefore, her partner had a choice of two cards to play in what, with K in dummy, should be a suit preference signal. The 4, therefore, seemed to indicate a switch to the lower of the other non-trump suits, diamonds. Within a few seconds, the king was followed by the ace and a ruff to defeat the game. “Nothing ventured…”

Meanwhile, Shirley Newton, East, saw her partner open the equivalent of 1. She looked at the flat nature of her hand and decided that 9 tricks might be easier than 10. How right she was with there being an overtrick as well, 10 very well earnt imps at both tables.

                       The Bridge Ferns in Singapore

  Steph Jacob, Jane Skipper, Jane Lennon, Kris Wooles (npc), Jenny Wilkinson, Shirley Newton, Rebecca Johnston

Are you sitting comfortably? Of course, you are because you are reading this article. What follows should go into what we feature quite often as “the lighter side of bridge”. There is one problem. When it happens in a Women’s international, it is very serious! Trust me and take a look at these 4 hands:

 

When your side has three side-suit aces (all of which are cashing), and one player has four trumps headed by the king, never mind one side-suit king in partner’s hand as well, it does seem to be a reasonable time to double the opponents in their major suit game. Too bad if they make it. We all know you have to double a making contract sometime.

So, Janes Skipper and Lennon expected to lose maybe 5 imps when 4 rolled home for just the loss of three aces( continuous ruffs and sluffs would have been beaten this contract.). Alas, teammates, Jenny Wilkinson and Shirley Newton missed game altogether! They did not even declare the contract. There were, though, three similarities with the above contract. The board was played in hearts…and it was played in game and it was doubled!

West              North            East                South

Jenny                                     Shirley

                                                                        4

4                   5                  x               All Pass

Screens are wonderful things. North could not see South’s face at any time during the auction or the play. 4 was an opening bid showing hearts or so North thought. South had other thoughts about her opening bid. So, North expected a bucket-load of hearts to appear in dummy when she bid 5. Shirley Newton would have been a little surprised at the bidding….but what can you do when your partner bids the suit you do not have? She doubled… and there matters rested. Declarer actually made 4 tricks. The post-mortem of how a bonus one slipped through never happened. Just an initial apology about missing game to be followed by +2000 or 15 imps in.

I do not ever recall seeing both sides playing a game contract in the same suit. It is possible the Indians clarified the true meaning of 4 after the event.

(a tip for when you are dummy and fear a 4- figure penalty looming. Go get partner her favourite drink and let an opponent put down the dummy hand. Been there…)

So now you know how our Women scored 95 imps and 20vps against India.

Richard Solomon

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