Ruff and Sluff by Foxymoron

Pevensey Bay

The Woodberry Bridge Club held its traditional tournament at Eastbourne this weekend, and despite the wet weather, several hardy souls and one dog walked along the promenade to Pevensey. The event was splendidly organised by Shelley Shieff with the bridge being directed well by Nigel Freake and a good quiz run by Stefanie Rohan.

"Bridge is sixty percent bidding" is a quotation attributed to the great multiple world champion Benito Garozzo. Unfortunately, even good rules cannot help you reach the right contract, and on the following hand, Four Spades was quite a bit less than 60%, around 30% in fact.

I am all in favour of opening 11-counts at matchpoints, but the lack of intermediates might have deterred me on the West hand, but my partner opened 1D. North overcalled 1H and East doubled which in our methods showed four or more spades. South raised to 2H and this came back to East, who doubled again, still takeout. Now West bid 2S, and East, with a six-loser hand, raised to game in the known 3-5 fit. North led a heart and declarer played on trumps, North winning the second round. Now North exited with a club and declarer had nothing other than drawing the trump and playing a diamond to the king. An alternative and equally unsuccessful line was to duck two rounds of diamonds. Declarer could test North a little by cashing the ace and king of clubs, crossing to the ace of hearts, ruffing a club and only then playing ace and another spade. Now North has to find the winning defence of conceding a a "ruff and sluff". It is not clear where the phrase comes from but seems to have been invented by Oswald Jacoby. A ruff is a rare bird, and to sluff is to discard one's skin if a snake, but the combination of the two means a ruff and discard. When the opponents have a 4-4 fit, this is usually the right defence, as the fourth card is usually a winner anyway.

Curate's Egg by Foxymoron

In May 1895, the satirical British magazine Judy published a cartoon by artist Wilkerson, showing a timid curate and a fierce-looking bishop at breakfast in the bishop's house. The bishop says, "Dear me, I'm afraid your egg's not good!" The curate, desperate not to offend his host and superior, replies, "Oh, yes, my Lord, really – er – some parts of it are very good."

The expression "Curate's Egg" is now used for something which is "good in parts", and such was the case in our auction on the following interesting hand at the Wing Cup, an annual tournament in aid of the Alzheimer's Society at the Woodberry this week. As my mum died of that horrible illness, I always try to take part.

At our table, East opened a strong NT, West transferred to hearts, and East bid 2S. This, a transfer break, showed a maximum with four trumps. West continued with 3C, natural, and East bid 3H, waiting, and showing a stronger hand than 4H. Now West's 3S and East's 4D were cues, and West bid 4NT, Roman Key Card Blackwood. In my partnership with Leonid, West, we play what is called 1430, and my 5C bid showed 4 key cards. Now West asked for the queen of trumps with 5D and I denied it with 5H. West, looking at a possible trump loser, bid 6H which ended the auction. I might have bid 6D on the West hand, asking partner to choose between 6H and 6NT, but that is with a considerable amount of hindsight and there was no guarantee East would get that right. He should, with the fitting Qxx of clubs, choose 6NT. Maria and Derek Essen scored the top here when they sailed into 7NT and made it. Unfortunately, they did not do as well on the other 23 boards!

The play in 6H was interesting. South will lead the queen of diamonds, perhaps, and declarer wins with the ace and lays down the ace of hearts. When South drops the queen, it is right, according to the principle of restricted choice, to play for this to be a singleton rather than QJ doubleton, and all the declarers in slam made 13 tricks. They crossed to the ace of diamonds and finessed the nine of hearts, getting a good score. Strangely all the declarers who languished in game only made 12 tricks.

Asking for More by Foxymoron

Oliver Twist was perhaps the most famous example of someone asking for more, when the soup he received was not sufficient and he asked, politely enough, for more. It is depicted in many Dickens articles:

Oliver asked for more by Harold Copping

"What has this to do with bridge?", I hear you ask. Well, when you have all the key cards, you can ask for more, in particular the queen of trumps and any kings. It does not quite stop there, however, and in our game this week Mr Bumble gave the wrong response to "asking for more". This was the hand:

South opened a weak 2D and our auction began quite well with West doubling as he is too strong to make a simple overcall. North might have raised but did not and East bid 2NT, Lebensohl, intending to show a diamond stop on the "slow shows a stop" method. West bid 3S, showing a good hand and East cued 4D, showing spade support and the ace of diamonds. Then West bid Roman Key Card Blackwood, 4NT, and East showed one key card with 5D. Now West's 5H asked for the queen of trumps, and anything more that East had to show. The right response to this was 5NT, saying that East does have the queen of spades, does not have any kings, and does have "more", being the two rounded-suit queens which West needs for grand. Instead East bid 6S, and West could not do more. We were surprised to find that 6S+1 was worth 75%, and I recalled Erasmus in Adagia: regione caecorum rex est luscus.

Second Bite by Foxymoron

Defence is the most difficult part of the game. Try the following defensive problem which was faced in the Metropolitan Cup today. When the opponent did not solve it, Dave Cleal made his contract, helping himself and his partner Paul Felton to the top spot on the Cross Imps with a fine average over 49 boards of +0.89. The Woodberry Bridge Club represented London B in the event, and were second behind Surrey B.

                                                            South

You are South and the auction is shown. Partner leads the three of spades and declarer plays low from dummy and your king wins. How do you proceed? The full hand shows that you need to lead a low club, which is a remarkable defence.

Real Bridge, which hosted the event, produces a colourful and informative record of the play. After South won the spade and not unreasonably returned a diamond to the queen and ace, Dave drew a second round of trumps. I think this is wrong as South surely does not have a second spade or he would have played one. Only now did Dave lead a club from dummy and South had a second bite at the cherry. If he had ducked this, declarer would have no way home, but when he won and cashed the king of diamonds, declarer was able to cash his winners and cross ruff for ten tricks. 

The phrase "second bite at the cherry" predates "second bite at the apple" which both originated in the mid 19th Century but a search of the Internet for the exact earliest use proved fruitless ...