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.