Woodberry Bridge Club 40th anniversary

Woodberry bridge club first opened in 1981.  However due to Covid we had to wait until 2022 to celebrate the 40th anniversary.  This was an event held at the Claremont Centre where the club currently holds its face to face Tuesday duplicates.  The festivities consisted of an extended duplicate with a break for cake at half time, a fish and chip supper and then a quiz hosted by Steve Bush.  Many thanks to Anne Catchpole for organising and the various club members who contributed to ensuring the day was a roaring success

In the bridge 24 pairs were playing for the Probst cup.  A cup donated by legendary bridge player and director John Probst originally used for the seeded club teams championship.  With that teams event discontinued it has now been rebranded as the trophy to be awarded for the clubs annual championship pairs.  It was lovely to see John himself make it to the club as a founder member despite recent health issues.  I celebrated this fact by handing him and Andrew Clery a top on the second board.  However near the end Andy and John met long standing members Ken Barnett and Chantal Girardin and two of the boards were exciting slams.

Board 28

The auction was 1H-2S-4H-4S-5C-P-6H-All Pass

Ken made a try with 5C and Chantal rightly judged to bid six.  The spade void looked useful but in fact it was the clubs that were the key here.  Six hearts was cold of course but you have a choice of plays in clubs as you can pick up stiff K in South or the singleton club 10 (or potentially smaller club) in North by starting with the right club from dummy (small and jack respectively).  I think North may well have led a stiff club if he had one so I think a low club is the right play and 1010 was recorded.  The only other pair to bid the slam was Chris Watkinson and Elsa Nelson.  Also of note was Richard Creamer and John Pemberton’s result of 5S*-2 as N/S for -500 which looked poor but because most of the field got the clubs right this was a rare successful adverse vulnerability save against 510!

Board 30

The auction was 1S-2D-3D-4D-4S-5D-5H-P-5S-P-6S-All Pass

Once East opens (which I think is fairly mainstream these days) and N/S bid up in diamonds it should simply be a question of six or seven for West but apart from Ken and Chantal only myself and Paul Huggins bid this slam.  Against us Peter Rogers judged well to save in 7D for -800 (his partner Vijay Tymms had overcalled a weak 3D originally) but luckily for us that only got them 2 extra matchpoints.

After this round Ken and Chantal went on a rampage but it wasn’t quite enough.  They finished 3rd with 60.81%.  Nigel Freake and Rachel Bingham were 2nd with 61.44% but with a combination of luck and good play myself and Paul managed to win with 63.47%

Aces are King

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace - Eugene Field, US poet and children's writer.

We are always told in bridge that aces are for capturing kings, but a hand from last week's matchpoint pairs at the Woodberry was a beautiful exception.

West was just about worth a vulnerable overcall of 1S, and North decided to bid 3NT, with his solid spade stop, on the second round. East dutifully led the ten of spades, and South won and took a diamond finesse, losing the ten to the jack. Another spade came back and a second diamond finesse lost to the king. East switched to a heart, and Iain Macleay played the king from dummy, in the manner of Mr Clarke, no doubt. Alistair Hogg won and now had to find the beautiful defence of cashing the ace of clubs and then playing a second heart. Declarer is caught in Morton's Fork. If he wins with the ten, he has to lose a spade at the end. If he wins in dummy, he has to lose a club. Cashing the ace of clubs, a Dentist Coup, is necessary or West can be thrown in with a club after the diamonds are cashed. Very difficult to find.

A certain symmetry

While I didn't play last Tuesday an acquaintance pointed out this neat hand from the Woodberry duplicate.

Both sides have a double fit in a major and a minor and a major is usually the place to be at pairs but on best defense you do better in the minor on this hand.  Par result is -130 for N/S which I see occurred at one table

If N/S are defending hearts I cannot see anyone finding the DD defense to hold it to 8 tricks (diamond lead, ruff the return, underlead all the club honours to the jack for another ruff with a spade to come).  However declarer will likely lose two diamonds and a ruff anyway in the natural order of play.

If E/W are defending spades it should be possible to match the DD result although I see no one did.  After a top heart lead East plays the queen showing the jack.  Now West can switch to his club.  East hops with the ace on the first round of trumps, gives a club ruff and West underleads his hearts to get a second ruff.  Is there any alternative defense with those clubs threatening on the table?

The bidding is interesting too.  Most North's didn't open which I can understand but now is it practically impossible to get the spades into the auction and being outranked in clubs you will usually defend a heart contract.  

If North does open then the spade fit is found after 1C-P-1S-2H-2S.  East will bid 3H now and the question is can North/South justify bidding again at this vulnerability?  If you play support doubles and a weak NT (not recommended!) then perhaps South can risk it knowing of a likely double fit.  Otherwise maybe North can place their partner with only two hearts and not more than 4 diamonds (although playing Walsh style some South's may have longer diamonds than spades) and again bid a third spade based on the double fit.  

Might East make a matchpoint double of this thinking 3H is making?  As you can see from the traveller this gives you good odds.  If it makes you were getting a very poor board anyway and a double and successful defense takes you from an average to an outright top  

One final thought.  A precision club auction might start 2C-P-3C and now E/W might well get too high.  And a canape auction could start 1S-P-2S and have the same effect.

Simple by Foxymoron

The origin of the nursery rhyme Simple Simon is quite interesting, and goes back a long way, Simple Simon's Misfortunes and his Wife Margery's Cruelty is a ballad from about 1685

Apparently it all started a day after they got married, and poor Simon seemed to put up with the mistreatment. The Simple Squeeze in bridge is something of a misnomer. It just means that one opponent is guarding two suits and, in the ending, he cannot keep both guards at the same time. The ingredients are that there is a threat in both hands and an entry to the opposite hand.

None of the online players found the squeeze on the following hand, whether they were in 3NT, 6C or the best contract of 6NT. There were crucial differences.

Tony Ratcliff, your scribe's sometime partner in Welsh events, reached the almost 100% slam here with a good auction. It was pretty difficult to reach the best spot of 6NT, which also has 12 top tricks.  In 6C, on the KH lead, Tony drew trumps, discarded his heart on the fourth diamond, and took the spade finesse. If one is playing in 6NT, this is too dangerous and we should play the simple squeeze, cashing the six clubs and four diamonds to reach an ending with the nine of hearts in dummy and the ace and jack of spades in the South hand,. West has to hold the top heart and needs to bare the king of spades to have a chance, but South will not jeopardise his excellent contract, and the overtrick will be close to a national top. Making 6C was well above average.

 

Of course, the self-kibitzers will reach 7NT and make it, and they will wonder why the 1 in 32 chance they took by playing the squeeze raised suspicion. That line requires West to have all four heart honours and the king of spades, whereas the simple line of finessing the king of spades ... really is simple.

Simple has more than one meaning of course. I recall having a scalp infection many years ago and the doctor advised me to switch to a simple shampoo instead of a herbal one. "I thought simple was a herb?" I replied, annoyingly.

Nature's Law by Foxymoron

The great bard began, in Nature's Law 

            Let other heroes boast their scars,

            The marks of sturt and strife;
            And other poets sing of wars,
            The plagues of human life;

The Robot could have been forgiven for not being aware of Burns but it could have been programmed with Burn's Law which is to lead trumps against doubled contracts. It would have done better on the following hand:

North had a normal 1H overcall, and the Robot correctly decided to play for penalties when Mary Rutter, West, reopened with a double which the Robot passed. It was difficult to lead a small trump against that, as that could cost a trick, so Burn's Law was ignored, not fatally. A low trump might have beaten the contract two, but instead East led the jack of spades. Declarer covered, and West won to return a club, ducked by North. East won and needed to play a diamond, or a low trump, at this point, but persisted with a second spade, fatally. Now West was stuck when she won that trick. She continued with a second club, but North won ruffed a club and played the ten of spades discarding a diamond. East could ruff, but that was with a trump trick, and now he was unable to stop declarer making a club ruff, two minor suit aces and four trumps. 

There are some darts terms which have crept into bridge for the different duplicate scores. 120 is Shanghai, from the finish T20, 20, D20. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY, preferably typed in caps when playing online, is a Maximum in darts, and is best used when the opponents have just let you make 1NTx but also quite useful when they have let through the third overtrick in 1NT. Bull and Double Bull for 50 and 100 are common in many games. The Big Fish is slang for 170 from the maximum finish. And finally the late and great Sid Waddell coined the phrase Lipstick and Eyeshadow for a 160 finish, T20, T20, D20. I was pleased to score it in one of the two ways it can be scored, the other of course being 1SX=.

Owain and Henry by Foxymoron

 

"Not many people know that" is wrongly attributed to Michael Caine, whereas it was a practical joke played by Peter Sellers, and Michael never said it. Not many people know that a penalty of 1400 in bridge is known as an Owain, after the rebellion by Owain Glyndwr in 1400. This lasted 15 years and was the last Welsh War of Independence. On the following hand, EW could have notched up an Owain, and could have gone for a Henry  Instead West eventually reached a cold 6NT. But only after an indiscretion by South!

North opened 4H which was a bit frisky, but can only be taken for 1400, as the declarer must make 5 tricks, and West had an awkward bid when it came round to him. He doubled and when East bid 4S he tried 5D and bid 6C when East bid 5S. East passed that, but South doubled, hoping to get a heart lead. Probably the double asks for an unusual lead, but West was taking no chances and corrected to 6NT which could not be beaten. The swing on this decision was from -1100  to +1440 so the double was particularly injudicious, especially as North would have led a heart anyway and the defence would have taken the first five tricks. 1100 for 4 off doubled would have been a Henry, of course, as Henry I seized the throne in 1100 after the death of William II. 

 

Quite rare that an opening 4H, which can be taken for an Owain, would score average as several pairs reached 6NT!

A good turnout at the AGM and nice to see 9½ tables remaining for the bridge. Also excellent to see Roly Harris, a loyal member of the club for many years, winning with Ian Macleay with a fine score of 66%.

Major Tom by Foxymoron

The heading here had an excellent crossword clue  "Bowie character, a doubter briefly following suit? (5,3)" The persona from Space Oddity and Black Star needs no introduction, but a word of explanation is in order. The suit is clearly a major and the doubter (briefly) is Tom, a reference to the biblical character Doubting Thomas as in this painting by Serodine.

What has all this to do with bridge, you may ask? Well, everyone uses Stayman, looking for a major, when they are in doubt as to whether a 4-4 fit will play better, but I don't think that this is a good strategy for several reasons. 

a) In match-points the two contracts often play for the same number of tricks

b) Even if you do find a 4-4 fit, the suit might break 4-1.

c) When you bid Stayman you risk it being doubled for the lead

d) Careless talk costs lives. The auction 1NT-3NT is much less informative.

So, if you are in doubt whether to use Stayman to look for a major, then don't be in doubt - just bid 3NT and follow the Hamman rule. "If 3NT is a possible contract then bid it". About the only exception should be when you have aces and kings, and a low doubleton somewhere. This hand from last night's SIMs showed the principle well.

In theory it is right to play 4H here, as the defence can take five rounds of spades against 3NT, but on the uninformative auction, East is not leading the king of spades. If you do bid Stayman, you will get to 4H, but East might well lead the king of spades against that, and you will only make 10 tricks. Indeed on four rounds of spades, you must ruff in the North hand, but then can pick up the trumps for no loser.

This is a good hand for Lucas twos, which my partner and I have switched to recently. If West opens 2S, then East will have no difficulty in finding the king of spades lead against 4H, for a near top. One player opened 1S, which I think is wrong, but it does remind me of the poser. "Why did the Sky football commentator open on an 8-count?" with the obvious answer, "Because he was Ferdinand".