Ruff Justice by Foxymoron

When the opponents reach game and you have AKxx in their trump suit you might be reluctant to double as it could help them in the play, but usually the bad break cannot be managed, and if they make they are probably getting a top anyway. Such was the situation with a hand in the Children in Need SIMs this week, where declarer needed to find an unusual line to make the contract.

After two passes, East opened 1H and South bid 2NT, unusual, showing the minors. West competed with 3H and East pressed on to game. As North I did not think 4H making would be a good score, so I doubled and partner led a normal diamond to the jack, king and ace. Declarer set about his task well, ruffing a diamond and ruffing a club, and now tried to ruff another diamond in dummy. This would have worked well if the diamonds were 5-3, but on the actual layout North was able to overruff, and play ace and another heart, leaving declarer a trick short.

The winning line was a surprising one. After ruffing one diamond and one club, East needs to cash the ace, king and ten of spades. South cannot ruff, and now declarer can ruff a spade in dummy for his tenth trick. Declarer loses two trumps and a diamond. It is surprising that declarer needs to ruff the fourth spade, rather than the third diamond, but the evidence was all there. The lack of a trump lead and the double suggested that trumps are 4-0. Also East needs to drop the doubleton QJ of spades so needs South to be 2-0-6-5. 

It was a bit harsh that the alternative line of ruffing the diamond failed, but it did have an element of rough justice, an expression which goes back to Roman times.

Heart of Gold by Foxymoron

This week was the funeral of Colin Elks, known to all his bridge friends by his mother's maiden name, Colin Elliott. He had a debilitating illness all his life, but he coped with it stoically even when it deteriorated over the last few years. I played with him once a month for around 20 years and he was a fine player and he enjoyed tinkering with his beloved Precision. He played it with several partners: Nigel Freake, Ken Barnett, Martin Baker and, for a while when he was in this country, the noted pianist Alex Panizza. He was also a frequent partner of Chantal Girardin.

He had a love of music, and knew all the Abba songs, and was a great fan of Nottingham Forest, in particular the golden era under Brian Clough. And it was notable to learn at his funeral how helpful he was to his friends and family, often driving them through London and beyond. He had a spell as a mini-cab driver and certainly "had the knowledge". When he could no longer drive, that was a major blow, and also led to him giving up bridge. He loved the quips and camaraderie at the table, and did not take to online bridge at all. He also "had the knowledge" of our bidding system in bridge, and one of our luckiest, and I suppose unluckiest, auctions was on the following hand, many years ago, after he had introduced the "two-way heart" to the Precision system.

I was out to lunch in the auction. 1C was strong and 1D was 0-7. Now 1H was 2-way showing hearts or 20+ and 1S was a relay. 1NT was 20+ and 2C asked. We played steps after that at the time, as my old system notes showed, so 2NT was 26-27. Colin's 6NT concluded the auction. So, how did I bring this home? Solution next week.

Whether or not you make it, the TD will arrive shortly later to replace your other board and tell you that you have the wrong board. So, you are getting 40% on the board you should have played as you spent far too long trying to make 6NT on a board that you were not scheduled to play.

Colin accepted this bit of bad luck (or was it my usual incompetence) in the same way as he accepted life, uncomplainingly. 

As Kipling said: 

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same ...

The phrase "heart of gold" originated in the late 1500s. It was first seen in William Shakespeare’s play Henry V, in which Pistol describes his master as "a bawcock, and a heart of gold". Colin was certainly a bawcock.

Eastbourne by Foxymoron

It was good to see eight and a half tables at the Woodberry Weekend in Eastbourne, excellently organised by Shelley Shieff. Non-members are encouraged to join these events and the Allworth Salver, the main event of the weekend, was won by Tim Pelling and Naomi Cohen, occasional visitors to the Woodberry. We hope they will come more often.

The dealing program had created a number of interesting hands. The following was in the Alan Parker Teams, traditionally held on the Saturday afternoon. Alan always wanted to make at least one slam in a session, preferably a success when the opponents failed to cash the ace and king of a side-suit, and if it was doubled all the better!

This was quite a tricky slam, flat in our match, but not bid and made at any other table. We bid 2NT-3C-3S-6S. 2NT showed 20-22 and 3C was simple Stayman. Many have not discussed whether 4NT after 3S is Key Card Blackwood or quantitative and whether one is playing "3041" or "1430". I prefer the latter, as it is the score for making 6H or 6S, vulnerable! There are pitfalls here. Say West leads a diamond and you start on trumps as one does. You lead the queen of spades and West ducks. Now if you continue with another spade you cannot make it. West ducks again and there is no way to untangle 12 tricks. Another unsuccessful line, after a round of spades, is to play three rounds of hearts, ruffing in South. Again you cannot make it. West ducks the next round of spades, wins the third round, and exits with a diamond, and you cannot draw the trump and enjoy four clubs. And equally frustrating is if you try to ruff a heart immediately you fail, provided West ducks two rounds of spades.

The winning line on the diamond lead is to cash the other top diamond and now ruff a diamond, cross to the king of hearts and ruff another diamond. Now you play on trumps and are home and dry. This seems to be a military expression from the 19th century when you finished an exercise conducted in wet weather.

The teams was won by Elsa Nelson, Roy Cooper, Nigel Freake and Chantal Girardin, pictured below. The first two were top of the X-imps as well. Well done!"

Saturday night was a quiz, well run by Stefanie Rohan and Andrew Clery with an excellent picture round from Shelley Shieff. It was won by Anne Catchpole, Peter Rogers, Nigel Freake and Chantal Girardin.

The name Eastbourne is a corruption of East Burn, with Burn being a stream. Appropriately the winners of the Sunday morning pairs were Stefanie Rohan and David Burn. 

And I nearly forgot. The weakest possible bridge hand is a "41", 432 432 432 with a 5 in any of the suits. It cannot win a trick in no-trumps, whereas all "42"s can! And 41 is the atomic number of Niobium, which was originally Columbium.

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.