Yarborough by Foxymoron

The term Yarborough originated from whist. The Earl of Yarborough, believed to be in 1874, offered the odds of 1,000 to 1 against someone being dealt a hand in whist with no card above a nine. The true odds are 1828 to 1, so he was taking a rake of over 40%, not bad if you can afford the odd hit.

The North Lincolnshire village of Yarborough has a long history, with evidence of human occupation dating back to the Iron Age. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Earburg", meaning "eagle fortification". The crest above is spectacular.

There was a difficult quiz question once. What links the chemical element Niobium with the weakest possible bridge hand? I don't expect this to detain you too long. Answer next blog. Post "solved" in the comments. 

I picked up a Yarborough last week at the Woodberry and was surprised to become declarer.

East opened a very sound 2S and South doubled. North bid 2NT, the Lebensohl convention, showing any weak hand and asking his partner to bid 3C. South, however, had too good a hand for a sign-off, and tried 3NT but North corrected to 4H.

East had a tricky lead. The king of spades was sure to be on his left, so he tried the ace of spades, on which partner played the two. This should be suit-preference for clubs, but could also, of course, be a singleton. Given that East has only three diamonds, I think the club switch is now percentage, as declarer will be able to draw trumps and may discard a club on a long diamond if they are 3-3.

A difficult decision, but Harvey Fox, East, played a second spade and a club went away on a top diamond. Two of the four declarers in 4H made, and two went off, so the defence is not obvious.

Second Lady by Foxymoron

The crossword clue "First Lady" refers to an obvious girl's name. And I am sure that "Riddle is backed by First Lady (5)" will not detain you long. First Lady is often used, particularly in the US, for the wife of the president or leader and one hopes that it will be "First Gentleman" for the first time later this year. Second Lady and Second Gentleman seem to be almost exclusively US terms for the spouse of the vice-president.

Woodberry members Eve Brenner and Martin Baker had an excellent result in the London Mixed Pairs yesterday and Eve nearly lived up to her name as the "first lady" but had to be content with second place. As they say in backgammon, "Second place is no disgrace".

The top placings in a strong field:

One of the most interesting boards was the following. NS bid a thin 6D against you on the lead of the jack of hearts. How should you play?

The declarer won the jack of hearts lead and tried to set up the spades, but this was about as easy as capturing Cerberus, requiring trumps 2-2 and the KQx of spades to come down. Also you need to finesse the diamond to get a third entry to dummy and this fails. The right line is to win the heart, cash the king of diamonds, play the other top heart and ruff a heart, and now cross to the ace of clubs to draw trumps. I don't know whether declarer was trying for the overtrick, but you only need trumps 2-2 and making the contract would have been a top. You have to take such gifts if you are going to do well in an event.

By George by Foxymoron

1790 was a momentous year in US politics as it featured the first State of the Union address by George Washington in January and they were busy passing the Patent Act and the Copyright Act by the end of that year. The original hand-written speech is in the George Washington Presidential Library:

1790 is a rare score in bridge and I have never achieved or conceded it. It can only arise from a non-vulnerable 7NT doubled, making. The expression By George is what is known as a minced oath, an expression of surprise at an occurrence. It appeared in Henry V by Shakespeare and in other famous works, so predates George Washington by a couple of centuries..

Harvey Fox had the pleasure of notching up this unusual score of +1790 and the fact that it was on a squeeze was icing on the cake:

Harvey and Ed Sanders bid, uncontested until the double, 1D  - 2S - 3D  - 4D - 4NT - 5H - 5NT - 6D - 7N - (X) - All Pass. 2S was strong and 4NT was key-card Blackwood for diamonds and East showed two key cards without the queen of diamonds. Seven Diamonds is a better contract as you can ruff out the queen of spades. North's double was "speculative" and reminds me of Reese's comment. "You were right not to double 7NT, ma'am, as you did not intend to lead your ace!" Here there was no ace to cash and North tried a club. Harvey rose with the ace and ran all the diamonds, retaining the queen of clubs in hand and squeezing North in the black suits.

If South has the king of clubs and the queen of spades, then North needs to lead a spade to break up the squeeze on his partner. The keen student of compound squeezes will have, by now, worked out the only defence if the queen and ten of spades are exchanged in the above diagram. Solution next week.

And I was surprised that "icing on the cake" as an idiom is relatively modern. The earliest known use is:
There are sins and there are sins, but the sins I speak of are the chocolate icing on the cake of life - The Sin of Pat Muldoon” - John McLiamin, 1957

+1100 has been "christened" a Henry after the seizure of the throne in that year by Henry I and I am told +1400 is known as an Owain after the rebellion of the Welsh martyr Owain Glyndwr in that year. +1660 for 6 of a major doubled is known as a Restoration after the return to the throne of Charles II in that year. I guess +1790 will henceforth have to be known as a Washington. All good clean fun.

The Uppercut by Foxymoron

It is interesting that "uppercut" gets two dictionary definitions. One is from boxing, as in the iconic uppercut that made Mike Tyson the youngest ever World Heavyweight Champion. The other is from bridge, and here there is a slight error.  One dictionary states:

Uppercut Bridge. a play of a higher trump than necessary knowing it can be overtrumped by an opponent but that if overtrumped, one or more trump winners in the hand of one's partner will be established.

I think that the first part could be curtailed to read "a play of a trump, knowing it can be overtrumped ..." as occurred on the following hand.

We missed the boat here. East opened 1NT (11-14) and South bid 2D, the popular multi-Landy showing a six-card major. I decided to invite with 2NT, rather than force to game with 3H. North passed and East bid 3C, forced. Now I bid 3H as West, invitational with six hearts, but my partner had seen me play them before and put down the dummy. Most reached 4H.

Missing the boat is sea-slang and seemingly first appeared in Florence Marryat, Captain's Norton's Diary, serialized in Belgravia (May 1870). It is now figuratively used for any missed opportunity.

In 3H, North led the jack of spades and I won, cashed one high heart, noting the queen from South, and then played three rounds of clubs. If they had broken 4-2, I could cash another heart and ruff the fourth club if necessary. They broke 3-3, but now North played the ace, king, and another diamond. South uppercut with the jack of hearts and promoted North's ten of hearts. Well defended by Martin Lerner and David Schiff.

Nobody found the most testing defence to 4H, which was for North to play three rounds of diamonds with South "uppercutting" with the jack of hearts. West can recover, however, from this body blow. [My partner points out that I am mixing metaphors here in that an uppercut is to the chin]. West can overruff, cross to the ace of spades and ruff a spade, and then play the ace and another heart. North wins with the ten but either has to concede a ruff and discard or open up the clubs.

Best defence then is for North to lead the queen of clubs, but declarer can and should succeed by playing for the club honours to be split, rising with the king before running the ten. Everyone made 4H, so either all the declarers found this line, or, more likely, the defence was not as testing.

Cover Story by Foxymoron

I liked a recent crossword clue which is simple but pleasant: Cover Story (5). I will leave you to post your solution in comments, and will only say if it is right or wrong. 

There was a story in the pub that Graham Horscroft needed to cover the second heart on the following hand. It is interesting to analyse if he should have done so:

The auction, I am told, was the same as at our table, 1C-1H-2C-3NT. Against Graham, North led the three of hearts, fourth best and South played the queen and returned the ten. Now Graham needed to cover to block the suit. Applying the rule of 11, South is expected to have three cards (11-8) higher than the three. The rule says that you deduct the number of cards you can see higher than the card led from 11. This tells you how many cards South has above it. So, South can have Q108, Q106, Q1082 or Q1062. If South has Q106, nothing can be done. If South has either of Q1082 or Q1062, then the defence only have four heart tricks and you have a chance if the diamonds are 3-3 or there is a minor-suit squeeze. But then it does not matter whether your cover or not. When South has Q108, as here, you have to cover, and the friendly minor suit lie allows you to make the contract. And South cannot pull the wool over your eyes by returning the eight, as the same principles apply and you must cover, playing for the unlikely QT8 with South.

The People’s Press, November 1835:
We are glad to find among the leading Vanites, at least one man, whose conscience will not permit him to ‘go the whole hog’ in pulling the wool over the people’s eyes

Stefanie Rohan did not get a heart lead, and naturally enough and correctly played for 3-3 diamonds. When they did not break, she only had eight tricks. To play for the unlikely blockage in hearts was not a viable option.

One over the Eight by Foxymoron

 

The earliest instance of the above phrase, meaning having too much to drink, I can find is the following, in a Surrey weekly on Friday 15th August 1919:

“ONE OVER THE EIGHT.”—At the Reigate Bench, on Monday, Frederick Powell, of Providence-terrace, London-road, Reigate, was charged with being drunk and disorderly on Saturday night.—P.C. Kimber proved the case.—Prisoner told the Court that he met an old uncle and had one or two drinks. He added “I suppose I got one over the eight, and I suppose I became a little quarrelsome.”—Fined 5s.

It appears to derive from military slang. One over the eight is nine of course. Which reminds me "why is six wary of seven?" Because seven ate nine, of course. But back to bridge. The nine capturing the eight was the theme of this hand from the EBU summer SIMs.

I opened Four Spades as dealer, North, and Roy Cooper, East, exercised prudence for the first time in his life and passed, so 4S became the final contract. They avoided the fate that befell Anne Catchpole and Ken Barnett who went to 5H over 4S and went for 1400.

Roy found the testing club lead and Harvey Fox, West, did well to play three rounds, giving North a dilemma. If East has three spades it does not matter what you do, but what if East only has two? Now it is right to ruff with the seven, and when East overruffs with the queen, you play for split honours and run the ten on the second round. When it is covered, the eight falls under the nine on the third round of the suit.  You will need the diamond finesse, of course, but the eight of spades is 3-2 on to be with the assumed three-card suit.

In last week's poser, the nine of spades also comes into the picture. In Four Spades, after two rounds of hearts, the right line is to lead a low spade from dummy, and if the queen of spades holds, as it did, then you play low to the ten, even if South shows out. North can win the king of spades and force dummy again, but you ruff with the ace of spades, discarding a losing club from hand. All you lose is two trumps and a heart. Other attempts such as prematurely releasing the ace of spades are fatal.

Euro Heartbreak by Foxymoron

I understand how England felt in the Euros. However, "Second place is no disgrace" is a backgammon saying that they should consider. That means, in backgammon, that saving the gammon but losing the game is often the right approach.

Wales would have settled for second place in the European Bridge Championship, but came 30th. That sounds ok, except that only 30 teams entered. Still your scribe did win a few matches. This was one instructive hand.

The bidding was illuminating, South was the dealer at game all. (2H)-Double-(4H)-4S-(All Pass). South led the king of hearts and North overtook to play a second heart. You ruff in dummy? What now?

I will let you "go figure" and give the solution next week. A few strong players I gave the hand to went off.