Dubious Logic

Minibridge

This year's county Novice Pairs saw thirty pairs take part. The good turnout at the competition is due to the teaching activities in the county. Recently I visited established teacher Celia Jeal at West Suffolk College, Bury St. Edmunds and Bogdan Talaga's Ipswich Bridge School, currently in their first year; both have just begun full year courses.

There has always been a national teaching body but the English bridge Union has, over the last few years, formalised an approach. The main strands are a common bidding system and the introduction of Minibridge. This is a reduced game that seeks to introduce students to the way the cards work. There is no bidding; each player states aloud their high card points and the side with the majority owns the declaration. The player in that pair with the higher count is declarer and their partner's cards are faced as dummy. With a view of 26 cards, declarer decides on a strain and a level but just either part-score or game. Scoring is as duplicate non-vulnerable.

A nationwide Minibridge competition for students is in progress and I watched a hand from one of Bogdan's classes:

East-West had the preponderance and West chose a part-score in hearts, North got off to the good lead of a diamond. The heart finesse lost and North-South cashed diamonds. They completed their nice defence by not allowing West to sneak through a spade and pitch another on the long diamond for just eight tricks and +110 – once South had played her six points in diamonds and hearts, she couldn't have the spade king. Compared to playing for the same tricks in no-trumps for +120 or more, I don't think that will score well – those hard matchpoint lessons are being learnt early.

Published Saturday 24.Nov.2007