On being taught a lesson
Now I am not about to try and get philosophical with you or suggest that playing bridge will change your life, but very occasionally you can detect lessons for the outside world in this game. Perhaps this is part of the attraction of any sport; skill and hard-work is not always enough. In bridge you may play a contract well to insure against bad breaks only to find them benign and your opposite number taking no such precautions (and perhaps making more tricks). In cricket a bowler sends down the perfect delivery but the batsman "isn't good enough to get an edge". But whoa! Enough philosophy…
You're at Brighton, in the teams, where would you like to play these cards?
| ♠ A843 | ♠ KQ5 | ||
| ♥ 74 | ♥ J | ||
| ♦ KJ10 | ♦ A95432 | ||
| ♣ KJ103 | ♣ A85 |
Our opponents had a simple auction; west opened a no-trump (12-14) and east bid three. North led a spade, west breathed an inward sigh of relief, won, then tried and king and ace of diamonds, discovering north had queen to three. When he next conceded a diamond, although south had discarded an encouraging heart, he still had enough left to defeat the contract two tricks.
My partner and I had a rare success for science. Our auction proceeded:
| 1NT [10-12] | 2NT [diamonds] | |||
| 3♣ [I like diamonds too] | 3♥ [short heart] | |||
| 3♠ [spades] | 4♠ [OK, I can play here] | |||
| 5♣ [club slam try] | 5♦ [rich enough for me] | |||
How would we fare? The defence started with two rounds of hearts, east ruffing. Declarer made the same unfortunate play in the diamond suit, king and ace discovering he had to lose a trick to north. He needed a parking place for east's third club; that could come from a successful view on the queen of that suit or spades being 3-3 which, naturally he tried first.
But spades proved also to be long with north so east ruffed the fourth and gave up a diamond for another heart from north. The last trump reduced everyone to three cards; south finally parting with a club. It seemed that south was 2=6=1=4 and therefore a 2-1 favourite to hold the club queen. So declarer finessed through him.
| ♠ 9762 | |||
| ♥ AK98 | |||
| ♦ Q76 | |||
| ♣ Q7 | |||
| ♠ A843 | ♠ KQ5 | ||
| ♥ 74 | ♥ J | ||
| ♦ KJ10 | ♦ A95432 | ||
| ♣ KJ103 | ♣ A85 | ||
| ♠ J10 | |||
| ♥ Q106532 | |||
| ♦ 8 | |||
| ♣ 9642 | |||
North won the club queen and still had a heart to cash – down two for another flat board. Not only do you have to bid well, you have just a little something going your way – it's a bit like life really.
Published Saturday 6.Sep.2008