One of my favourite music videos is the above by Björk, with the lines:
It doesn't scare me at all
This is an alarm-call
So wake-up, wake-up now
Woo-oo-ooh!
Today has never happened
And it doesn't frighten me
The video was directed by the late and tragic Alexander McQueen. It can be viewed at the following link and you can skip ads after 5 seconds:
What has this to do with bridge you might ask? Well, in bridge an alarm call is the play of an unusual card to get partner to do something unusual and not to continue the suit he has just led. Sadly, this was pearls before swine when it occurred today:
North's 2S showed hearts and a minor and South's 3C was a poor 3-card raise. North leads the king of clubs, the system card from AK, and South would normally play the queen here, to show the jack. North knows that South has three clubs and therefore the jack is the unusual card and the alarm call.
If North reads it, the defence can take five ruffs in the red suits. North lead the ten of hearts, asking for a diamond and South ruffs, returns a diamond, gets another heart ruff, gives another diamond ruff and gets a further heart ruff to complete the dénouement. Sadly this inference was missed despite South playing the jack of clubs. No North-South managed a plus score, so this would have been an outright top instead of below average.
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