MONDAY COMPETITIONS / Season 2002-03 / 03
Programme
The Monday Programme for October is:
- 2nd League 1
- 9th Swiss Pairs 2
- 16th Swiss Teams 2
- 23rd League 2
- 30th Knockout Qualifier
Other October events
On Sunday October 8th the Bredon Vale Cup is being hosted by Alan Lamb (01386 701603) at North Cotswold Bridge Club. Any affiliated club can enter one or two teams for this teams-of-four event, the only restriction being that no team may contain more than one player above non-expert status (national master or above).
On Sunday 22nd October the Everett Cup is held at
Cheltenham Bridge Club. This will be either multiple teams or Swiss Teams, depending on entries. Neighbouring counties are invited to send teams to compete against Gloucestershire teams.
Details from and entries to Paul Denning (Chief Tournament Director) on 01684 293603
The Cheltenham heat of the County Pairs’ Qualifying will be held at Cheltenham Bridge club on Monday November 28th. All county members are welcome, but your club is free to hold its own heat if you wish. Please contact Paul Denning.
The GCBA website
This has been completely revamped. Please visit it on: and tell us what you think. Comments or ideas to Mike Wignall (01242 620031) or Patrick Shields (01242 570710). Clubs should have the entry/link the website provides and hopefully they will provide the webmaster with regular updates.
Publicity
Please note that clubs are welcome to use this newsletter to publish their own events and news. Contact Andrew Kambites on 01453 762258
Bridge Story
A bridge professional had a client who was nervous enough to want to avoid criticism at the table, but wanted to know how he was doing. The professional bought a multi coloured pen. If he filled in the scorecard in green, his client had made no error on the hand. Blue meant one error. Black meant 2 errors and red meant 3 or more errors. The trouble with this system was that it had built in obsolescence. The red pen ran out of ink while the others had hardly been used.
Summer teams
The summer teams saw the strange partnership of myself and Ian Constable in action. Do I mean strange, or unfamiliar? Ummmm! Actually I do mean strange! I want you to watch carefully our expertise on this hand.
A Q 7 3 K Q J7653
-
Q 7
8 6 4
9 8 4
A K T 7 4 3
T / Board : 21 Dealer: N
Vul: NS / K J 5 2
A T
9 8
9 8 5 4 3
T 9
2
Q J 6 5 2
A K J 8 6
South West North East
1♥P
2♦P 3♥P
4♣P 4♦ P
5♣P 6♥ End
We must explain!
Ian intended 4♣ to show clubs. I think a new suit at the 4-level after a 1-level opening bid is a cue bid.
I intended 4♦ as a cue bid. Ian thought it was preference to diamonds. We agree that 5♣ is a cue bid, though we were not on the same lengths as to which trump suit was agreed!
Ian said that if I believed that 4♣ was a cue bid, what could he possibly bid with his hand? I think 4♥ is correct. The point is that 3♥ shows an excellent suit-at least 6 cards in length. If you have a good hand with only 5 hearts, or with six poor hearts you should find another rebid over the 2♦ response: probably 2NT.
Against 6♥ East led a diamond. I knocked out the ♥A, trumped the next diamond and breathed a sigh of relief when trumps were 3-2. I now ran all my trumps and East was squeezed in the black suits +1430.
Our unfortunate opponents did not benefit from a bidding misunderstanding. They ended in 4♥. Our East teammate Graham Sadie led a club. Declarer tried to draw trumps but Graham won the ♥A and led a second club, which West trumped. Now declarer was cut off from dummy’s clubs and had to lose two spades: one off in 4♥. 6♥ making in one room: 4♥ –1 in the other room, and the only team to make an error was the team which gained 17 IMPs. Bridge is a cruel game!
National Results
Dan MacIntosh experienced his first Brighton this year and had some promising results. Pride of place must go to 4th in the Mixed Pivot Teams, playing in a team of four juniors. It was a genuine mixed team, unlike previous years when TDs have had to closely examine the teams to identify boys in drag.
Well done also to Judy and Alan Sanis who were second in the B final at Brighton of the seniors’ teams.
Bridge Tips
In the August newsletter I advocated trying to think out your objectives rather than rely on ‘sayings. So how about the saying: ‘Leading through strength and up to weakness’? It advocates passive defence. It envisages this layout.
K J 4 6 4 3
K J 2
A Q J 4
9 8 5
A Q T7
8 6 4
9 5 2 / A Q T 7
8 5 2
7 5 3
T 6 3
6 3 2
K J 9
A Q T 9
K 8 7
If West leads a fourth highest ♥7 against 3NT then declarer takes the first nine tricks. However a spade lead, through dummy’s strength turns out to be devastating. East wins the first trick as cheaply as possible, and switches to a heart, up to dummy’s weakness. West wins cheaply and reverts to spades. The defenders take the first eight tricks, leaving declarer licking wounds.
This saying also suggests a legitimate strategy, but it needsqualifying. Leading ‘through dummy’s strength’ means leading a suit in which you are weak. The idea is that if dummy has bid spades with a broken suit, you hope that your partner has spades sitting over him. Leading a suit like ♠J 5 2 through dummy’s suit is considerably less attractive. Indeed I have seen players lead a suit of ♥A Q 10 3 2 through dummy’s bid heart suit in the mistaken belief that they were leading ‘through strength’ in the way advocated by saying 2). Dummy had ♥K J 9 4 and all the finesses were right for declarer. The whole idea of leading through dummy’s strength is to take advantage of a hoped-for position where the finesses are right for your side and wrong for declarer. As we have already seen last month, if you are going to lead from a suit like ♥A Q 10 3 2 against 3NT it is almost better to do it if declarer has bid the suit. You might lose the first trick cheaply, but at least the finesses will hopefully be right for you from then on.
GCBA Results:
Pivot Teams Winners
Don & Veronica Chidgey, Liz Davies & Roger Nicholls
Summer Teams Winner
Patrick Shields and Peter Swales
Summer Pairs Winner
Ian Constable.
Play with Expert in memory of Steve Darke
Liz Davies, Carol Sadie and Ruby Wissenden - accompanied by Derek Rue.