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as worn by Pete Benham.

This article is dedicated to the late Pete Benham and is reproduced from a 2008 NZ National Congress Bulletin. It reflects the way Pete and his teammates played the game, very competitively but always with a sense of humour. The article was written by the Bulletin Editor that year, Alan Taylor.

"Joseph's father Jacob favoured him and gave Joseph the coat as a gift; as a result, he was envied by his brothers, who saw the special coat as indicating that Joseph would assume family leadership.

As was indicated in an earlier Bulletin, the team of Murray Jurgeleit, Peter Benham, John Luoni and Brian Cleaver have a coat of many colours which indicates anything but leadership qualities. The team member voted “Least Valuable Player” had to wear it in the next match. Courtesy of the team, here is the coat’s odyssey.

Peter was the original recipient after adjudicator Jimmi Wallis ruled in favour of Murray/ John on the grounds of their better finish in the Pairs.

The coat moved to John for the second match after his fine weak jump overcall of 2♦ which meant that the cold 4♥ was missed and compounded by rising with the ♣K in a fine trick compression to allow 3♠ to make.

 

Murray clearly won the right to wear the hoody next after miscounting an RKCB response and driving to slam on the following:

 

After being the initial recipient, Peter became the first recidivist. And talk started about “Three strikes and it’s yours for good, Pete!”. Peter also won for keycard counting (in his own hand this time) as well as for, in the endgame, leading the only suit his partner couldn’t ruff!

Brian finally got his in round 5. However, Pete’s extraordinary taste saw him ask to borrow it after board 3 with the remarkably lame justification that he was cold.

Brian had won through via:

 

when he failed to cover the 10, allowing declarer to make 2♠.

Brian retained the jacket for round 6 as no-one could find a reason to dob his partner in. Subsequent analyses confirmed this, though self-interest of three of the analysts may also have been a factor.

Brian was now on a roll and held onto his trophy, not only for breaking team rules by passing 2NT but then compounding by not slipping a trick so that, perhaps, the team wouldn’t notice that 3NT was making.

By this stage, the spirit of the hoody held Pete firmly in thrall and he claimed back his favourite garment when he let this “slam” through.

 

Personally, I think the hoody was a splendid idea, although I’m not sure about the rumour I heard today which suggested that next year it will be embellished with flashing lights spelling out “LVP”. This, I think, is a step too far even though Elton John has registered a contrary opinion that the coat of many colours is too drab."

Thanks, Alan. but pretty tough rules especially for that last 6slam. It would seem to take an initial trump lead and a second trump when West wins their spade trick, to beat the slam. They enjoyed their Bridge though Pete never totally got to appreciate his coat fully. He was colour-blind! 

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