Dubious Logic

Resolutions

It is the time for looking back on the year just gone and making plans for the next - well, let's call them resolutions, I'm sure they are easier to make.

Suffolk started the County league season well but faltered in the second and third matches; the 'B' and 'C' team less so than the first team. In the wider field the annual Tollemache qualifier at Coventry in November saw the county fall back to one of their poorest performances of recent years, revisiting results of a decade or more ago that we thought we had left behind.

I think however, that the warning signs have been around for a while. Back in August at the EBU's summer meeting in Brighton, one could usually scan the results listings to find several familiar names. Now they are very few and far between. The same applies to the other outside events in the calendar; Crockfords, the Gold Cup and the venue events such as the Two Stars, the Spring Fours and the various National Swisses to name but a few.

It should be no surprise that county players who don't play outside the boundaries both find it a shock when they meet more challenging opposition and, perhaps another side of the same coin, have less than realistic expectations in such competition. Suffolk's performance in Coventry is probably what one would expect of a small county with few players with national bridge experience.

I have been looking closer to home too. I've taken to reviewing every hand I play. Not so onerous as partners seem to garner more than their share – sensibly it seems, for seldom do I find I've made the most accurate job of virtually any example. I was especially galled by this from November:

Though I opened the West cards with 1♣, North entered the auction on the second round with a natural 2♣. Partner and I checked for other fits and then discovered we had just enough of a club stop to attempt 3NT. North led a low club and I won, took a losing diamond finesse and was promptly one off when it failed, North having just five clubs. Once upon a time I'm sure I would have played four rounds of hearts before committing myself. Forced into early discards, North could never have parted with a club (else the diamond play would be safe) and if he let go everything else he could be thrown in with a club. To do this I would have had to do two things; first see the play and second, though I might have thought North held six clubs, watched what cards his partner played. Last week there was a match between Ipswich and Framlingham:

After a partner's 1♦ opener and a 2♣ overcall, I declared 3NT again from the West side. North led a small club and I won to take a heart finesse which lost and a club was continued, North played upwards – showing three. With a fair picture, South had to have the remaining high cards to justify an overcall on a ten-high suit (possibly not even then), I played a diamond to the king and ran the hearts. South couldn't disguise his 4=1=3=5 shape and though he'd had the fun of winning the singleton king of hearts, he wasn't going to make the spade king – it was going to be dropped if he bared it or discarded on an established diamond. Perhaps it is still possible to learn then - I'm going to resolve to keep trying.

Published Saturday 1.Jan.2005