AUG 08 EB p01 Front Cover 16/7/08 11:35 am Page 1

EnglishBridgeAugust 2008

The EBU members’ magazine

Inside: You and the New EBU � the New Laws � European Championships

How to promote yourclub Hitchin-style – page 45

64-pagebumperissue

AUG_08_EB_p01 Front Cover 16/7/08 11:35 am Page 1

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3August 2008 English Bridgewww.ebu.co.uk

I KNOW this is rather a trite expression, butdoesn’t time fly? In case you had not noticed,this issue marks my first anniversary aseditor of English Bridge, so I thought thetime had come to take stock of what I havetried to achieve so far.

To be perfectly honest, when I took on thejob I did not have a clear programme inmind. I just knew that I wanted to do mypart in producing a good magazine thatpeople would enjoy reading. Pretty soon itdawned on me that my readers are not justbridge players, but also EBU members. Ifyou think that there is not a differencebetween the two categories, think again!One of the bridge magazines I used to edit inthe past was a subscription magazine: ifreaders did not like what landed on theirdoormats, they voted with their feet and didnot renew their subs, so (a) in a sense it waseasier to get a feel for what did not go downwell, and (b) I rarely received any detailedfeedback.

Not so with English Bridge, whose readersare not going to stop being members of theEBU just because the magazine is not exactlytheir cup of tea: making the editor aware oflikes and dislikes is a more popular activity, atleast for some. On the whole, it seems readersapprove of what is featured in the magazine,although I have had an e-mail bemoaningColin Simpson’s ‘intimidating’ looks in thephoto that usually accompanies his articles.What criticism has been voiced has beenaddressed at the way space is used in EnglishBridge. Besides the telephone messages leftby a reader who believes English Bridgeshould remind people to talk about Jesus attheir weekly club duplicate, I have receivedrequests for: more room for County News;abolishing County News; more on OrangeBook changes; nothing on Orange Bookchanges as ‘they are featured on the EBUwebsite’; results of EBU events as ‘we don’thave access to the internet’; no results fromEBU events . . . You catch my drift!

So, I ask myself, who is English Bridge for?The tournament players who avidly lookfor their names in print in County News?The club players who could not care lessabout other people’s successes, and wantsolid instructional articles with the occasio-nal foray into humour? All those involved inYouth Bridge, who would like to see morespace devoted to events and initiatives for theyoung? Or is it for the more social players,who avidly read the advertisements in orderto decide where they should take their nextbridge holiday? ‘No, no,’ I hear the morecommitted players scream (and, boy, do theyscream loudly), ‘the magazine is for us, andit must feature more and longer reports!’Also there are many hard-working people atEBU headquarters, clubs, and counties, whotake pride in their jobs and would likeEnglish Bridge to devote more space to all theprojects devised to enhance organised bridge.

So far, I’ve tried to accommodate a bit ofeverything, with the result that I shall soonneed a wig since with every issue I tear moreof my hair out in an effort to find room for allthe material available. This issue featureseight extra pages, so as to enable me to keep inall the regular columns and also allow forcoverage of three important topical events: inno particular order, the new Laws and theirimpact on the Orange Book (see pull-out),the consequences of the vote on UniversalMembership at the EBU’s EGM on June 4th(pages 29 and 31-33), and the EuropeanChampionships in Pau (pages 6-11). However,this largesse is strictly a one-off, as costsmust be borne in mind – which is why thistime we are using lighter paper so as tocontain production and postage expenses.

All this leaves me just enough space toexpress my deepest sympathy to JohnArmstrong’s family and many friends: thenews of his sudden death just after herepresented England in the European OpenTeams Championships has come as a greatshock. John’s obituary is on page 25. �

English BridgeEditor: Elena Jeronimidis

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INSIDE GUIDEDuplicate pairs tips 5 �European Championships 6-11 �Director, please! 13 ��Bidding quiz 14-15 �Seniors Camrose 17 �Your Questions 19 �Crockfords Final 21 �Letters to the editor 23 ��Obituaries 25 ��Bridge extras 27 �EBU news and diary 29-33 �Laws & Orange Book changes Pull-out �Portland Bowl 35 �Standard English 37 �EBU problems 39 ��Around and About 40 �Fine-tuning 41 �On-line bridge 42 �John Pain’s Trip to Botswana 43 �Competitive Bidding 44-45 �Prize play quiz solution 45 ��The debate 46-47 ��Good technique 48-49 �Prize play quiz 49 ��County news 50-57 ��A day in the life and Top Tip 58 ��

English Bridge Union

ARTICLES IN ENGLISH BRIDGE ARE COLOUR CODED

Instruction EBU News Features On-line Bridge Reports

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Elena Jeronimidis

AUG_08_EB_p03 Editorial.qxd 15/7/08 5:13 pm Page 3

English Bridge August 20084 www.ebu.co.uk

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THE first and most important thing to sayabout bidding slams at pairs is: do notpush for close ones. A failed slam ventureis always a near-bottom, whereas a missedchance to make a slam, staying conser-vatively in game, rarely scores much belowaverage (assuming you make all yourtricks). However . . .

For example:

Partner You1♦ 2♣2NT1 ?

1 15-16 points

Hand (a) Hand (b)♠ 7 4 ♠ 7 4♥ A K 3 ♥ A K 3♦ A K 7 2 ♦ A K 7 2♣ K J 8 6 ♣ K 8 6 2

Hand (a): Bid 6NT. You have 33+ points,so expect to make 6NT most of the time.6♦ will probably have an even higherchance of making, but at Pairs it’sfrequency of gain not amount of gainthat’s important (i.e. it’s not how muchyou gain, but how often). You must go forthe higher scoring contract.

Hand (b): Bid 6♦. With only a guaran-teed 32 points, some pairs will stay out ofslam. You should bid the slam with thehigher chance of making – clearly 6♦.

N/S Game. Dealer South.♠ 7 4♥ A K 3♦ A K 7 2♣ K J 8 6

♠ Q 6 3 2 ♠ K 9 8 5♥ 10 9 8 4 ♥ Q 6 5♦ 8 6 ♦ 9 4 3♣ 10 7 5 ♣ 9 3 2

♠ A J 10♥ J 7 2♦ Q J 10 5♣ A Q 4

West North East South1♦

Pass 2♣ Pass 2NTPass 6NT All Pass

The slam with the best chance of making is6♦. This is 100% certain on a 3-2 trumpsplit – drawing trumps, then throwing aheart on the fourth club, merely concedinga spade. But at pairs, 6♦ making will scorebelow average. Yes – with 33 partnershippoints, almost all pairs will bid slam, andmany will sensibly choose the higher-scoring 6NT. You must do likewise.

6NT is not 100%. It is 75% (broadlyspeaking). Win the ten of hearts leadwith the heart king and lead to the ten ofspades. Win the heart nine return withthe ace of hearts, cash all your minor-suit winners, then lead to the jack ofspades (in fact East’s king of spades willpop up, as he has had to retain the queenof hearts). Your 6NT slam will makeunless West holds both the queen ofspades and the king of spades – a one infour shot. �

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Do not

push for

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at pairs

PAIR

ST

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Andrew Robson

Andrew’s Tip: Go for the higherscoring slam when slam values areclearly present, but go for the slamwith the best chance of makingwhen slam values are marginal.

The Two-minute Interview

Benjamin Whitrow

BAFTA-nominated for his perform-ance as Mr Bennet in the BBC produc-tion of Pride and Prejudice, BenjaminWhitrow has appeared in TV dramassince the 1960s. He has also been a reg-ular stage performer with such famouscompanies as the Royal ShakespeareCompany and the National Theatre.

How did you start playing bridge?My parents used to play rubber bridgeand I learned from them, but I becamereally interested as a young actor. WhenI worked at the National Theatre, Lau-rence Olivier, the director, allowed us toset up a table in the wings. It was goodfun to play until you heard your cue, goon stage, do your bit . . . and come backto find that someone else had played thehand for you!

How often do you play?If I am not working, two or three timesa week. I play duplicate at the Wimble-don Bridge Club: I like the ambience– and the club is not far from home.

What does bridge mean to you?It keeps me occupied in the eveningand gives me the opportunity to meetpeople from all walks of life. Moreimportantly, I like the fact that bridgeenables you to be totally absorbed forthree hours and forget all about yoursorrows and problems in life.

If you could change one thing aboutbridge, what would it be?

I would re-instate the re-redouble! Theredouble has become almost a conven-tion, so it would be good to have a callthat only means business!

What are your other hobbies?Golf, though I am not very good at it,reading and going to concerts.

AUG_08_EB_p05 Robson + Whitrow 15/7/08 5:13 pm Page 5

6 English Bridge August 2008 www.ebu.co.uk

West North East SouthVozabal Lindqvist Slemr Brogeland

1♣ Pass 1♠ Pass2♣ Pass 2♦ Pass3♣ Pass Pass 3♥Dble All Pass

East’s 2♦ had suggested game-try values, sofew other players would have consideredBrogeland’s protective bid of 3♥. The CzechWest doubled and led the ace of clubsfollowed by the king. Brogeland ruffed thesecond club, finessed the ten of trumpssuccessfully and cashed the ace of trumps.He then led the nine of spades, covered bythe jack and queen. When he played theking of trumps, throwing a club fromdummy, the suit broke 3-3. His next movewas to run the eight of diamonds to thenine. East could not afford to return adiamond, so he exited with a low spade.Brogeland finessed the ten of spadessuccessfully and then played his lasttrump, the jack. East had no good discardfrom ♠K-8-5 ♦A-J. He chose to throw aspade and was then thrown on lead againwith ace and another spade. At tricktwelve he had to play from his ♦A-J todummy’s king and Brogeland had his+730. Bravo!

Meanwhile, England began the second

week by beating Estonia 25-4 VPs, Turkey21-9 and Portugal 18-12. For one gloriousperiod on Sunday, 22nd June 2008, Englandled the field in all three championships:the open, the women’s and the seniors.Had a comet struck the earth, these leadswould have been preserved for ever.

In Round 4, the Hackett twins were spec-tacularly unlucky on this board, where theyput up an admirable pre-emptive barrageagainst their German opponents:

N/S Game. Dealer West.♠ A 8 7 5 4♥ 10♦ A Q J♣ K 5 3 2

♠ K 2 ♠ 6 3♥ Q J 9 8 6 5 ♥ A 7 2♦ 9 7 6 ♦ K 10 5 4 3 2♣ 6 4 ♣ J 10

♠ Q J 10 9♥ K 4 3♦ 8♣ A Q 9 8 7

West North East SouthJason H. Wladow Justin H. Elinescu

3♥ Dble 4♦ 4♠5♦ 5♥ Pass 6♣Pass 6♦ Pass 6♥Pass 7♠ All Pass

Justin’s 4♦ was a fit-showing bid. Northwas just about worth a competitive raiseto 5♠, but his actual cue-bid of 5♥ seemsa massive overbid to me. Four bids later,the Germans had been jostled into 7♠with two key cards missing!

If there is a reason for Jason to lead aheart rather than a diamond, I cannot seeit. He led a diamond and the German de-clarer was then able to finesse successfullyin trumps and ditch dummy’s heart loser

THE format for the open section of theEuropean Championship was differentthis year. The field was divided into twosections of nineteen teams, with the firstnine from each section progressing to anall-play-all second week with no carry-over.

England achieved nine wins, two drawsand seven defeats (including four winsand a draw against the teams finishing inthe top eight places) but their best win wasby only 20 VPs to 10. With only one matchto play they were 4 VPs behind Finland,who occupied the precious ninth qualify-ing place. In a nail-biting last round,England drew 15-15 with Switzerlandwhile Finland lost 11-19 to Iceland. It wasEngland who went through on a split tie.

These were the placings of England’spairs in the Butler Rankings for the firstweek: 29th/113 Paul Hackett and TonyWaterlow (+0.33 IMPs per board), 41stJason and Justin Hackett (+0.15 IMPs),64th John Armstrong and John Holland(-0.06 IMPs). The Netherlands, Italy andIceland headed Group A, while Sweden,Russia and Norway headed Group B.

Early in the second week worldchampion, Boye Brogeland of Norway,produced this virtuoso piece of magicagainst the Czech Republic:

N/S Game. Dealer West.♠ 9 4 2♥ A 10♦ K 6 5 3♣ 8 7 5 2

♠ 7 ♠ K J 8 5 3♥ Q 6 4 ♥ 9 5 3♦ Q 7 4 ♦ A J 9♣ A K Q 10 6 3 ♣ J 4

♠ A Q 10 6♥ K J 8 7 2♦ 10 8 2♣ 9

David Bird reports on the Open Series

It’s Norway again!

Boye Brogeland

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AUG_08_EB_p06-07 Bird Pau 15/7/08 5:14 pm Page 6

Bermuda Bowl) as their last match startedagainst the current leaders, Germany.Board 2 proved to be the board of thechampionship:

E/W Game. Dealer South.♠ K Q J 10 5♥ 9 6♦ A 10 9 6 4♣ Q

♠ 9 8 7 6 4 3 2 ♠Void♥ Q 10 3 ♥A 8 7 5♦ K 3 ♦8 7 5 2♣ K ♣A 7 5 4 2

♠ A♥ K J 4 2♦ Q J♣ J 10 9 8 6 3

West North East SouthDuboin Smirnov Bocchi Piekarek

PassPass 1♠ Pass 2NTPass 3♣ Pass 3♥Pass 3NT All Pass

Josef Piekarek’s 2NT showed clubs and heended as declarer in 3NT. What would youhave led from Giorgio Duboin’s West hand?

The Italian maestro chose the king ofdiamonds, potentially knocking out theentry to the blocked spades! The contractcan still be made, but the successful linesof play are complicated and to someextent double-dummy.

Piekarek won the first trick with dum-my’s ace and played the queen of clubs toWest’s king. When Duboin returned hisremaining diamond to South’s queen,declarer cashed the spade ace and led thejack of clubs to East’s ace, West and thedummy throwing a spade. If NorbertoBocchi exits with a low heart now, declarercan succeed by rising with the king, cashinghis club winners and exiting with a low

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heart, forcing one or other defender togive him a ninth trick. Unerringly, Bocchiexited safely in clubs.

Piekarek cashed his good clubs and led theheart two, Duboin rising immediately withthe ten of hearts to exit safely with thequeen of hearts to South’s king. Declarerhad to surrender the last two tricks to East’s♥A-8 and that was one down. A dazzlingperformance by the defenders and Italywent on to win the match 25-5 VPs.

England finished in a respectable 12thplace of the eighteen teams that qualifiedfor the second week. If this seems disap-pointing, remember that there are manystrong teams in Europe (as the Englandfootballers discovered recently). Congra-tulations are due to John Armstrong andJohn Holland, who finished second out offifty-three pairs in the Butler Table for thefinal week, averaging +0.64 IMPs per board.Only Norway’s Lindqvist and Brogelandwere ahead of them. Tragically, JohnArmstrong died shortly after the cham-pionship. A very fine player and a truegentleman of the game, he will be sadlymissed by his many friends.

The qualifiers for next year’s BermudaBowl were: 1. Norway 299; 2. Russia 287;3. Germany 286; 4. Bulgaria 285; 5. Italy279; 6. Netherlands 273. �

on the fifth round of clubs. Ouch! At theother table Tony Waterlow and Paul Hackettstopped very reasonably in 4♠, for a lossof 17 IMPs.

When England faced France in Round 7,Hervé Mouïel found a pretty loser-on-loser play:

Love All. Dealer West.♠ A K Q 6 2♥ J 7 2♦ A 9♣ K J 10

♠ Void ♠ J 9 5 3♥ K Q 10 9 8 6 ♥ 3♦ 10 8 5 ♦ J 7 6 2♣ 9 6 5 2 ♣ A Q 7 3

♠ 10 8 7 4♥ A 5 4♦ K Q 4 3♣ 8 4

West North East SouthJason H. Lévy Justin H. Mouïel3♥ Dble Pass 4♠All Pass

This time the contract was the same at bothtables, but only the Frenchman found thewinning line. Mouïel won the king ofhearts lead and played a trump to the ace,West showing out. He continued with fourrounds of diamonds, throwing dummy'sheart losers. Justin Hackett won the fourthround of diamonds and had no goodreturn. He exited with the seven of clubs todummy’s ten, but declarer could then ruff aclub in his hand for the tenth trick.

The Italians had omitted former worldpairs champions, Fantoni and Nunes, fromtheir team in order to make way for asponsor. As a result of this extravagance,they found themselves in seventh place(with only six teams to qualify for the

Hervé Mouïel

Giorgio Duboin

Norberto Bocchi

John Holland – John Armstrong

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Pho

to:

Step

hen

Wo

od

Pho

to:

Step

hen

Wo

od

Pho

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EBL

Pho

to:

EBL

Pho

to:

EBL

AUG_08_EB_p06-07 Bird Pau.qxd 16/7/08 4:50 pm Page 7

Aug08 adverts.qxd 16/7/08 12:01 pm Page 8


West North East SouthPrice Simpson

1♠Dble 4♥1 Dble 4♠Pass Pass 5♣ 5♠Pass Pass 6♣ PassPass 6♠ Dble All Pass

1 Splinter, agreeing spades

David Price reasons that I must haveexcellent distribution in the context of alow point count and that diamonds isundoubtedly my second suit. When Westtries to cash the ace of clubs on theopening lead, it is an easy matter to drawtrumps, finesse the doubler for the queenof diamonds and set up a heart discardfrom dummy making an overtrick and abig pick-up.

Tuesday 24th is a disappointing day withlosses to Sweden and Italy (more later).

Wednesday 25th starts with a good winagainst the Netherlands but tails off withonly a modest win against Ireland and apoor loss to Estonia.

A conundrum from the Irish match:Desmond Houlihan, West, is the dealer onBoard 12. He is on my side of the screen andis having problems selecting an opening

bid. He is flabbergasted when I tell himthat 4♦ is the correct opening on the handhe holds. Of course, I have seen my ownhand which contains thirteen spades, so Iknow there has been a glitch in theduplication – and he must have had all thediamonds!

Thursday 26th starts with a small loss to thesurprise leaders, Belgium, but wins againstIsrael and Germany keep us in contention.

Friday 27th: the final day of reckoning hasarrived and three good wins may see us gaina medal. We beat Austria, but only drawagainst Scotland, so we require a win in thefinal round against Finland to guarantee aplace in the world championships. Despitemistakes by your columnist, we are stillahead until the penultimate board whereour opponents miss a slam and our team-mates are extremely unlucky to go off on adefensive ruff. Italy have had a big win andhave overtaken us by 1 VP for the decisivesixth place. Later it transpires that there wasa scoring mistake and Italy have the samescore as us – but beat us on a split tie havingwon the head-to-head match!

Saturday 29th is a day off to lick ourwounds and in the evening attend thePrize Giving and the Closing Banquet/Barbecue. To the victors the spoils and tothe vanquished the thoughts of whatmight have been.

Particular thanks must be extended toPeter Czerniewski who took on the role ofnon-playing captain for the first time andplayed a blinder.

The six top placed teams and qualifiers forthe world championship next year were:1. Turkey 348; 2. Sweden 333; 3. Belgium327; 4. Poland 325; 5. Netherland 322;6. Italy 314. �

Friday 20th June: I’m up at 3.30am todrive to Stansted to meet some team-mates and fly to Pau for the start of theEuropean Championships. Others haveflown earlier or gone by Eurostar and TGV.The England Seniors’ Team is Chris Dixon,Victor Silverstone, Ross Harper, AndrewThompson, David Price and Colin Simpsonwith Peter Czerniewski the NPC.

Our hotel is very convenient for theplaying venue; however, it is also verybasic, hot and noisy. The rest of the dayconsists of some practice and the long-winded opening ceremony, followed by ateam dinner.

The next two days see five consecutivewins against the hosts France, Switzerland,Spain, Wales and Denmark. Although themargins of victory might have been betterin some cases, nevertheless, we are theleaders overnight!

Monday 23rd brings us down to earthwith losses to strong Turkish and Polishteams. Fortunately a maximum win in thelast match of the day against Norway perksus up, helped by this deal. My wife hasbeen teaching me the losing trick count soperhaps this influenced my decision toopen at favourable vulnerability.

E/W Game. Dealer South.♠ A K 8 4 2 ♥ 3 ♦ A 10 6 5♣ 5 3 2

♠ 9 ♠ 5 3 ♥ K 8 7 5 ♥ A J 9 6 2♦ Q 4 2 ♦ 8♣ A K 10 8 4 ♣ Q J 9 7 6

♠ Q J 10 7 6♥ Q 10 4♦ K J 9 7 3♣ Void

Colin Simpson reports on the Seniors Series

Diary of an England Senior

David Price

NW E

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Photo: Stephen Wood

AUG_08_EB_p09 Simpson_Pau 15/7/08 5:15 pm Page 9


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West North East SouthNeve Jagger Bessis Teshome

1♠Pass Pass 2♦ PassPass 2♠ Pass Pass3♦ All Pass

At our team-mates’ table the auction sub-sided in 3♦, which lost the obvious fivetricks for one down.

At our table Bénédicte Cronier decided torespond to partner’s 1♠ opening bid, andshowed a weak three-card raise via 1NT.Nevertheless, Sylvie Willard decided to havea go at 4♠, and the contract would hinge onthe opening lead. With two diamond losersto ruff in dummy, only a trump lead wouldbreak the contract. Nevena Senior unerr-ingly led a trump with the result that wegained 5 IMPs as opposed to losing 11.

With two matches to go we were lying 7th,and needed a good win against Greece. Thedeal in the next column is from that matchand helped us to secure a 20-10 victory.

At both tables the contract was 5♣ bySouth. As West, I led two top diamonds, andwith just one entry to dummy there was nohurry to attempt to cash the ace of spades(declarer would not be able to ruff thediamond good and get back to dummy tocash the ten). Since I was not prepared tochance any other suit, I switched to a trumpand declarer tried the heart finesse for thecontract, but was one down when it failed.

N/S Game. Dealer North.♠ K Q J 4♥ J 10 7♦ 10 9 8 5♣ A 2

♠ A 10 8 3 2 ♠ 9 7 6 5♥ Q 8 6 4 ♥ 9 5 2♦ A K J ♦ 7 6 3 2♣ 9 ♣ J 4

♠ Void♥ A K 3♦ Q 4♣ K Q 10 8 7 6 5 3

In the other room, Sarah Teshome tookadvantage of a small defensive slip-up. Theace of diamonds was led, but then Westswitched to a trump without cashing thesecond diamond first. Declarer won in handand got off play with the queen of dia-monds. West had no winning option left:whichever suit she played would establishdeclarer’s eleventh trick. She tried the jackof diamonds but Sarah Teshome ruffed,crossed to dummy’s ace of trumps anddiscarded a heart on the ten of diamonds.

Sadly, this win was not enough. We lostour next and final match 8-22 VPs to Italy,and finished equal eighth on 416 VPs.

The top six teams were: 1. France 466;2. Italy 450; 3. Spain 442; 4. Sweden 435;5. Germany 426; 6. Denmark 425. �

THE European Championships took placethis year in the French town of Pau.Situated inland from Biarritz and close tothe Pyrenees to the South, Pau is a prettylittle town full of expensive shops, butinexpensive restaurants and hotels –in some ways an ideal setting for a bridgecompetition!

The England Women’s team (myself,Nevena Senior, Catherine Jagger, SarahTeshome, Anne Rosen, Catherine Draper)were in the lead at the start of the com-petition but ended up with a disappoint-ing result, as eighth equal – only the topsix teams qualifying for next year’sworld championship.

Our matches against France, the even-tual overall winners, always seem to bringout the best in both teams, and it was ahigh quality battle this time round, endingin a 16-14 VPs victory for France.

This was a potentially dangerous boardfor England:

Game All. Dealer South.♠ J 6 5♥ K 10 8 4♦ 9♣ 10 9 7 6 2

♠ 10 8 2 ♠ 7 4♥ J 9 7 3 ♥ 6 5 2♦ Q 6 3 ♦ A K J 7 5♣ A J 3 ♣ Q 8 4

♠ A K Q 9 3♥ A Q♦ 10 8 4 2♣ K 5

West North East SouthSenior Cronier Dhondy Willard

1♠Pass 1NT Pass 2NTPass 3♠ Pass 4♠All Pass

Heather Dhondy reports on the Women Series

Disappointment in Pau

Nevena Senior

Sarah Teshome

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Pho

to:

Ro

n T

acch

i

Pho

to:

Step

hen

Wo

od

AUG_08_EB_p11 Heather Pau 15/7/08 5:17 pm Page 11


Mike Swanson Presents

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Our prices are inclusive of bridge costs.

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Julie waved across at him and said ‘It’syour turn.’

Without bothering to look up, John apo-logised and opened (so he thought) 1♥.

When the TD saw what had happened,he looked down, smiled at John, andsaid: ‘I knew I could rely on you to offerme my first challenge. The insufficientbid law is one that has changed slightly,and I do believe that you have found thatchange. Firstly, West can accept the 1♥ bidbut, if he doesn’t, we go into new territory.Can I ask if you play a 2♥ response to 1NTas natural?’

‘No, we play transfers.’‘Then, if 1♥ is not accepted, John can

replace it with any legal bid or a pass. In allinstances except one, Julie will be silencedfor the rest of the auction. The exception isa new bit of law: if John makes a bid thathas the same meaning as his insufficient1♥, perhaps even with more precision asto point count or suit quality, then thebidding may proceed without penalty; ifJohn thinks this is the case, then I shallhave to take him away from the table for afew moments to see whether I agree withhim.’

West chose not toaccept the 1♥ bid, ifonly to allow the Tour-nament Director to usehis new bit of law, and John took up theTD’s offer to step away from the table.

After establishing that John thought hewas opening the bidding the Directorasked him to explain what bid he was nowcontemplating.

‘We play three-level transfers over 1NT.A 3♦ bid would show an opening handand at least five hearts headed by two ofthe top three honours,’ said John.

‘Could be as strong as an Acol Two?’asked the Director.

‘No, if I was that strong I would just askfor aces,’ replied John.

‘In that case I will allow it.’

West North East SouthJulie John1NT Pass 3♦

Pass 3♥ Pass 4♦Pass 4♠ Pass 4NTPass 5♥ Pass 6♦All Pass

After Julie’s 4♠ cue-bid, John decided togo for broke and ask for aces and, when hefound partner with two, he bid 6♦ to giveher a choice of slams.

Julie thought for a while before passing.She knew that 6♥ would be a better score(and she would be playing it!) but onreflection she decided that her extra trumpwould make 6♦ a better bet; just as well,as 6♥ can only succeed on a club lead.

After the opening kingof spades lead, the playdidn’t take too long:John just drew trumpsand threw dummy’s

small spades away on his heart suit,wrapping up twelve tricks for a near top.

‘That must be some sort of record, bid-ding hearts insufficiently and then neverbidding them in the legal auction,’ observedJulie with a wry smile.

‘And even I couldn’t have managed thatbefore these new laws came in,’ repliedJohn as he absentmindedly sorted his cardsbefore returning them to the board.

‘Maybe August will be your lucky monththen,’ said Julie with an absolutely straightface, so that poor John hadn’t a cluewhether she was just referring to thebridge table. �

AT the start of the evening’s session,before announcing the movement, theTournament Director asked for everyone’sattention: ‘As you may know, the new lawscome into force this evening and there aretwo changes that affect all of you. Firstly,when you are a defender and partner failsto follow you may now say: “Having none?”just as you always have been able to do asdummy; secondly, at the end of a handyou should now shuffle your cards beforereturning them to the board. All of theother changes only apply when someonecontravenes the laws.’

The TD added: ‘I wonder who willmanage to test me for the first time onone of the new law changes?’, as his gazemoved unerringly towards John.

Julie looked pleadingly across thetable to John and implored ‘Please don’tlet it be you!’

N/S Game. Dealer North.♠ A 8 2♥ A 7 3♦ J 9 4 2♣ K 8 2

♠ K Q 9 5 ♠ J 10 6 4♥ 2 ♥ 10 6 5 4♦ 10 3 ♦ 6 5♣ Q 10 7 6 5 4 ♣ A J 9

♠ 7 3♥ K Q J 9 8♦ A K Q 8 7♣ 3

West North East SouthJulie John1NT1 Pass 1♥

1 12-14

After he had picked up and sorted his handJohn went into a trance; he could see thatit wasn’t strong enough for a strong 2♥,but what should he do after 1♥ – 1♠? Ifhe rebid 3♦, Julie might be compelled tobid 3NT on 6 points and a misfit, so maybea 2♦ rebid would be better.

Eventually the rest of the table gotimpatient with John’s catatonic state, so

DIR

EC

TO

R,

PL

EA

SE!John gets lucky

with the new laws

Mike Swanson

The insufficient bid lawhas changed slightly.

NW E

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winners list & morewww.bridgeassistant.com/web_b2e.html

AUG_08_EB_p13 Swanson 15/7/08 5:19 pm Page 13


We start at the final of the 2008Vanderbilt, with Rubin facing Team Poland.On this deal Krzysztof Martens respondedin diamonds, despite already knowing ofat least a 5-3 fit in spades. (A responsesuch as the Jacoby 2NT, agreeing spades,would mean that responder had to askthe questions, whereas Martens preferredto describe his own hand.) When KrzysztofJassem rebid his spades, Martens made asplinter bid in hearts. RKCB from Eastidentified that all six key cards werepresent and Jassem could now see a grand

slam if Martens could fill the gap in hisclub suit. 6♣ asked this question and withsecond-round control in the suit Jassemduly leapt to 7♠. A splendid auction!

At the other table, Verhees and Jansmaused a lengthy relay sequence that wouldtake a more able analyst than me to decode.Did they also hit the bull’s-eye? No, theirarrow fell well short and they stopped in4♠, losing 17 IMPs.

� Awards: 7♠ (10), 6NT/6♠ (6), games(2).

1. E/W Game. Dealer East.

West EastTuszynski Lutostansk1♠ 2♦3♦ 3♠4♠ 5♥6♣ 6♠

♠ Q 10 9 5 3 ♠ A K 7 ♥ A 3 ♥ 4♦ K 9 6 5 ♦ A Q 10 7 4 ♣ A 7 ♣ J 9 4 2

3. Game All. Dealer West.

2. Game All. Dealer West.

game, so Lutostansk had the luxury of aforcing 3♠ on the second round. SinceTuszynski’s 3♦ rebid had not limited hishand on the previous round (the auctionbeing game-forcing), he now bid just 4♠,rather than cue-bidding.

Lutostansk could still visualise a slam,on two running suits. With two top clublosers, it would not be sound to bid 4NTfor key cards. Instead he cue-bid inhearts, pin-pointing the club weakness.With a second-round club control, Westwould have bid a small slam. Holding theclub ace, he cue-bid this card and the bid-ding came to rest in 6♠, which made withan overtrick.

A grand slam in spades is very playable,

since you can ruff a heart and discardWest’s club loser on the long diamond. Agrand slam in diamonds is hopeless, sinceEast has three club losers and only twodiscards available on the spades. Thespade grand depends basically on the ♠Jfalling in three rounds and is thereforewith the odds. However, that calculationrelies on the certainty that the opponentswill bid at least a small slam. On this deal,the other East-West pair stopped in 5♦and a successful small slam gave a healthyswing anyway.

� Awards: 7♠ (10), 6♠ (9), 6♦ (8), 6NT(7), Games (4), 7NT/7♦ (1).

Let’s see another potential slam handfrom the Vanderbilt final. Peter Weichsel’s2♦ on the second round was a check-back bid. When he persisted with 3♥, thiswas likely to be a six-card suit. Whatshould Marcin Lesniewski say next?

He decided to bid a natural 4NT,implying that no primary fit had come tolight but he had a strong hand. Weichselthen bid 6♦, offering that suit as a finaldenomination. There was no further bid-ding but you can see that the diamondslam is almost hopeless.

At the other table, after a similar start,

Krzysztof Martens bid 3♠ over 3♥ on theWest cards and continued with RKCB overEast’s 4♥, the Poles arriving in the muchbetter slam of 6♥. Rather than guesswhether to finesse in spades or diamonds,declarer decided to combine two chances.After drawing trumps, he played ace, kingand another spade, in case the queen wouldfall. This chance did not materialise but asubsequent diamond finesse was successfuland Poland gained 17 IMPs.

� Awards: 6♥ (10), 6NT (8), games (6),6♦ (1).

Beat today’sexperts

Bidding problems on page 1 of the pull-out at the centre of the magazine

BID

DIN

G Q

UIZ

David Bird

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♠ K Q J ♠ A 8 7 5 4 3 ♥ 10 ♥ A 6♦ A J 9 8 5 3 ♦ 2♣ K J 8 ♣ A Q 9 5

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West EastLesniewski Weichsel1♦ 1♥1♠ 2♦2NT 3♥4NT 6♦

♠ A K J 2 ♠ 4♥ K ♥ Q J 10 9 6 3 ♦ Q J 7 5 4 ♦ A 8 3♣ K Q 2 ♣ A J 6

NW E

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Next we will pay a brief visit to the PolishTrials, for the European Championshipsin Pau. The response of 2♦ was forcing to

West EastMartens Jassem

1♠2♦ 2♠4♥ 4NT5♠ 6♣7♠

AUG_08_EB_p14-15 Bird (quiz) 15/7/08 5:20 pm Page 14


Tips to remember

• When RKCB has discovered that allkey cards are present, a continuationof six of an unbid suit asks partnerto bid a grand slam with second-round control of that suit.

• Text-books tell you to bid a grandwhen you assess its prospects atmore than 70%. This is true only onthe assumption that the opponentswill bid at least a small slam. Whenthere is a chance that the opponentswill be in game, you should stop atthe six-level unless the grand ap-pears to be a near certainty.

• In general, you should add a pointwhen your balanced hand containsa five-card suit. Treat a 14-countwith such a suit as a 15-count.

4. Love All. Dealer West.

5. Game All. Dealer East.

6. Love All. Dealer East.

Catherine Draper, playing for Englandagainst Scotland, faced the first decision.Should she begin with a negative doubleor bid a simple 3NT? As I see it, the handis a little strong for 3NT, since the A-Q-Jof hearts are worth almost as much asA-K-Q when sitting over a heart bidder. Islightly prefer a double, but the ScottishEast also chose 3NT at the other table.

Over to Anne Rosen in the West seat. Aslittle as K-Q-x of diamonds and the king ofhearts could be enough for a slam. The 4♠rebid seems too little, but 5♠ instead couldcarry you too high. The Scottish Westmatched the 4♠ bid, though, and at both

tables all now depended on East’s next bid.Draper opted for 5♦, which looks over-cautious to me. The 4♠ rebid surely showsa 5-6 hand and East covers the two losers inhearts and clubs; If West happens to holdtwo hearts, she will be able to finesse twicein the suit, thereby providing a total of twodiscards for potential spade losers.

At the other table, Liz McGowan (East)bid 6♦ at her second turn and Scotlandgained 11 IMPs on the board. How didyou and your partner fare?

� Awards: 6♦ (10), 6♠ (8), 7♦ (6),7♠/games (4).

Finally, we will drop in to the final of theFrench Trials for Beijing. What do youthink about opening a 15-17 1NT on thoseEast cards? Pilon was playing such a rangebut he deemed that his hand was toostrong. Not only did he hold a five-card suitcontaining two top honours, he also attrib-uted some value to the minor-suit tens.

Adding on a point for these values, he

made a jump rebid of 2NT, showing 18-19points. Faigenbaum then looked favour-ably at his king of hearts and raised to 6NT.It is a good contract, as you see; it will suc-ceed when hearts are 3-3, or when the kingof diamonds is onside and an extra trick isavailable in either hearts (a 4-2 break) orclubs. Hearts were 3-3, in fact.

The very factors that caused Pilon toassess his hand as too strong for 1NT werethe ones that gave 6NT good play. Westwould have had little cause to investigate ano-trump slam, facing a 1NT opening.

� Awards: 6NT (10), 6♥ (9), games (5),grands (3).

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣

Our experts scored a moderate 36/60, giv-ing you a great chance of finishing ahead ofthem. Mind you, the hands were quite dif-ficult. Let’s look for some bidding tips.

in a later session of the Lady Milne – thistime a cold grand slam.

Scotland’s Fiona McQuaker decided toopen 1♦ rather than 2♣, which was thesensible decision at three of the fourtables. The reverse to 2♠ was forcing togame, opposite a two-level response.East’s 3♠ continuation showed five spadesand therefore at least six diamonds.

When Liz McGowan cue-bid the ace ofhearts, it seemed that McQuaker neededonly to discover about the king of dia-monds to bid the grand slam in dia-monds. If 5NT was available for the pur-pose, this was the club that should havebeen extracted from her bag. No, she

continued with 4♠, presumably intendedas a cue-bid. Even if the bid was risk-free,I don’t see what purpose it could achieve.The result was disastrous, since McGowanviewed it as a possible resting place. LauraWoodruff and Gilly Clench did no betterfor Wales, bidding 1♦ – 2♣, 2♠ – 2NT, 4♠.In the Ireland v Northern Ireland match,the Irish West (Petra O’Neill, partneringGrace Finegan) drove to 6♠ after a similarstart to the ones that we have seen. Burnsand Greenwood, for Northern Ireland,began 2♣ – 3NT – 4♦, ending in 6♦.

� Awards: 7♦ (10), 7♠ (9), 6♠ (6),6♦ (5), games (2).

♠ J 8 7 ♠ A K Q 6 2 ♥ A 7 3 ♥ K♦ K J 3 ♦ A Q 10 9 8 6 5 ♣ Q 9 4 2 ♣ Void

NW E

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West EastFaigenbaum Pilon

1♥1♠ 2NT6NT

♠ A 7 4 2 ♠ K 3♥ K 7 ♥ A Q 8 4 3♦ J 7 3 ♦ A Q 10♣ A K 5 3 ♣ Q 10 2

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West North East SouthRosen Adamson Draper Martin1♦ 2♥ 3NT Pass4♠ Pass 5♦

♠ A K Q 3 2 ♠ 9 6 4♥ 7 5 ♥ A Q J♦ A 9 8 7 6 2 ♦ K J 10♣ Void ♣ A 10 9 4

NW E

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We move next to the Lady Milne Trophy,with the women’s teams of England,Scotland, Wales, Ireland and NorthernIreland in opposition.

By an amazing coincidence, there wasanother huge diamond-spade two-suiter

When you have finished reading this magazine,if you don’t want to keep it, please recycle it.

West EastMcGowan McQuaker

1♦2♣ 2♠3♦ 3♠4♥ 4♠

AUG_08_EB_p14-15 Bird (quiz) 15/7/08 5:20 pm Page 15


� �

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email: [email protected] www.fivestarbridge.co.uk

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wwwwww..bbeerryysstteeddee..ccoomm



another club, thus shortening the long-trump hand and defeating the contract.

England continued their winning waysin the second stage, losing one match – toWales – but otherwise marching towardsthe title leaving their closest challengers,the Patron’s team, 50 VPs behind.

This little gem appeared in the Patron’smatch against Scotland:

Love All. Dealer East.♠ K 6 4♥ J 10 3♦ K 9 7 5♣ A 8 2

♠ 9 ♠ J 10 8 3♥ 8 5 2 ♥ Q 7 6 4♦ A 10 6 4 3 ♦ Q 8 2 ♣ K 10 9 3 ♣ Q 6

♠ A Q 7 5 2♥ A K 9♦ J♣ J 7 5 4

West North East SouthSheehan Marshall Simpson Smith

Pass 1♠Pass 1NT1 Pass 2♣Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠Dble All Pass

1 Forcing

Double may look a little frisky but Rob

Sheehan had correctly analysed that theclubs were poorly placed for declarer andthe trump suit was not behaving. Theheart lead gave declarer every chance toshine. He correctly won the heart and leda diamond towards the king. West rosewith the ace and continued hearts; de-clarer won and played two rounds oftrumps, discovering the bad split. Unfor-tunately thereafter he lost the thread andfinished two down.

The technique required is known as an‘Elopement Play’. Declarer should cash thediamond king, ruff a diamond, cash thelast heart winner and the club ace and leadthe last diamond from dummy, East beingpowerless to prevent declarer from scoringhis small trump.

The weekend was a great success, andplayed with tremendous spirit through-out. It was good to meet old friends fromprevious Camrose encounters – the high-light perhaps being the closing banquetwith short, pithy speeches and someseriously old jokes. �

THANKS to the very generous support ofBernard Teltscher, the inaugural SeniorsCamrose for the Teltscher Trophy took placeat the Oxford Spires Hotel. Teams fromeach of the Home Unions took part with asixth team added so that there would not beany sit-outs. England (Ross Harper, PaulHackett, Tony Waterlow, Ian Panto, GunnarHallberg and John Holland) pulled a fastone by including three members of theOpen Team for the forthcoming EuropeanChampionships, whereas the Patron’s team(Bernard Teltscher, Tony Priday, Victor Sil-verstone, Chris Dixon, Robert Sheehan andColin Simpson) included three members ofthe Seniors Team – and our lead pair had acombined vintage of over 170!

England started in fine form, drawing onematch against the Patron’s team in the firstof two round-robins of fourteen boards butcomfortably winning the rest. Against thePatron’s, Paul Hackett produced a beautifuldefensive play to set up a game swing:

N/S Game. Dealer South. ♠ A Q 8 7 2♥ Q J 8 6 5♦ 9 2♣ J

♠ 10 9 5 4 ♠ 3♥ A 9 4 ♥ K 7♦ Q 7 4 3 ♦ J 10 6 5♣ K 8 ♣ A 10 9 5 3 2

♠ K J 6♥ 10 3 2♦ A K 8♣ Q 7 6 4

West North East SouthHackett Teltscher Harper Priday

1NTPass 2♥1 Pass 2♠Pass 3♥ Pass 4♠All Pass

1 Transfer to spades

West led a diamond. South won andcashed two high spades, finding the suit didnot split; so he switched his attentions to theside suit and led a heart. Accurately Westrose with the ace and switched to king and

England win the inaguralSeniors Camrose

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Colin Simpson

The winning England Seniors: (from the left) John Holland, Ross Harper, Ian Panto,Tony Waterlow, Gunnar Hallberg, John Willams (npc) and Paul Hackett.

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AUG_08_EB_p17 Simpson_Camrose 15/7/08 5:22 pm Page 17

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a Standard English approach of four-card majors with a weak NT, thensupporting with three cards will rarelyinconvenience the opener, and willoften make the decision processmuch more straightforward. This isbecause a player who opens 1♥ or1♠ will either hold an unbalancedhand (in which case he will have atleast five cards unless he is 4-4-4-1),or a balanced hand with 15+ points(given the failure to open 1NT).Thus, whenever the opener has atleast five cards in his major, he will bein a good position to judge whetherto bid towards game.

A second benefit to supportingwith three cards occurs in ‘false-preference’ auctions. For example,consider the following auction:

Opener Responder1♥ 1NT2♣ 2♥

If the partnership tends to supportdirectly with three cards, then theresponder can typically be assumedto hold just two hearts.

2. How should the auction proceed?Following a raise to 2M, the openeralso has two issues to resolve: doesthe partnership have eight trumps,and what level should we bid to?With no interest in game, the openershould pass. However, with extravalues, the opener should both showhis strength and also define his handtype, as follows:

• With a balanced hand (containingonly four cards in his major), theopener should therefore pass with15-16 points, bid 2NT (to invitegame) with 17-18, and bid 3NT(offering a choice of games) with19 points. Following a rebid of2NT, responder has four options:pass (minimum with threetrumps), 3M (minimum with four

trumps), 3NT (maximum withthree trumps) and 4M (max-imum with four trumps).

• With an unbalanced hand (orbalanced with five trumps), theopener can either simply bid 4M,or invite by bidding 3M (generalgame try). One final option is tointroduce a new suit as a long-suitgame try, after which respondercan return to 3M with an un-suitable hand or go for game withhelp for the opener’s second suit.

It follows that on the given hand Southshould have bid 3NT over 2♠, whichNorth would pass.

SUMMARY

After an opening bid of 1M:

• Responder should strain tosupport with three cards when thealternative is to bid 1NT.

• Following a raise to 2M, the openercan only assume three-card support,and should seek to determinewhether the partnership have eighttrumps, as well as the level to whichthey should bid.

• With a balanced hand, the openershould either pass (15-16), invitegame by bidding 2NT (17-18), oroffer a choice of games by bidding3NT (19).

• With an unbalanced hand, or abalanced hand with five trumps,the opener should either pass,invite game by bidding 3M orintroducing a second suit, or bid4M. �

Mark Hubbard from Birmingham writes:Playing in a one-day Swiss Teams, I raisedmy partner’s opening bid of 1♠ to 2♠holding just three cards in spades. Mypartner jumped straight to 4♠ (which wasdefeated), and then rebuked me for holdingjust three card support. Was I wrong to raiseholding just three spades? Could we stillhave reached the superior contract of 3NT?The full deal was as follows.

♠ K 9 5 ♥ 8 4♦ K J 8 5 3 ♣ 9 6 2

♠ J 10 4 3 ♠ 6 2♥ 10 9 5 ♥ K Q J 7 3♦ 10 6 ♦ 9 7 4 2♣ A Q 7 4 ♣ J 10

♠ A Q 8 7♥ A 6 2♦ A Q♣ K 8 5 3

Dear Mark,The majority of bridge players worldwide

readily raise one-of-a-major (1M) withthree cards, where an opening bid of 1Mshows at least five cards. However, evenamongst four-card-major bidders, it is con-sidered to be good practice to raise withthree cards for several reasons. It should benoted, though, that one should only sup-port with three cards when holding arelatively weak hand (in the 6-9 pointrange). Whenever the responder has 10+points, he will be strong enough to intro-duce another suit before showing delayedsupport for opener’s major. Thus respon-der tends to choose a raise to 2M when thealternative would be to bid 1NT.

The decision to raise with three cardsleads to two issues: why is it a good idea tosupport with just three cards, and howshould the auction continue?

1. Why support with three cards?Assuming that the partnership adopt

YO

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SRaising partner’s 1Mon a three-card suit

Send your questions to the Editor, or e-mailDavid Bakhshi directly at [email protected]

David Bakhshi

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AUG_08_EB_p19 Bakhshi 15/7/08 5:24 pm Page 19


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be a good fit somewhere, bid 5♥. As thefull diagram shows, one action was consi-derably more successful than the other:

♠ 5♥ A K 10 9 5 4 3 2♦ 5 4♣ 7 5

♠ A 9 2 ♠ K 10 8 6 4♥ Q 8 ♥ Void♦ A 3 2 ♦ K Q J 8♣ K 10 9 8 3 ♣ A Q J 2

♠ Q J 7 3♥ J 7 6♦ 10 9 7 6♣ 6 4

At the risk of causing offence, I think thatthose Easts who doubled are wimps. WhenEast bid 5♥, West bid 6♣ and this waspassed out. None of these East-West pairshad any realistic chance of reaching 7♣.

At the other table, Tony Waterlow opened1♣ (natural) and North bid 4♥. PaulHackett, whom I would never consider awimp, made a rather lazy bid of 6♣. Hadhe bid 5♥ instead, he would at least havehad a chance of reaching the grand. And,as Tony wryly remarked to me, if anythingwent wrong it would certainly not havebeen Paul’s fault!

Now test your opening leads

Partner, South, passes originally and the un-opposed auction by your vulnerable oppo-nents is 1♣ – 1♥ –1NT – 2♣ – 2♦-3NT.The 1♣ opening was natural or a weakno-trump, 2♣ was ‘checkback’ and the 2♦reply denied three hearts or four spades.Your hand is:

Jeremy Dhondy rea-soned that, with suchan unpromising hand,it was likely that theopponents would beable to make ninetricks unless he found

something good in his partner’s hand. The

only suit bid naturally was hearts, butpartner could have doubled 2♣ with goodclubs and had the opportunity to overcall1♠. Accordingly, the best chance was tolead a diamond. He chose the nine andwas he right!

♠ Q 9 7♥ 8 4 3 2♦ J 9 8♣ J 9 5

♠ A J 10 ♠ K 8 6 4♥ J 10 ♥ A K 9 6♦ 7 4 2 ♦ K 6♣ K Q 10 8 3 ♣ A 4 2

♠ 5 3 2♥ Q 7 5♦ A Q 10 5 3♣ 7 6

As the full diagram shows, Jeremy’sdiamond lead led to a swift one down. It justshows that silly results can gain points, forHeather Dhondy and I played in 2♠making twelve tricks. Heather opened 1NTas West and South doubled my 2♦ reply(hearts or strong balanced). Heather passed,showing a doubleton heart, and I re-doubled, wanting to play there (nine trickscan be made!). This action was not part ofour documented methods and Heatherconcluded, quite reasonably, that it askedher to bid 2♥. I bid 2♠, which would haveshown my hand in an uncontested auction:this was unclear to Heather and she passed.

This was the first time that I have playedbridge at the Hinckley Island Hotel and Iwas favourably impressed. The playingconditions were excellent, the foodreasonable, and the staff friendly andwelcoming. �

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I HAD hoped that this report would be amodest account of my team’s winning thefinal of Crockfords Cup. Unfortunately, allwe won was the wooden spoon. It was, ofcourse, the fault of our captain, JeremyDhondy: he let slip that he had finished inevery position in the final except first andlast . . .

To put our ‘achievement’ into context,this was possibly the strongest field ever.Roughly 90% of the players were inter-nationals, and there were no weak teams.And our bottom-place score of 84 was thehighest this decade.

At the start of Sunday’s play, PaulHackett’s team was the heavy favourite.However, they had a disastrous second dayand fell to fourth, resulting in a deservedwin for Alexander Allfrey, David Bakhshi,Tony Forrester and Andrew Robson.Allfrey’s team was the most consistent,winning all their matches except one(ironically, against us).

A bidding problem

This hand from the first set divided theplayers into two camps.

At every table exceptone, partner openedeither a weak 1NT or apossibly short minorsuit second in hand,and the next handovercalled 4♥. What

action do you take at Game All?Four of the players faced with this

situation doubled. The other three, judgingthat it was unlikely that partner had muchin hearts and that there was very likely to

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2008 Crockfords Cup Final

Richard Fleet

♠ K 10 8 6 4♥ Void♦ K Q J 8♣ A Q J 2

♠ Q 9 7♥ 8 4 3 2♦ J 9 8♣ J 9 5

CROCKFORD’S FINAL TOP THREE

1. Alexander Allfrey, David Bakhshi,Tony Forrester, Andrew Robson 130 VPs2. Peter Crouch, Gunnar Hallberg,Martin Jones, Glyn Liggins, AndrewMcIntosh, Ben Green 118 VPs3. Brian Senior, Sandra Penfold,Stephen Ray, Nevena Senior 114 VPs

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AUG_08_EB_p21 Fleet 15/7/08 5:25 pm Page 21


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The sourceof decline

I have always preferred teams topairs, mainly because when Ilearnt how to play bridge thirtyyears ago, like most people Ilearnt rubber bridge, and wastaught that the main thing wasto make the contract.

But when Frances Hindenstated that ‘pairs is a far hardergame’, I finally realised that it’sjust too hard, because you’replaying the field and you haveno good way of knowing howgood they are and what they’regoing to do with each hand. Irarely play pairs these days, butif I go into a club full of peopleI’ve never met before, I startwith an immediate disadvant-age. Pairs favours people whohave played regularly in thesame club for years and years –usually the elderly, or expertslike Frances Hinden. Yet pairsis the most common form ofthe game because it is easier toorganise and guarantees thatevery pair gets a game.

How much better for a newpartnership who have justlearnt how to play rubber tomove on to play teams, which isa very similar game to whatthey know but with the addedbonus that they can comparethemselves against one otherpair. In the past I have takennew players to a pairs club andthey are baffled by the wholething and frustrated that theywon’t know how well they’vedone until the end (or may evenhave to wait until next week).They don’t usually want tocome back.

If the EBU wants to attractnew people into the game andhalt the decline in membership,they should promote choice inclubs and make teams bridgemore easily available. The moreI think about it, the more Ibelieve that the domination ofpairs scoring in our clubs isthe major source of the declinein the popularity of our game.

Guy Malcolm, by e-mail

LETTERS TO THEEDITOR

Method or just Madness?SELECTORS are never verypopular people, if only becauseeveryone else firmly believesthat they can do the job betterwhether that is true or not.Sometimes, however, decisionsmade are so bizarre as to beggarbelief and on these occasionsperhaps the selectors may de-serve some of the brickbatshurled in their direction. Theperspicacious reader will haverealised by now that this is aletter with added brickbat!

Each year England holdstrials for its international teams.A variety of formats has beentried over the years but this yeara novel addition has been madeto the cooking pot. As it sohappens, there is no EuropeanChampionship in 2009 so thenext Open trials are for thehome countries championship(Camrose) only. Who shouldbe allowed to enter? Obviouslya matter of opinion. You mightset a minimum standard orallow anyone according to whatyou are trying to achieve. Theselectors seem to have taken the‘anyone’ category a bit moreliterally than one might expect:there is no need to be eligible toplay for England! Indeed if youcome from one of the opposingcountries in the Camrose, then

that is fine and you are morethan welcome. Don’t believeme? Please look at the list ofteams on the EBU website.Those eligible to play only forWales and also the Republic ofIreland are represented. Now, ofcourse, if they happen to winthe trials they can’t play forEngland and if they are only apart of the team, then that teamhas no automatic right to selec-tion if they win. How shouldthese teams play if they perceivethat losing a match will end upmeaning that a weaker team isselected to play for England?The answer is that they shouldnot be in that position and ourtrial should represent a mean-ingful contest between teamsthat want to represent England.

I hope that common sensewill prevail and this positionwill be reversed but I don’t haveall that much hope because ourcurrent Chairman of Selectorshas said to me that the moreforeign teams of quality in thetrials the better, because it willstrengthen the event. If it werenot a trial for our nationalteam, I would wholeheartedlyagree with him but as it is, Ithink it should be confined tothose who are eligible.

Jeremy Dhondy, London

Steve Eginton, Chairman of the Selection Committee, replies: We are picking ateam for an international, not domestic, tournament and to suggest thatplaying potential opponents is invalid is strange. Other countries do thesame. The League will give more players an opportunity to play underinternational championship conditions, so the more inclusive the better. Wehave promised a review after 2008 and Jeremy’s input will be greatly valued.

No to MPsRECENTLY retired, I have re-turned to playing competitivebridge after a 40+ year gap and,having rejoined the EBU, readyour editorial in English Bridgeabout Master Points. Back inmy youth I earned some ofthese and became some sort ofmaster! No doubt if I had conti-nued to play duplicate insteadof social rubber for those fortyyears I’d now be an exoticmaster. But so what?

I play now at the AndrewRobson Bridge Club. In the lasteight sessions I have averaged58% and been in the top fourhalf of the time. So it’s not un-reasonable to assume that I ambetter than most of the otherpeople there, but no doubt lotsof them are holders of masterrankings far superior to mine.

Which illustrates why the MPscheme is such a nonsense. Thesooner the EBU establishes aranking system, as you mentionin your article, the better. It is, Iunderstand, what happens inchess without any problems.

Martin S. Evans, London

Danger!AFTER reading Simon Coche-mé’s Best Behaviour @ Bridgearticles comparing bridge withother sports, notably football,I hope the members of theBridge Section of our SportsClub, after making a GrandSlam, do not take up the habitof removing their clothes fromthe upper part of their bodyand racing round the room,gesticulating, with their mouthswide open.

It might damage our powersof concentration.

David Mullineaux,Farnham �

Shock, horror!I WAS greatly shocked to seethe suggestion made, in a letterto your June magazine, that inorder to reduce weight ourpresent playing cards should bereplaced by cards where thepeople depicted are nude. As anadmirer of the late Mary White-house, I’m sure she would haveagreed that there is enough filthalready in most of the presswithout allowing such salacioussuggestions to enter the solemn

portals of English Bridge.Surely a better plan would be toleave the picture cards as theyare and, in order to gain theextra weight, to add decorationto the other cards, maybe withcolourful festoons to cover thebare parts. I have often thought,when looking at the Two ofClubs, how naked it seems.

Prunella Prude (Miss),from the computer of

M.H. Wilkes, Hatfield

AUG_08_EB_p23_24 Letters.qxd 15/7/08 5:25 pm Page 23


Mis-playAN announcement spoiled myenjoyment of the Corwen.Arriving at a table, I realisedwe had played this pair in theNational Pairs at exactly thesame spot at Hinckley. When Iremarked on this, North repliedthat this was actually a differentlady partner. ‘I’m prettier,’ sheannounced firmly.

This seemed to affect mypartner, who clearly wanted toimpress by raising my 1♠ res-ponse to his 1♦ to 3♠:

♠ AJ9x ♠ Kxxx♥ xx ♥ AQ10♦ AKx ♦ Q109xx♣ AKQx ♣ x

Not to be outdone, I quicklyclosed proceedings with a firm7NT. (Why not? I couldn’t con-struct a hand where he did nothave the ♥A.)

At this point the young ladycalled out either in surprise or(I hoped) in admiration, andNorth led a small club.

I most certainly must alsohave been under the spell ofthe announcement as, havingestablished the diamonds werebreaking, I rejected the optionof the backward finesse in spa-des and took the losing finesse.North had the queen and Souththe ten. One down.

I was stupid. First, wouldanyone holding a vital queenmake any sort of comment du-ring the auction? Second, woulda good player not go totallypassive leading against 7NT?So a potentially dangerous clublead might well have indicatedholding ♦J and ♠Q.

Most importantly, anyonecan take a finesse; taking a win-ning backward finesse wouldreally have got me a barrel-loadof admiring glances if it worked– and would get me remem-bered if it didn’t!

Dave Robinson, by e-mail

LETTERS CONTINUED from page 23

Time limitFOLLOWING on from yourJune article on master points,I, being an average player whooccasionally forgets the oddcard, have also forgotten twicein my life-time to send in mymaster points.

Why is there a three-yearlimit? I put myself in the cate-gory of not playing as much asI used to, but I did still achievethose points to no avail.

Roy West, by e-mail

Colin Porch, Master-point Secre-tary, replies: We do occasional-ly have to check on the validityof some of the certificatespresented for registration. Ask-ing issuers to confirm awardsup to three years old is consi-dered reasonable – whetherthey could oblige for olderawards is more problematical.

Moreover, it takes a conside-rable amount of time to countthree years’ worth of points. If,at the end of that procedure, thetotal reached differs from thatclaimed by the member, thenwe have to count them again.Imagine how long it takes tocount 30,000 points, largelymade up of awards from 10 to36, on pieces of paper of vary-ing sizes and shapes.

Note, however, that fromApril 2010 Master Points will becredited electronically. Thus theprocess will be a lot quicker andimposing a time limit will nolonger be necessary.

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Send your letters to the Editor,Elena Jeronimidis, 23 Erleigh Road,Reading RG1 5LR, or e-mail [email protected] editor reserves the rightto condense letters. Publication does not mean the EBUagrees with the views expressed orthat the comments are factuallycorrect.

RestrictedChoice

WITH reference to BrianSenior’s June article onRestricted Choice, there is amuch simpler way to provethat in the TV game show itpays to always swap.

Originally the contestant hasa one in three chance of win-ning and if he makes no changeto his original choice he winsone in three.

But if he decides he willalways swap, then he winswhen his original choice waswrong and loses when hisoriginal choice was correct –in other words he wins twiceas often as he loses because hisoriginal choice was twice aslikely to be wrong.

If he doesn’t swap, he winsone in three. If he swaps, hewins two in three. If he swapssometimes at random he winshalf the time.

S.J. Laredo, Pyrford

‘Angelfish’THE OK Bridge on-line bridgeclub encourages good behav-iour and one of the ways inwhich it does so is by having amonthly roll of honour withan ‘Angelfish’ of the month.

I think that all the membersof the EBU would benefit ifEnglish Bridge could have asimilar column where playerswho have shown courtesy,good manners, and sportsman-ship at the bridge table wouldbe nominated each month.

Of course, sportsmanshipdoes not mean setting oneselfup above the laws and lettingplayers off for misdemeanours,but for explaining the rules toall players in a friendly, non-hostile manner. In fact, oncesomebody has made a mistake,the Director should be sum-moned in a dignified way, andonly then would a player be al-lowed to waive his rights topunish the erring opponent.

Harold Schogger, Edgware

THE JUNE DEBATE: Thank you for your letters and e-mails.Count signals win the debate with 90% of the votes.

National Rating SchemeGLAD to see that a NationalRatings Scheme for bridgemay be attempted (your June2008 editorial). As in the chessrating system, it is so impor-tant to factor in the strength ofone’s opponents.

However, I still feel that itwould be more appropriate to

rate partnerships rather thanindividuals. All partnershipresults would be on thedatabase, but only reasonablyregular partnerships (say aminimum of 10 ‘appearances’per rating year) would actuallybe published.

Paul Habershon, Bedford �

Mature lady, attractive, seeks male andfemale partners to progress onto more

advanced bridge – green pts etc. Home or abroad. London area.

Contact Blue2, Old Estate Yard, EastHendred, Oxon OX12 8LL (box no 249)

A presentable lady with a passion for bridgeis looking for a brilliant male partner in thenorthwest to help her up to an even higher

bridge ranking. � 07790 256 399A sense of humour may be necessary.

AUG_08_EB_p23_24 Letters.qxd 16/7/08 12:55 pm Page 24


PAUL WICKHAMWE are sad to report that Paul Wickham,Somerset CBA Chairman and well respectedbridge teacher, died in April after beingdiagnosed with Motor Neurone Diseaselast year.

Paul’s enthusiasm for bridge in Somersetwas matched by that for cricket – his servicesrecognised by honorary memberships ofEBUTA and Somerset County Cricket Club.Paul taught bridge for more than thirty years,to over 1000 students, aged 8 to 80 plus. Hisclasses were always fun with much laughterand good natured banter.

An ambassador for bridge and a champion for the less experiencedplayer, he promoted friendly competition at every opportunity. AsSomerset CBA development officer, he introduced new competitions intothe County programme and encouraged others to take up teaching andstart new clubs.

He will be greatly missed particularly by Anne Harris, his playing part-ner and teaching colleague, and members of Wilton Bridge Club, whichhe ran so successfully for many years. While ever keen to improvehis own play, enjoying the game was always more important to Paul thanany results. (Anne Harris)

IAN SPOORSEBU National Director Ian Spoors died inMay after a brief illness. Born in 1948, hefound great enjoyment with bridge and was afounder member of Brunton BC in 1973. Hisfirst success as a bridge player was winningthe ‘Charity Challenge Sim Pairs’ in 1975with Len Wood. Later on he developed a last-ing partnership with Steve Ray, playing inmany NEBA events when his directingcommitments allowed. He worked with theEBU for many years, and was promoted toNational TD in 1990. Ian always demandedthat things be ‘done proper’.

Steve Ray writes: It was soon after becoming a student at Newcastle thatI first met Ian. I soon discovered he was a top bridge player and a rising starof tournament directing. He was fun although rather frustrating as a part-ner but we normally did well. When asked about system, partners or agree-ments, he would always say the same thing: ‘I will do as I am told.’ The onlyexception were first, third and fifth leads which were non-negotiable.

Ian worked at a local private school, teaching a vast range of subjects ata ridiculously low rate of pay. His intellect and knowledge inspired hispupils who missed him when he was let go as the class sizes becameuntenable. It is a tribute to the affection in which he was held that manyof his former pupils were to be found at his bedside, bringing their chil-dren, a source of great delight to Ian.

Ian pursued many interests – in classics, coins, organ music and sail-ing, and working tirelessly on behalf of the NEBA and EBU. For manyyears he had been writing commentaries on the Latin poet Catullus,working from texts in Latin, French and German. His main regret wouldbe not completing this work, but he made arrangements for it to beaccessible to other Classical scholars.

It was in some ways a source of sadness to Ian that he never found asoul-mate and had children of his own. It is comforting to know that hefound great joy in his niece, Bronwen, and his nephew, Hedley jnr, whowere probably as close to him as his own kids might have been. �

ObituariesJOHN ARMSTRONG

JOHN Armstrong, who has died suddenlyaged 56, was a member of the England Openbridge team a week earlier at the EuropeanBridge Championships. In the pair rankingsfor the championship Armstrong and hispartner, John Holland, were second to theNorwegian gold medallists.

Armstrong was England’s most cappedplayer in the Home Internationals in acareer that spanned four decades. In 1987he was in the British team that won silver inboth the European and World champion-ship, and then gold at the European Championships in 1991.

Armstrong was born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, in 1952. Both his par-ents were school teachers and John learned bridge as a teenager. Heobtained a First at Cambridge University in mathematics. AfterUniversity he moved to the Liverpool area for a job with Royal Insurance.

His long-time bridge partner was Graham Kirby. Their first interna-tional was in 1978. They earned 31 Camrose appearances for Englandconcluding in 1997 when Kirby retired from international bridge to lookafter a young family. Armstrong had six internationals partnering DannyDavies before Davies took up a job in the United States.

Armstrong then formed a partnership with Holland. Their first matchfor England in 2006 saw John Armstrong overtake the record of thirty-seven caps for England long held by Tony Forrester. Armstrong andHolland were also selected for a Home International weekend in 2007and again in March this year, before the Europeans.

Armstrong recorded six wins in the Gold Cup, the British knockoutchampionship.

He had retired from his job in insurance and returned to his hometown. Armstrong was keen on orienteering, a talented pianist and adevout catholic. He was both a gentle man and a gentleman, very well-liked and respected in the bridge world.

John Armstrong never married. He predeceases his mother, two brothersand a sister. (Patrick Jourdain)

JOHN CATTANACHIT is with deep sadness that we have learnedof the sudden death of John Cattanach.

John joined the Worcestershire CBAcommittee some twenty years ago, and he wasinvolved in getting people interested in bridgefor the whole of that time. He was at theforefront of bridge teaching in Worcestershireand campaigned actively for the promotion ofthe game both in the county and furtherafield. Many players have John to thankfor introducing them to our wonderful game,thereby enriching their lives.

John was for many years the County’smembership secretary, and was efficient in this as in all that he did. Manyyears ago he also took over the county’s newsletter, expanded it, andincreased its frequency. He was always a positive force on the committee,ensuring that things were dealt with and standards were maintained.

In every sense John was a larger than life character: well over six feet tall,with a voice – and his Scots burr – to match. Known to many bridge play-ers, he was charming and responsive to them all. Partnering him was a joy –he would always tend to look for his own possible errors first.

He will be very sorely missed and our heartfelt and deepest sympathiesgo to his wife Rosemary and their family. (Joyce Skelton)

AUG_08_EB_p25 Obituaries 15/7/08 5:31 pm Page 25


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diamond trick before the opponents havehad time to signal to each other, or youcould just take your four heart tricks andaccept two off. Which should you do?

In order to decide, you should try toanswer the questions above:1. Although your side has a 4-4 heart fit

(where you would be likely to makeeight tricks), many pairs use a 12-14no-trump range, so your auction willnot be uncommon.

2. Although the best result for N/S onthis board would be +110 (2♥�), thepar score is very different. Look atwhat E/W could make in spades. Atworse they would lose one spade, twohearts and two diamonds. It is quitelikely that with almost half of thepoints between them, many E/W pairswill compete.

3. The opening lead appears to be quitenormal.

Now that you have gone through the mo-tions, you can make a sensible decision onhow to play this hand. You know that thepar score here is N/S minus 110 (from de-fending 2♠�). You must try to beat thatscore, and that means cashing your fivetricks, rather than trying to steal an extratrick which might result in going at leastthree off.

Minus 100 for two off will not be a badscore, as it will beat all the N/S pairsdefending 2♠. Minus 150, however will bea disaster, and is likely to score very poorly.

Let us look at another example:

Game All. Dealer South.♠ J 6♥ Q 10 7 6 3♦ J 5 2♣ A 8 2

♠ Q 10 2 ♥ A K 9 5 2♦ A K 10♣ K 5

This time you, South, are playing in 3NTand the defence starts with three rounds ofspades, with your queen winning the thirdround. You need to set your target, so startby answering our three questions:1. You are very far from being in the

same contract as everyone else, as anysane pair will play in 4♥.

2. The par score for this hand will be+650 for N/S, as playing in 4♥ youwould have time to draw trumps, andthen establish the third spade todiscard a diamond from dummy.

3. The lead is not a relevant factor onthis occasion.

You have ten top tricks, and can take thediamond finesse, but if this fails, you maybe defeated. This should not deter you,however, because taking your ten trickswill be worth only +630, which will be a‘bottom’ anyway, so you might as well riskthe contract in a desperate bid to recoverthe situation. If the finesse fails, you willscore minus 100 or 200, but this will stillbe the same ‘bottom’ on the score sheet. If,however, it succeeds, then you will emergewith +660, and a very lucky ‘top’.

The automatic reaction is to try to makethe contract, or to go as few off as possible,but as can be seen from these examples, atpairs the essential thing is to set a targetbefore embarking on a line of play. �

AS a result of the unique way in whichmatch-pointed pairs is scored, the tacticsutilised when playing this form of thegame should vary considerably from thoseused in rubber bridge, teams bridge, orButler-scored pairs.

Unlike all the other forms of the game,the success or failure of the contract playingMP pairs is of no importance whatsoever.The only thing that matters is how manyof the other pairs your score will beat.With that in mind, you must set a targetwhen seeing dummy, and this will not belimited to merely ‘making the contract’.

In order to arrive at this target, you needto ask yourself the following questions:1. Am I in the same contract as ‘the

room’?2. What is the ‘par score’ for this board?3. Have I received a normal lead?

Only once you have a clear picture of whatyou are trying to achieve can you proceedsensibly.

Look at this ordinary board, whichillustrates how you should be thinking atMP pairs:

Love All. Dealer South.♠ 7 5♥ A J 6 4♦ K 9 6 2♣ 8 7 2

♠ A 8 4♥ K Q 7 5♦ Q J 7♣ J 10 4

As South you open 1NT and all pass.The lead is the six of spades (fourth

highest), won by East’s king of spades; hereturns the spade jack which you alsoduck, and then he plays the three ofspades. How should you continue?

It is apparent that you have only five toptricks, which means that you will be twooff for minus 100. You could try to sneak a

BR

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Ed Scerri

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AUG_08_EB_p27 Scerri 16/7/08 9:37 am Page 27



majority of our members play:our clubs.

Working away in thebackground there will also bea Business Planning Group,which will be reviewing all theoperations of the EBU in thelight of the new andchallenging direction theorganisation has taken.

Much is going to changeover the next few years andsome hard decisions will haveto be taken. But with the helpand cooperation of allconcerned, and withcontinued and even greaterconsultation of the kind welaunched in June 2007 in thepreparation for Pay to Play, Iam certain we shall succeed.

Finally, on a personal note, Iregard this momentous stepthat the EBU has taken as thecatalyst for reconstruction thatI have been waiting for fromthe day I first joined the Boardin October 1988. Indeed, I amso convinced of its merit that Ibelieve that in a few years’time people will look back andwonder why on earth didn’tsomeone think of it before. �

EBU NewsA MESSAGE

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

FREE COPY OF THE LAW BOOKTHE Board of the English Bridge Union will provide one copy ofthe new law book free of charge to every affiliated EBU clubwhich has paid its current affiliation fee, and one free copy toeach County. This has been made possible by the generosity ofthe Portland Club, which has waived its rights to a copyrightroyalty in this instance as they fully support the Union in theirdevelopment of bridge in England.

Arrangements have been made for bulk delivery to thecounties, who can make arrangements for onward delivery to theirclubs.

Peter Stocken

On June 4th, at an Extra-ordinary General Meeting, theShareholders of the EBUvoted, by a majority of almosttwo to one, to embraceuniversal membership throughPay to Play, starting in April2010. It was an historicdecision and the culminationof two and half years of veryhard work by a group ofdedicated people determinedto change the course of theEnglish Bridge Union so that itcan develop the game ofDuplicate Bridge and serveevery one of its members atwhatever level they may play.

The Board moved fast to setthe implementation process inmotion. At its meeting of June11th, it set up a Project Board,chaired by Sally Bugden, whichwill be responsible for theoverall control of the project.

It further established a ClubCommittee as a permanentsub-committee of the Board.This will be chaired byGraham Jepson and will bevital in delivering a wide rangeof services to all our clubs.The creation of thisCommittee, and theimportance the Board attachesto it, signals the shift of thecentre of gravity of the EBUaway from its tournamentplayers – important thoughthey are – towards where the

THE EBU &MERCIAN

DUBROVNIKCONGRESS9th-14th October 2008

Hotel Excelsior, Dubrovnik,Croatia

♦ Pre-congress Pairs♦ Open Pairs♦ Pivot Teams♦ Men’s, Ladies’ and Mixed Pairs♦ Swiss Pairs and Swiss Teams

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For travel and accommodationplease contact

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AUG_08_EB_p29-30 EBU part 1.qxd 16/7/08 9:49 am Page 29


EBU News

the hotel up to scratch? Thegood news is the 2008 ratingswere sharply up on previousyears; the overall ambience wasrated at 92% v 73% in 2007;value for money was up from13% to 62.5%. Concerns aboutslow check-in and staff availa-bility before play started arebeing taken up with the hotel.

If the amenities are nowloads better, what about theformat of the bridge? An over-whelming majority consideredthirteen 7-board matches to beabout right. Even so, when,after eight matches, you’resitting on 50%, there may notseem to be a lot to play for;could we sustain your excite-ment by offering round prizesor prizes by rank (highest scoreby a ful l team below XXMaster)? No promises!

If not the hotel or bridgeformat, what else? Ah, yes, theopponents! Happily, incidentsof rule-book merchants nastilyintent on their pound of fleshand indifferent to our enjoy-ment are few, thanks to BestBehaviour at Bridge. The rea-lity is that your opponents areless likely to be your matesfrom the next town, and morelikely to be rather good playersfrom other counties – it’s theirskill versus yours – but no lessa reason to make a socialoccasion of your match!

The Swiss Teams Congress isa prestigious event, andquite different from any otherSwiss Teams, bar perhapsBrighton. The decision onwhether it survives is yours.

Don’t like Blogs? Write tome at the EBU, Broadfields,Bicester Road, AylesburyHP19 8AZ, or e-mail mec/o the editor at [email protected] �

CALENDAROF EVENTS

� AUGUST 20088-17 Brighton Summer Congress

Brighton11-13 Really Easy Summer

CongressBrighton

11-14 Seniors CongressBrighton

29-31 Junior Teach-inLoughborough University

� SEPTEMBER 20081-5 WBU Autumn Sim Pairs

Clubs5-7 National Women's Teams

Hinckley5-7 Premier League

Royal National, London11-14 Isle of Man Congress

Douglas13-14 Bedford Congress

Towcester15-16 EBU Autumn Sim Pairs

Clubs19-28 Guernsey Congress and

Seniors CongressGuernsey

20-21 U25 Junior Camrose TrialsTBA

22 BGB Gold CupClosing DateMatches played privately

27 One-day eventsCornwall, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey

28 One-day eventsCornwall, Derbyshire Hertfordshire, Surrey

� OCTOBER 20083-5 West of England Congress

Weston-super-Mare3-17 1st World Mind Sport

GamesBeijing

4-5 Great Northern Swiss PairsWarrington

6 NICKO Closing DateMatches played privately

8-9 BGB Autumn Sim PairsClubs

9-14 Mercian/EBU Dubrovnik CongressDubrovnik

13 Portland Bowl Closing DateMatches played privately

17-19 Autumn CongressBournemouth

24-26 Premier LeagueWest Midlands BC

25-26 U25 European TrialsTBA

25-26 Malvern CongressBransford

� NOVEMBER 20081-2 Lederer Memorial Trophy

Young Chelsea, London1-2 Lancashire Autumn

CongressBrierfield

7-9 Seniors CongressDaventry

AT its March meeting, theEBU Tournament Committeerecommended that the SwissTeams Congress be removedfrom the calendar if there werefewer than seventy teams at thenext event (17th-18th January2009 at Hinckley).

You may have noticed a newBlog on various competitiontopics at www.ebu.co.uk.Specifically on this Congress,which moved this year fromKettering to Hinckley, the TCare very interested in why youdo or don’t play in it, and anysuggestions you have to makeit more attractive.

Here are some thoughtsfrom me, hopefully to get youthinking, maybe even going.

Over the last seven SwissTeams Congresses, numbershave declined from 104 to 72tables, yet in each year at least20% of the field played for thefirst time or for the first time inthree or more years. So, is thereason for falling numbers alack of desire on the part ofmany to play again, and if so,what might change thatsentiment?

If your motivation is simplyaccumulating Green Points,then, compared to CountySwiss Teams, an average of onemore Green Point, at the costof one night in a hotel andextra travel distance, may notappeal.

This year may have beenaffected by the confusion overthe event format. The TCapologise for the late decisionto switch back from bracket-ing to the normal format, andassure you that 2009 will beSwiss Teams modified only byany proposals that you send inand are accepted.

Maybe you haven’t found

WHITHER OR WITHERTHE SWISS TEAMS CONGRESS?

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August 2008WEST HANDS

(IMP scoring on every deal)

1. E/W Game ♠ K Q JDealer East ♥ 10

♦ A J 9 8 5 3(Martens) ♣ K J 8

2. Game All ♠ A K J 2Dealer West ♥ K

♦ Q J 7 5 4(Lesniewski) ♣ K Q 2

3. Game All ♠ Q 10 9 5 3Dealer West ♥ A 3

♦ K 9 6 5(Tuszynski) ♣ A 7

4. Love All ♠ A K Q 3 2 Dealer West ♥ 7 5

♦ A 9 8 7 6 2(Rosen) ♣ Void*North overcalls 2♥ (weak)

5. Game All ♠ J 8 7Dealer East ♥ A 7 3

♦ K J 3 (McGowan) ♣ Q 9 4 2

6. Love All ♠ A 7 4 2Dealer East ♥ K 7

♦ J 7 3(Faigenbaum) ♣ A K 5 3

Did you beat the experts? – Pages 14-15

Beat today’s expertsThese hands are all from modern eventsand David Bird points to some usefullessons to be learned from them. Seehow your efforts compare with theexperts’ bidding.

Beat today’s expertsThese hands are all from modern eventsand David Bird points to some usefullessons to be learned from them. Seehow your efforts compare with theexperts’ bidding.

�

August 2008EAST HANDS

(IMP scoring on every deal)

1. E/W Game ♠ A 8 7 5 4 3Dealer East ♥ A 6

♦ 2(Jassem) ♣ A Q 9 5

2. Game All ♠ 4Dealer West ♥ Q J 10 9 6 3

♦ A 8 3 (Weichsel) ♣ A J 6

3. Game All ♠ A K 7Dealer West ♥ 4

♦ A Q 10 7 4 (Lutostansk) ♣ J 9 4 2

4. Love All ♠ 9 6 4Dealer West ♥ A Q J

♦ K J 10 (Draper) ♣ A 10 9 4*North overcalls 2♥ (weak)

5. Game All ♠ A K Q 6 2Dealer East ♥ K

♦ A Q 10 9 8 6 5 (McQuaker) ♣ Void

6. Love All ♠ K 3Dealer East ♥ A Q 8 4 3

♦ A Q 10(Pilon) ♣ Q 10 2

Did you beat the experts? – Pages 14-15

AUG_08_EB_p31-34 Pull-out.qxd 16/7/08 9:55 am Page i

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41D – When you put the dummy down, you mustdisplay it with the lowest ranking cards nearerdeclarer.

61B2b – Dummy cannot ask a defender whetherhe has revoked (in 1997 it was in 42B1 and still is,but is repeated here). However, he can still askdeclarer.61B3 – Defenders are allowed to ask one anotherwhether they have revoked. This returns to asituation outlawed in 1987.

65B3 – Players are now allowed to point out thata quitted trick card is pointing the wrong way.Declarer can do it at any time; dummy ordefenders can do it only until the lead is made tothe following trick.

72 – It’s now official: the chief object whileplaying is to obtain a higher score than othercontestants!

CHANGES THAT WILL AFFECT TDS

12C1(c) – The concept of ‘weighted’ adjustedscores becomes the norm in England. It has beenin place since 2000 as an option but it nowreplaces the current law 12C2. 12C1(e) does notapply in England. E.g. because of an infraction,the TD disallows a score of 4♠ by E/W and puts itback to 4♥ by N/S. There is a 50/50 chance thatN/S will make ten or eleven tricks, so the TD canaward 50% of 4♥� and 50% of 4♥+1. See theWhite Book, page 27, for full details. An articlewill follow in a future issue of English Bridge.

25B – In the current (1997) code there is a little-known law that allows you to make a call and then‘change your mind’. It was quite a well-kept secretand had a strange penalty where you could playfor at most 40% after you had done it. In the newlaws that has gone. You can still make a ‘mechanicalerror’ and be allowed to change it (L25A) but youcannot change your mind. By and large, a bidmade cannot be changed.

27 – This is both complicated to explain andunderstand, and may be difficult to apply. There is asignificant change to the ‘insufficient bid’ law. Thescope for allowing an insufficient bid to be replacedwithout silencing partner has been extended. Theold rule of replacing it at the lowest legal levelremains, provided that both bids (the IB and thereplacement bid) are natural. But there is now anadded possibility, which comes if a replacement callcan be found which has the same meaning, or amore precise meaning as the IB itself.

Confused? Well, Max Bavin has come up with auseful question that TDs should ask, which mighthelp to make it easier to decide: ‘Would all handsmaking the replacement call also have made theoriginal call in correct circumstances?’ If the answeris yes, then the change is allowed.

Here are a few examples:

EVERY ten years, or so, the World Bridge Fede-ration redrafts the laws of the game. They don’t doit just to keep players and tournament directors ontheir toes. There have been many developments inthe game over the past ten years and there are nosigns that these changes have stopped. So the WBFDrafting Committee has to ensure the laws keep upwith the changes. The new laws give TDs conside-rably more discretionary powers. There are fewerautomatic penalties, which have been replaced bythe concept of ‘rectification’ of situations that haveunfortunately arisen. The laws also give more powerto the Regulating Authorities to control regulations.In England the Regulating Authority is the EBU andthe EBU has made certain decisions where the lawsgive a choice or where a decision has to be made.

Most players will not notice much change! Wedo notice, however, that the word ‘Contract’ hasbeen dropped from the title. A large number ofthe proprieties have been moved to the section oflaw they more appropriately deal with. Thereshould be less cross-referencing to laws indifferent parts of the book. Many laws have beentidied up to prevent possible misinterpretations(and interesting TD questions!)

There are some Regulating Authority (RA)options – which basically means there is a choicethat the EBU has to make when interpreting thenew laws. These will be listed separately on theEBU website but you should not be alarmed: theynearly all confirm common practice.

There are no changes to the scoring table.

CHANGES THAT MAY AFFECTPLAYERS

7C – You should shuffle your cards after the handbefore returning them to the board.

16B3 – You are still required to agree a hesitation,for example, when it happens and the TD shouldbe summoned if there is any disagreement. Thenew laws state that the best to time to claim actualdamage is at the end of the hand (e.g. rather thanon sight of dummy).

20F3 – You are now allowed to ask about themeaning of an individual call in the opponents’auction. But it shouldn’t be done in such a way asto suggest a call or play to partner, such as: ‘Doesthat 2♥ bid show hearts?’ – perhaps indicatingthat the questioner holds hearts.

20G1 – Sometimes players ask questions becausethey do not think their partner has understood. Itis illegal to do so.

40B2(b), 41B/C – There is a short periodbetween the final pass and the first card beingfaced, when questions are asked. This is nowcalled the ‘Clarification Period’. Members of thedeclaring side may consult their own system cardsduring this time to make sure nothing has beenmisexplained, for example.

John Pain and Max Bavin list the changes in the

Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2007

West North East South1♣ 1♠ 1♦

East/West play Precision Club, so 1♣ shows16+HCP and, without interference, 1♦ shows 0-7HCP. Can East replace his 1♦ bid by double if hehas 5 to 7 points? They play that over interferencepass shows 0 to 4 HCP and double 5 to 7 HCPs.

‘Would all hands playing Precision Club thatwould now double also have bid 1♦ withoutinterference?’ Yes, so the change can be made andpartner can continue bidding.

Note that in this case pass would also be okay ifEast had 0 to 4 points.

West North East South(previous bids . . .)

4NT 5♦ 5♣

4NT was Blackwood, East missed the 5♦ bidand 5♣ showed 0 or 4 aces. East/West playDOPI over intervention (double shows no ace,pass shows one ace). Can East replace 5♣ bydouble? Yes, all hands that would double toshow no ace, would also have bid 5♣ withoutthe interference.

40 – This law confirms a number of things alreadyin EBU regulations. It also confirms that you can-not have any aide-memoires or aids to calculation.So you cannot, for example, during the play takeout the bidding card to see what 4♥ redoubledplus two will score for you.

64 – The criteria for transferring tricks after anestablished revoke is changed. The TD no longerhas to look at whether ‘an additional trick was wonby the offending player with a card that could legallyhave been played to the revoke trick’. Instead headjudicates either two tricks or one trick as now,and then looks to see whether equity has beenserved. Deciding whether equity has been servedbecomes the norm. It always was, but it is now evenmore important that the TD considers it.

70 – The claim laws acknowledge that, even thoughplay should cease after a claim, it often does not andthe TD is given help on how to proceed.

70, 71 – The claim and concession laws still referto action that would be careless or inferior for theclass of player involved, but the bit about being‘irrational’ has been removed.

80 – The Laws recognise a body called the‘Tournament Organizer’ which could be theClub, the County Association, a Congress orHoliday Organizer, or the EBU itself and sets outthe duties and responsibilities. It replaces theSponsoring Organisation in the current laws.

For further clarification, e-mail [email protected] [email protected] �

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AUG_08_EB_p31-34 Pull-out.qxd 16/7/08 9:56 am Page iii



– PU

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3E Asking Questions: Unauthorised Infor-mation and the Potential to Mislead.

3E1 – A player has the right to askquestions at his turn, but should be awarethat exercising this right has consequences.If a player shows unusual interest in one ormore calls of the auction, then this isunauthorised information to partner.Partner must carefully avoid takingadvantage, which may constrain theactions partner is permitted to take duringthe remainder of the auction or when onlead during the play (Law 16B, 73C).Asking about a call of 3NT or below whichhas not been alerted may cause moreproblems than asking about an alerted call,as may asking repeated or leadingquestions. Asking about alerted calls in a(potentially) competitive auction is lesslikely to have adverse consequences,although it is not risk free.

If, therefore, at a player’s turn to call, hedoes not need to have a call explained, itmay be in his interests to defer allquestions until either he is about to makethe opening lead or his partner’s lead isface-down on the table.

3E2 – Questions asked during the auctionabout the meaning of an opponent’sdouble shall usually not be considered topass Unauthorised Information, nor tohave the potential to mislead opponentsabout the questioner’s shape or values.However, the TD may still use hisdiscretion to give an adjusted score if thenature of the questioning clearly providespartner with unauthorised information.

3E3 – A player may use only informationhe has received from legitimate sources,such as calls, plays, opponents’ conventioncards, their answers to questions and theirmannerisms. A player may not use infor-mation gained from his partner’ expla-nation, uncertainty, tempo or mannerisms.(Law 73B1)

3E4 – Perhaps an example would help. Aplayer opens 1♣ which is not alerted, andthe next player, before passing, asks themeaning of the 1♣, or even worse says: ‘Isthat natural?’. If 3NT is reached, and thequestioner’s partner leads a club from twoor three small cards, the questioner mustexpect that the TD will not allow the resultto stand, but will adjust it.

What reason has this player to ask? Thequestioner knows it is a natural bid

because it was not alerted. Experienceshows the questioner often happens to haveseveral clubs.

Players sometimes say: ‘I always askwhether I intend to bid or not.’ This is notrecommended.

3E5 – When a player does wish to ask aquestion, it is recommended to phrase thisneutrally and ask simply for an explana-tion of the auction, or of a particular call.For example, when asking about a 3♣response to 2NT, it is recommended to say:‘What does 3♣ mean?’ rather than: ‘Is thatStayman?’ This helps to avoid confusion ormisleading opponents. Only if furtherclarification is needed should specificquestions be asked.

3E6 – As well as giving unauthorisedinformation to partner, questions aboutbidding may mislead opponents, in whichcase they may be entitled to redress.Similarly, declarer’s questions about leads,signals and discards could illegally misleadthe defenders. (Law 73D)

_______________

11C13 is allowed at Level 4 and is replacedwith:

11C13 – Either/or (Two-way) ClubA 1♣ opening may be played as both of:A. Any meaning as long as this does not

include unbalanced hands with 5+hearts or 5+ spades (unless there is aminor suit of equal length or longer);together with:

B. Strong: any combination of meaningswhich promises a minimum of‘Extended Rule of 25’ (see 10B4).

_______________

Two new sections are included at Level 4,namely:

11C 15 Strong MajorA 1♥ or 1♠ opening may have anycombination of meanings if it is forcingand promises a minimum of ‘ExtendedRule of 25’ (see 10 B 4).

11C16 Balanced MajorA 1♥ or 1♠ opening may have a definedrange, a minimum of 9 HCP and must notbe forcing. The HCP range may be variedaccording to position and/or vulnerability.One of the following may be played:A. A balanced hand;

B. A balanced or semi-balanced hand.

Players are free to agree more restrictivedistributional constraints (e.g. no four-card major).

The current 11C15 and 11C16 arerenumbered 11C17 and 11C18.

_______________

11G10 is allowed at Level 4 and is replacedwith:

11 G 10 GeneralTwo of a Suit openings may be played asany one or two of the following:A. Strong: any combination of meanings

provided that it promises a minimumstrength of ‘Extended Rule of 25’ (see10 B 4).

B. Any combination of meanings whicheither:1. Includes one specified suit of at

least four cards; or:2. Has a specification which does not

include holding at least four cardsin the suit bid, and does notinclude two-suiters where the bidsuit is the longer suit.

Notes: (i) (ii) and (iii) are unchanged.

_______________

11H8 is allowed at Level 4 and is replacedwith:

11H8 General2NT openings may be played as any one ortwo of the following:A. Strong: Any combination of meanings

provided that it promises a minimumstrength of ‘Extended Rule of 25’ (see10 B 4).

B. Any combination of meanings whicheither:1. Includes one specified suit of at

least four cards; or2. Has a specification which does not

include holding at least four cardsin one specified suit, and does notinclude two-suiters where the samespecified suit is the longer suit.

Notes: (i), (ii) and (iii) are unchanged.

_______________

These changes will take effect fromAugust 1st 2008. �

John Pain, David Stevenson and Frances Hinden list the

Changes in the ‘Orange Book’

AUG_08_EB_p31-34 Pull-out.qxd 16/7/08 12:37 pm Page iv


GREATNORTHERNSWISS PAIRS

4th – 5th October 2008

Birchwood Park CentreRisley, near Warrington

The event will be butler (IMP)scored and it will be stratified. Therewill be green points and prizes for threecategories of players: the top categorycontaining at least one Life Master or above, thesecond category for pairs containing no Life Masteror above, and the third category containing noRegional Master or above.

Entries to EBU Competitions Department

� 01296 317203 fax 01296 317220or e-mail [email protected]

duplicate bridge is promo-ted for young people with-in England and abroad.

• To provide and organisetuition for young people tolearn duplicate bridgewithin schools and univer-sities in England.

We have had several donationsto the Trust which have enabledadditional training to be sup-plied to our U20 and U25squads.

So if bridge has given you a lotof pleasure and you feel youwould like to make a donationto spread the enjoyment of thegame to young people, pleaseconsider the EBU Youth andEducation Trust. You can givein numerous ways: a one-offdonation, or you can spreadyour donation via a monthlystanding order, both of whichcan be Gift Aided if you pay UKtax – which means an additional28p can be claimed from the taxauthorities for every £1 donated.You may even like to rememberthe Trust in your Will.

For further information onhow to donate, please contactBarry Capal, the Trust’s secre-tary, on 01296 317 200. He willsupply you with all the practicalinformation you need. If youwould like to read the full TrustDeed, please visit our websitewww.ebu.co.uk and follow thelinks. �

THE EBU Youth and EducationTrust has been created toprovide funding to advanceknowledge in the playing ofduplicate bridge for youngpeople in full time education.

For many years the EnglishBridge Union has been sufferingfrom a declining youth mem-bership and a decreasing abilityto invest in Youth Bridge. Thenew Trust is intended to providefunds for many worthwhileprojects and enterprises whichwill help young people accessand develop their bridge. TheTrust is fully independent of theEnglish Bridge Union and willdevote its funds to some or all ofthe following which are listed inthe Trust Document:

• Publicising the educationalmerits of duplicate bridgeas an activity for the deve-lopment of young people.

• Promoting the encourage-ment of young bridgeplayers within the EnglishBridge Union.

• Providing support foryoung English bridgeplayers to attend duplicatebridge activities organisedby the English BridgeUnion and/or Bridge GreatBritain and/or EuropeanBridge League and/orWorld Bridge Federation.

• To collect and disseminateinformation as to how

WOULD YOU LIKE

TO HELP US DEVELOP

THE GAME YOU LOVE?

by Sally Bugden

EBU News

The EBU is pleased to announce a series of one-day

regional seminars on the new laws for club and

county tournament directors and anyone interested

in the laws of the game. Details on page 38.

THE EBU is delighted toannounce that Baker Tilly – theleading national independentfirm of chartered accountantsand business advisers – issponsoring the production ofits playing cards once again.Baker Tilly are also venturinginto sponsorship of our twoEaster Bridge Festivals inLondon and the North. Thesponsorship package is worth£20,000 over two years.

Tamsin Dickinson, BakerTilly’s National Marketing Dir-ector, said: ‘We are pleased tocontinue to be involved withthe EBU and the provision ofhigh-quality bridge tourna-ments. We hope that our

sponsorship will assist the EBUwith its plans to take the gameto more people.’

Baker Tilly provides a rangeof accountancy and businessadvisory services to assist witha full spectrum of advice fromcompliance to facilitatinggrowth. Their teams of spe-cialists bring a wide range ofexperience in a variety of disci-plines, with industry specificknowledge of the latest practi-ces and emerging issues.

For further informationabout Baker Tilly, visit theirwebsite www.bakertilly.co.ukwhere you will find a full rangeof services, case studies andyour nearest contact. �

PLAY MORE CARDS WITH BAKER TILLY

NEWFORMAT

AUG_08_EB_p35-37 EBU part 2.qxd 16/7/08 2:01 pm Page 31


EBU NewsCHARITY DONATIONS

FROM YOUR CHARITY

EVENTS

EACH year the EBU provideslicences for clubs and countiesto run events that raise moneyfor their favourite charities.These licences are paid for bythe clubs and counties concer-ned. Last year the Board madea decision to donate anylicence fee income from theseevents to a charity or charitiesof its choice.

During this year we havesuffered the sad loss of twoCounty Chairmen: MargaretHatch from Berks and Bucks,and Paul Wickham from Som-erset. We wanted to recognisethe huge contribution and ef-forts that both these individualsmade to their respective coun-ties, and asked their families tonominate the charities to whichwe should make our donation.So, in appreciation of these twovery special people, we havesplit our donation of £1004between the charities OvarianCancer Action and Motor Neu-rone Disease Association. �

WANTED!The EBU is looking for avolunteer who can helpthe Board and itsEducation Managerformulate a strategicapproach to bridgeeducation in England,resulting in acoherent policy that willencourage moreindividuals to play bridge.

This will involve advising theBoard on a way forward afterresearching and assessingcurrent activities covering thefollowing:

Education of young peopleMethodsSchoolsUniversitiesExtra curricularHome

Education of adultsMethodsAdult EducationInstitutesClubs

Education of teachersMethodsQualificationsEBUTA

Education of TournamentDirectors

NationallyRegionallyLocally

CommunicationsFor studentsFor teachersFor all otherstakeholders

Staffing and resourcesAccreditation of trainingprogrammes

The ideal candidate will haveexperience in education and/or training but importantlywill have proven success instrategic analysis resulting ineffective policy making.

The post attracts no salary;however, reasonable expenseswill be paid.

It is hoped that this projectshould be completed within amaximum six months.

Candidates should send(via e-mail), an up-to-date CVtogether with a coveringletter describing how theirexperience matches therequirements of the job to:Sally Bugden, Vice Chairman,EBU, [email protected].

THE Adams & Remers MixedPivot Teams Championshiptakes place on Wednesday 13thAugust during the EBU’s 42ndSummer Meeting this year atthe Brighton Metropole Hotel– which attracts bridge playersfrom around the world.

As a firm of solicitors based inSussex, with offices in Lewesand Brighton, Adams & Remersis keen to support the EBU’sactivities – encouraged bySolicitor Geoffrey Wolfarth, akeen bridge player who hasintroduced many of his bridgeplayer contacts as clients to hislegal practice.

Adams & Remers is a fullservice law firm with an esta-blished reputation for its workin property, private client, liti-

gation services, company andcommercial and employmentlaw. The firm has a fresh, mo-dern and commercial approachto resolving clients’ legal affairs,underpinned by traditionalvalues and personal service.

Geoffrey Wolfarth says: ‘I amvery proud that Adams &Remers is going to be associatedwith the friendliest of theMidweek events at the SummerMeeting, which although verycompetitive is such a fun eventfor bridge players of all levelsof ability and experience.’

Further information aboutAdams & Remers Solicitorscan be found at www.adams-remers.co.uk or by contactingLois Ellett on 01273 480616

Information about theAdams & Remers Mixed PivotTeams Championship can befound at www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/ �

ADAMS & REMERS SOLICITORS SPONSORS

EBU MIXED PIVOT TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP 2008

FOCUS ON VALUETEACHER TRAINING

COURSE

A course for new teachers

Aylesbury EBU HQ31 Oct – 2 Nov

£195 for the Full Course

Course includeshow to teach bridge,

what to teach,short teaching practice, how

to recruit,how to retain and

how to turn your studentsinto a partner club.

Details from� 01296 317217

or e-mail [email protected]

BrightonSummerMeeting

August 8th – 17th 2008

Entries � 01296 317203

Hilton Metropole HotelThe event incorporates

the Really Easy Congress (11-13 August)and the Seniors Congress (11-14 August)

• First weekend: Green-pointed Swiss PairsChampionship for the Harold Poster Cup

• Mid-week events include a ‘Play with the Experts’Pairs, the Adams & Remers Mixed Pivot Teams, anda Mixed Pairs (now all Green-pointed events)

• Second Weekend: Green-pointed Four Stars SwissTeams Championship

AUG_08_EB_p35-37 EBU part 2.qxd 16/7/08 12:53 pm Page 32


Beyond the green baize

BILL GARDNER

ON 7 May 2008, bridge player BillGardner became the Mayor of . . . Dealin Kent. An absolutely apt town namefor a man who has been playing bridgefor many years.

Bill is 55 (although he admits that thewhite beard makes him look older) andhas had a varied career before becomingthe Mayor of Deal. After university, Billtaught Mathematics for seventeen yearsin Hillingdon (West London), Wilming-ton and Folkestone (Kent) but eventuallygave it up, as he puts it ‘when the kidswere allowed to run the schools ratherthan the teachers.’ He then worked forthe Post Office as a counter clerk untilthree years ago when he gave it up tolook after his mother. Since then he hasbecome a councillor in Deal and was inthat position for a year – until he waselected as the Worshipful Town Mayor.

On the bridge side, Bill set up abridge club in Deal with three othersnearly twenty years ago. He is also aTournament Director and directs inDeal, Ashford and Dover. In recentyears, Bill has been a regular attendee ofthe highly successful overseas congressesand it was while playing at the Luxorcongress two years ago that he gainedthe necessary 1/4 green to pass the 600mark and gain the rank of GrandMaster. His friend, David Jones (theChief TD at the event), announced thischange by emphasising that the winwas gained at the second-to-last table!

Deal is situated near Dover and Rams-gate, and is a ‘thriving town in which tolive and work.’ Bill would welcome youto come and play some bridge in thisbrilliantly named town whenever youare passing. (Matt Betts)

EBU News

our club and county repre-sentatives but the momentwe do, we will publicise themon the EBU website. Ourcommittee will hold its firstmeeting in August 2008 andwill meet every few monthsthroughout the implementa-tion period up to April 2010.

There will be regular up-dates at the Board and Share-holder meetings and in thismagazine.

Club CommitteeGetting Ready for

Action!

We have already startedgathering volunteers for theClub Committee, which willhave its first meeting inSeptember 2008.

I am delighted to reportthat Graham Jepson will bechairing this committee ofeight club representativesfrom around the country.This first Club Committeewill be an interim group,responsible not only for allmatters club but also forsetting up a regional struc-ture which will (i) enable theClub Committee to provideeffective representation, and(ii) allow communicationfrom clubs through countiesthrough regions to the ClubCommittee itself. The Com-mittee will be meeting threetimes a year in September,January and May. We needall the different types of clubsrepresented here – small,medium and large, commit-tee run and proprietary, clubs

All Systems Go forUniversal Membership

SINCE the EGM on 4 June, agroup of us from the Boardhave been working to set upthe committee – the ProjectBoard – that will deal withall the aspects of the imple-mentation of universal mem-bership through Pay to Play.We have also been workingclosely with our GeneralManager, Barry Capal, whohas set up a team of existingstaff members at Aylesbury.This group will be workingon the technical implementa-tion of the scheme and theyare very experienced in theareas we need to address.There is a great deal of workto do and two detailedproject plans have been pro-duced: the top level planthat the Project Board willwork to, and the detailed ITimplementation plan thatBarry’s team will be puttingin place.

I will be chairing theProject Board, a committeeof ten including two club re-presentatives, two county re-presentative, Andrew Petrie,Board member responsiblefor Human Resources andOrganisation Development,Michael Hill, Treasurer, BarryCapal, Krys Kazmierczakand John Carter, the Boardmember who will be coordi-nating the creation and im-plementation of the NationalRating Scheme. At the timeof going to press we do nothave formal confirmation of

A NEW ERA FOR YOU AND THE EBUby Sally Bugden

As promised, we will be giving our members an update on our activitiesin the August issue of English Bridge each year.

with their own premises,clubs that rent, clubs thathave teaching, clubs that donot.

EBU Committee memberswill be Sally Bugden, BarryCapal and Krys Kazmierczak.

The Club Committee willidentify issues important tothe club player and feed theminto the Board, TournamentCommittee, Laws and EthicsCommittee and ProjectBoard, and review mattersreferred to it by these com-mittees. It will also provideinput on topics, features andarticles for Club Focus as wellas helping us here at EnglishBridge ensure that we arecovering subjects that are ofimportance to clubs. Anysignificant planned changesthat affect club players willcome before this group forcomment before being ap-proved, for example changesto regulations.

At the time of going topress – end of June – we stillhave five vacancies left tofill. If you are involved witha club, or clubs, in yourcounty, have good experienceof all the aspects involved inrunning a club and want tohelp clubs provide the rightservices for their existingmembers and to attract newmembers, please contact meat [email protected].

Please provide a few linesexplaining your experienceand the contribution youfeel you would like to maketo this important newinitiative. �

FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS AND RESULTS VISIT www.ebu.co.uk



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See the New Year in at this superb hotel on the banks of the Thames. Choice ofthree breaks, half board, from £269.00. Director Graham Hedley.

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THE Portland Club in London is one of theoldest and most famous card clubs in thecountry, if not the world. It is also renownedfor its sponsorship of the Portland Bowl,the University knock-out competition thattakes place each year, with the semi-finals,final and third/fourth place play-off beingcontested over one weekend in April.

This year the four teams in the final werea good mixture of North and South, withEdinburgh University playing Durham,while Oxford A took on its own B team.

In the Northern match Durham scoredhuge wins in the second and fourth sets tolead by over 70 IMPs after five sets. It was agood job that they did, since they thenproceeded to lose the final set by 59 IMPs! Itwas great to see Edinburgh keeping up thefight right until the final board.

In the other semi-final, Oxford A wonthe first set but struggled in the next few,before sealing the match with a 40-0 win inthe fifth set. The last set saw a few smallswings but Oxford A gained a few moreIMPs to win by the deceptively large marginof 39 IMPs. Oxford B had played very wellearly on, but suffered a bit from being afour-man team. This was a game swing tothe B team in the second set, which showedthat a simple line is often best. The un-

contested auction was 2NT – 3♣ – 3♦ –3NT, and West led the six of diamonds:

♠ Q 9 8 7♥ 10 4♦ 9 5 4♣ K Q 5 2

♠ J 3 2 ♠ K 10 5♥ Q J 2 ♥ 9 8 6 5 3♦ Q 10 7 6 3 ♦ J♣ J 3 ♣ 10 9 8 6

♠ A 6 4♥ A K 7 ♦ A K 8 2♣ A 7 4

Joe Clacey for Oxford B could see ninetricks on top if clubs were 3-3, but he gavehimself the extra chance of a spade trick byplaying ace and another spade to the nine.Winning the heart switch he played anotherspade and when the suit was 3-3 he had hisninth trick even though clubs were 4-2.

The other (very experienced) declarerplayed for a squeeze that never materialised,and suffered the indignity of going one offin 3NT with 29 combined points!

So the final would be Oxford A (Greg

NW E

S

RE

PO

RT

S

Students do battleat the Portland Club

Michael Byrne

Moss, Alex Webb, Alice Kaye, Ian Angus,Ed Jones, also Laura McDougall in earlierrounds), which included four of last year’swinners, against the team they had beatenin 2007 but that had won in 2006, DurhamA (Tom Dessain, Robin Zigmund, DominicMaloney, James Ewington).

The final started badly for Oxford, whoended the first set 14 IMPs down. Thesecond set saw them pull nearly level, but inthe third set Durham pulled away to lead by44 IMPs. This was a crucial deal in that set:

♠ A K 9 8 7 4♥ K 3♦ A 7 4♣ 9 5

♠ 5 ♠ 10 6 3 2♥ Q 9 2 ♥ 8 7 6♦ Q 10 9 8 3 ♦ 6 5 2♣ K 7 3 2 ♣ Q 10 4

♠ Q J ♥ A J 10 5 4♦ K J ♣ A J 8 6

Durham played in 6♠, and scored +980when they made twelve of their thirteenavailable tricks. Oxford played in 6♥, goingdown when the heart queen turned out tobe offside and dummy’s spades could not becashed because a diamond lead and conti-nuation took out the vital entry.

Oxford had their chances but Durhammade fewer mistakes on the day andemerged comfortable victors by 47 IMPs.

In the play-off Edinburgh just held onto win narrowly from Oxford B.

The hospitality provided by the PortlandClub made it a great day for all, and theplayers honoured the spirit of the competi-tion by enjoying a glass of champagne at theend, courtesy of their hosts. �

CHAMPION IN THE MAKING?KIERAN Tilley is only 13 years old, but he isalready the up-and-coming star at PeterboroughBridge Club. He is pictured here at the club’srecent AGM scooping four of the club’s majortrophies which he won during the season. He wonthe Peterborough Pairs event with Ufuk Cotuk andthe Committee Cup with his father, Mark. He alsocaptained the successful Pivot team in the club’sregular monthly competition, and not surprisinglywon the Improver’s Cup for the player with thebest overall increase in percentage over the year.

Club Chairman Trevor King says: ‘We are veryproud to have Kieran here as a Junior member ofPeterborough Bridge Club. We are all very pleasedat his achievements so far and believe he has a great future in front of him.’

NW E

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AUG_08_EB_p39 Byrne & Kieran 16/7/08 10:20 am Page 35


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kill the only potential trick in yourpartner’s hand.

• Leads to 3NT aim to take five tricks.Against 6NT, we are hoping to taketwo tricks. So leads to slams are oftendifferent to leads to 3NT.

• You do not need to play out your aceof hearts at trick one. Since bothNorth and South have balanced hands,our heart trick won’t disappear.

Against 3NT you would lead the two ofhearts, fourth highest of your longest suit.You would be hoping to set up lengthtricks in hearts. But that would be wrongagainst 6NT, where you only need to maketwo tricks. Against a slam we often choosea passive lead, one that doesn’t give declarera trick. Let declarer struggle to find twelvetricks!

So what card should you lead from thehand above?

I would choose one of my 10-9-8holdings. If North has a longer suit, it ismore likely to be a minor than a major, soI would choose the ten of spades.

Now look at the full deal (next column).Cover the East-West hands and plan how

you, as South, would play 6NT on the ten ofspades lead. Remember to do a SWOT (=assess your Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities, and Threats) before youtouch a card.

♠ K Q 5♥ J 9 5♦ A K J 9 ♣ K Q J

♠ 10 9 8 ♠ 6 3 2♥ A 8 3 2 ♥ Q 7 4♦ 6 4 2 ♦ 10 8 3♣ 10 9 8 ♣ 7 6 4 3

♠ A J 7 4♥ K 10 6♦ Q 7 5♣ A 5 2

First count your tricks: four spades, fourdiamonds and three clubs. Only hearts canprovide the twelfth trick, so you have todecide where the ace of hearts is! Thecontract can be made. South leads the jackof hearts from dummy; if East plays thefour, South has a guess – and if South doesnot play the king of hearts, 6NT makes.

If West leads the ace of hearts at trickone, or if West leads the fourth-highesttwo of hearts, then South has no guess inhearts and 6NT always makes. �

NW E

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BIDDING to a making slam is not easyeven for experienced players. Less ex-perienced players find it difficult andsome never even try. But slams are anexciting part of the game both for declarerand defenders, and neither side shouldpanic when one comes along. Considerthis auction:

West North East South1NT

Pass 4NT Pass 6NT

1NT shows 12-14 points. In StandardEnglish Acol, a 4NT response to 1NT showsabout 20-21 points and asks South to bida slam holding a maximum 1NT. So with14 points, or a good 13, South went to 6NT.

On the hand below, you are West; it’syour lead.

Does the bidding giveany clues? Are leads differentagainst slams?Which card should youchoose?

• The bidding does give you some cluesabout the North/South hands sinceNorth did not jump straight to 6NT.

• North, with 22 or more points, wouldknow that North-South have at least34 points between the two hands. With34 or more points, North-South aremissing at most two kings (or an aceand a queen). While slam isn’t guaran-teed, it should have a good play.

• 4NT over 1NT did not ask about aces(despite what many players think!). Itasked South to bid a slam with amaximum 1NT, so South has shown14, or a good 13, points to bid 6NT;with less South would pass 4NT.

• North did not use Stayman or bid asuit on the way to slam, so North hasa fairly balanced hand.

• You have 4 points; partner is likely tohave just 2 or possibly 3 points. Youwant to make sure your lead doesn’t

STA

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Sandra Landy

Leads against

slams

♠ 10 9 8♥ A 8 3 2♦ 6 4 2♣ 10 9 8

YOUNG CHELSEA’S ANNIVERSARY‘PLAY WITH AN INTERNATIONAL’ PAIRS

A ‘Play with an International’ event was organised as part of the Young Chelsea BridgeClub’s 40th anniversary celebrations. The club has more than forty Internationalmembers and twenty-six of them were invited (and agreed) to play in a special pairsevent. They have represented nine different countries and ten of them are World and/orEuropean Champions. A raffle was held to select their partners on May 8th, the actualanniversary date, and over £800 was raised for the Alzheimer’s Society, the charity cho-sen for the YC’s anniversary year.

The event itself was played on May 15th and the leading positions were: 1. CameronSmall – Fiona Hutchison 65.7%, 2. Andrew Robson – Tim Gauld 59.1%, 3. David andHeather Bakhshi 57.7%, 4. Nicola Smith – Catherine Cardyn 56.7%.

AUG_08_EB_p41 Landy 16/7/08 10:22 am Page 37


CLUB DIRECTORCOURSES – 2008/09ESSENTIALS £33

Brighton Monday 11th August Leicester Saturday 27th SeptemberStamford, Lincs Sunday 5th OctoberEBU HQ Aylesbury Wednesday 15th OctoberWelwyn Garden City Saturday 11th October

JUDGMENT RULINGS £38Brighton Wednesday 13th August Stamford, Lincs Sunday 16th NovemberLeicester Saturday 22nd NovemberEBU HQ Aylesbury Wednesday 10th December Welwyn Garden City Saturday 17th January

BOOK RULINGS £38Brighton Tuesday 12th August Stamford, Lincs Sunday 19th OctoberLeicester Saturday 25th OctoberEBU HQ Aylesbury Wednesday 12th NovemberWelwyn Garden City Saturday 22nd November

ASSESSMENT £43Brighton Thursday 14th AugustHoniton Saturday 6th SeptemberChobham Saturday 6th SeptemberLeicester Saturday 5th DecemberStamford, Lincs Sunday 7th DecemberEBU HQ Aylesbury Wednesday 14th January 09Welwyn Garden City Saturday 7th February 09

For further information, or toregister for a course

01296 317203or email [email protected]

Wymondham, NorfolkEssentials/Book Rulings Saturday 13th September (£34),Judgment Rulings Saturday 4th October (£34), Assessment Saturday 6th December (£38). All three days for £99.Book direct with Roger Amey 01263 713476.

Playford, Nr IpswichThe Playford courses for October and November are FULL

2008 County and County Refresher CourseSeptember 13th and 14thThese will be held at the Park Inn Birmingham West Hotel,Birmingham Road, West Bromwich B70 6RS.

The County Course is open to qualified club directors with at leastone year's experience of directing and some experience oforganising events at county level. It is preferred that you have theapproval of your county association. Successful candidates will gaintheir County Directors Qualification with outstanding candidatesgaining a Pass with Distinction.

The County Refresher Course is open to those who havepreviously been successful on the County Course. Attendees will beunofficially marked to see how they have progressed since doing theCounty Course.

All inclusive price of £180 covers all course fees and materials, onenight DBB, Sunday finger buffet and three servings of tea/coffee.

The EBU is pleased to announce a series of oneday regional seminars for club TDs and anyoneinterested in the laws of the game.

The seminar will be led by an experienced EBUTournament Director and will cover various aspectsof the revised code of laws which comes into effectin England on August 1st 2008. Seminars will beheld in September/October to allow members achance to work with the new laws for a month or soand bring live problems rather than just usesimulated situations.

Each course will cost £20 per person, whichincludes a copy of the new laws (which will be sentwith the booking confirmation), all course materialand tea/coffee refreshments during the day. Lunch isNOT provided. Courses will run from 10.30am untilabout 4.30pm.

(A reduced fee of £10 is payable if you already haveyour own new law book- but please note law bookswill not be for sale on the day of the course).

Topics will include

• The revised revoke laws (Laws 61 to 64)

• The revised insufficient bid law (Law 27)

• Awarding weighted adjusted scores (Law 12C1(c)

• The Regulating Authority and the Tournament

Organizer (Laws 80/81)

• References to Lead Penalties (Law 26)

• Reference to Law 23

• Changes to Laws 13 - 16

• References to other minor changes in several laws

The confirmed courses are:London, Young Chelsea Bridge Club

Saturday October 4th

West Midlands Bridge ClubSunday October 5th

Leicester, County Bridge Club Saturday October 11th

Darlington Bridge ClubSaturday October 18th

Wantage Bridge Club (Oxon)Saturday November 29th

Please watch the EBU website for details of other courses.

One Day Seminarson the New Laws

Advance booking is essential as materials will be providedfor those who book. Just turning up on the day may mean a) no materials for you or even worse b) no room for you.

To book 01296 317203or email [email protected]



Suppose a defender revokes and the effectis for it to cost him one trick but to cutdeclarer off from a long suit in dummy;then equity will not have been restoredand the director may decide to transfermore tricks to the non-offending side sothat they are not damaged by the revoke.

Authorised and UnauthorisedInformation

Sometimes when it is your turn to bid youhave unauthorised information. A classicexample is after partner has hesitated andthen, perhaps, passed. You know he didnot have a simple decision and thatknowledge is ‘unauthorised’, i.e. you didnot gain it legally. Take this hand as anexample:

Your right-hand oppo-nent opens a weak no-trump and you bid 2♣to show hearts andanother suit. After apass by left-hand op-ponent, partner bids

2♥ – but slowly and with uncertainty. Younow decide to bid on, reach game and it islay-down. The opponents call the directorand say that you did not have a clear moveover 2♥ and were influenced by thehesitation. The director establishes the factsand judges that there is a logical alternativeto continuing, i.e. you might pass, and thatthis is a decision that might have beenfound by a clear majority of players (this isoften called the ‘70% test’).

The problem is that the laws have neverproperly defined what a ‘logical alternative’is, and directors and appeal committeeshave had to use their judgement – andsometimes this differs from one TD toanother or one appeal committee to an-other. In Law 16A there continues to be adefinition of what you may not base callson (an alert or lack of alert that showspartner has forgotten the system, a hesi-tation, unwonted speed, an answer to aquestion, a mannerism etc). In judging

whether you are basing your call on yourhand and bridge judgement, or being in-fluenced by some unauthorised infor-mation, there is now a section in the lawwhich defines a logical alternative as ‘anaction that, among the class of players inquestion and using the methods of thepartnership, would be given serious conside-ration by a significant proportion of suchplayers, of whom it is judged that some mightselect it’. So, in the hand shown, consi-dering that partner has shown three orperhaps four hearts and no particularvalues, would it be a normal action to makea game try with your hand among playersof approximately the same standard as you?In my view it would not and the only reasonyou have for continuing is partner’s slowdecision when bidding 2♥.

‘Oops, I didn’t mean to do that!’

There has long been confusion about whichbids can be changed and at what point,and in Law 25 there is an attempt to makethis clearer. Suppose that you open 1♥and you have two small hearts and fivespades; this would suggest that you hadtemporarily lost the plot and it is unlikelythat this is what you intended. In such acase the director would allow you to changeyour call. If, on the other hand, you open1♣ with a four card suit, and then removethe bid and replaced it with 1NT becauseyou remembered slightly too late that youwere actually playing a strong no-trump,then your original bid was not uninten-tional and the director would not allowyou to replace it.

The important thing here is your motiverather than the speed with which youchange your mind. �

THIS article is about questions that havebeen asked about the new laws. By the timeyou read this, duplicate bridge in England,as elsewhere, will be played under a new setof laws. The good news is that the change isnot going to cause a revolution and indeedmany laws are similar or identical to whatthey were in the last law book issued in1997, but there are some changes that allplayers should be aware of (see pull out).The EBU has run courses for directors tohelp them with new laws and it is moreimportant than ever that a director is calledif there is an infraction. Don’t let the club‘expert’ blind you with science – he willprobably be wrong or out of date!

How has the revoke law changed?

One of the changes introduced some yearsago forbade defenders to ask whether theirpartner was out of a suit. Indeed if yousaid: ‘No hearts, partner?’, that was enoughto establish a revoke and possibly a penaltyalso. That has been swept away and youmay ask your partner if he is out of a suit(Law 61B3). Dummy can continue to askdeclarer (this was always legal). Defenderscan also ask declarer but there is thepossibility of some unauthorised informa-tion if you ask, i.e. you may tip off partnerto some possible information about thedistribution of the hand to which he is notentitled.

In this law, as well as many others, therehas been some tidying up and simplifyingof language. The word ‘penalty’ has beenremoved for the most part and in therevoke law the word used is ‘rectification’with the emphasis being on putting theproblem right if possible. It has always beenimportant to call the director in the case ofa revoke and with some changes to howmany tricks may be transferred, this is evenmore important now. The most commonsituation will be that, after a revoke isestablished, one trick is transferred to thenon offending side (Law 64) but as beforethe director may decide that this hasdisadvantaged the non-offending side.

EB

UP

RO

BL

EM

SQuestions about the new lawsE-mail your questions to Jeremy Dhondy at [email protected] write to the editor, Elena Jeronimidis, at 23 Erleigh Road, Reading RG1 5LR.

Please include your name and address.

Jeremy Dhondy

♠ K Q 7 3♥ A J 5 4 2♦ 8♣ K J 7

AUG_08_EB_p43 Jeremy 16/7/08 10:23 am Page 39


BRISTOL BRIDGE CLUB’S50TH ANNIVERSARY

BRISTOL Bridge club celebrated its 50th anniversary with aweek of bridge events culminating in a party on 15th June. Theclub, which is open almost every day for all levels of play,currently has about 400 members. In the picture, from the left:Olwen Symons (wife of late Graham Griffiths, founder of club,whose portrait is on the wall at the back), Barry Capal (EBUGeneral Manager, who presented the club with a specialcongratulations certificate), Faith Stinchcombe (currentChairman) and Olivier Espitalier-Noel (Chairman to be).

PETERBOROUGH BRIDGECLUB’S CHARITY DAY

PETERBOROUGH Bridge Club’s Charity Day this year was in aidof a local organisation called ‘Club 73’ which provides socialactivities for disabled people with physical and mental difficulties,aged fifteen plus, with no upper age limit.

This year the ‘Day’ began with a seminar on doubles given byGrand Masters Graham and Berry Hedley, which was very muchenjoyed by the thirty-five people from clubs around the countywho attended. In the afternoon, a thirteen-table pairs event tookplace, won by Margaret Dowell and Bob Vajda. During the teainterval, the raffle, with many excellent prizes donated by localbusinesses, was drawn by club secretary’s granddaughter,Rebekah, who suffered brain damage in a car crash when she wasalmost three, and who loves going to Club 73. In the evening, ateams event was held, with seven teams competing. The winnerswere Rona Stewart, Eric Don, Ken and Penny Riley.

Special thanks must go to everyone who donated prizes, and forother donations from club members. Adrian Stone and ChrisTaylor, members of the PBC Committee, deserve much praisefor their heroic efforts in the kitchen and bar, keeping everyonesupplied with hot, cold or alcoholic drinks, and making everyoneelse feel tired just watching them at work.

A total of £729 was raised for Club 73. �

Around and AboutPRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS

GO ON BRIDGE PICNICAS Surrey’s County Youth Officer for bridge, I have beenpromoting this game for the past ten years and have also beenteaching MiniBridge in primary schools. To make the gameenjoyable and interesting, I sometimes add in challenges in theform of quizzes, poems and sketches associated with bridge.

Recently, I invited a group of enthusiastic 8-9 year olds (mostlygirls) with their Head Teacher and a member of staff from TheMount Primary School in New Malden to a bridge picnic. This wasin the picturesque surroundings of the Molesey Boat Club on theThames (where I row) near Hampton Court Bridge. The childrenhad a ‘wow’ of a time watching rowers, feeding ducks and geese fromthe towpath, and trying their prowess on the ‘ergos’ (indoor rowingmachines). Some of them were so excited at their ability that theyeven flexed their miniscule muscles after their efforts!

Afterwards, they had time to enjoy their picnic lunch in the sun-shine on the nearby playground – a few moments on the swingsand enough time to play a few hands of MiniBridge on the grassbefore setting off in their school coach.

This tale may encourage bridge teachers and staff at schools totry something different from time to time! Bomi Kavarana

Photo: Bristol BC

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AUG_08_EB_p44 Clubs 16/7/08 10:26 am Page 40


and had already shown up with 11 points(ace and king of hearts, king of spades andjack of diamonds) so he couldn’t have anymore. (Pass as dealer on thirteen points?Whatever next!)

It is equally clear that East must holdmore than a doubleton club, so playing forthe drop was out. Could anything be done?

Yes, a little fine-tuning might well achievethe desired result. Blessed with the nineand eight of clubs, declarer plays the jackof clubs from dummy on the first round,flushing out the queen. Sometimes Eastwill refuse to cover, in which case there isno further problem. But let us say East doesin fact cover with the queen. The ace winsand now a second club is led towardsdummy trapping West’s ten under the king-eight. The point is that whereas West couldnot have the queen of clubs, there is noreason at all for him not to have the ten.

A very different type of fine-tuning isrequired on this next deal:

E/W Game. Dealer South.♠ J 10 4♥ 5♦ 9 6 4 3♣ A J 9 7 4

♠ Q 9 2 ♠ 3♥ K 10 8 7 3 ♥ J 2 ♦ A K J 8 ♦ 10 7 5 2♣ 5 ♣ K Q 10 8 3 2

♠ A K 8 7 6 5♥ A Q 9 6 4♦ Q♣ 6

West North East South1♠

Pass 2♠ Pass 3♥Pass 4♠ End

As West you lead the ♦A, partner follow-ing with the two and South the queen.What should you play at trick two?

Realising that declarer would probablyneed to ruff hearts in dummy, perhapsyou switched to a trump. Good thinking!Anything else and declarer romps homewith five spades, one heart, three heartruffs and the ace of clubs. But there is avery important factor involved in thiscase: your special piece of fine-tuningdemands that you play the queen of trumps!

The point is that one of the small trumpscertainly prevents the third ruff in dummybut it also loses the queen in the process;thus declarer makes six spades, one heart,two heart ruffs and the ace of clubs. Bycontrast, when you play the queen of spadesyour nine gets promoted to winning rank.Declarer still manages two heart ruffs butunless he reads the exact distribution – andWest can make it difficult by false-cardingin diamonds – he will lose one spade, onediamond and two hearts.

I don’t think this particular play has aname but sacrificing the queen in such anungallant manner perhaps deserves thetitle of ‘The Henry VIII Coup’! �

DO you ever get the feeling that finessesseem to conspire against you and whenyou particularly want one to be right, itisn’t? Well, that was South’s complaint onthe following deal:

Love All. Dealer West.♠ J 9 8 6♥ 10 6 2♦ A Q 4♣ K J 8

♠ K 3 2 ♠ 5♥ A K 8 5 ♥ Q 9 7 4♦ J 10 9 ♦ 8 7 5 3♣ 10 7 4 ♣ Q 6 5 2

♠ A Q 10 7 4♥ J 3♦ K 6 2♣ A 9 3

West North East South Pass Pass Pass 1 ♠Pass 3 ♠ Pass 4 ♠End

Despite the Losing Trick Count heraldingserious doubts about making ten tricks,South was quite pleased to have bid thegame. Superficially at least it seems todepend on one of two finesses (goododds!), the king of spades or the queen ofclubs being well placed.

West started with three rounds ofhearts, declarer ruffing the the third one. Adiamond to dummy paved the way for thelosing spade finesse, West exiting with asecond trump and East discarding a heart.Declarer drew West’s last trump, Eastdiscarding a diamond, and then cashedtwo more diamonds ending in dummy. Itwas at this point that declarer ‘had a nastyfeeling that the club finesse was wrong,’but took it nevertheless. The ace of clubs,and then a club to the jack, duly resultedin minus 50 and fully justified South’sworst fears.

Well, the queen of clubs had to bewrong, didn’t it? West had passed originally

The ‘Henry VIII’Coup

FIN

E-T

UN

ING

Freddie North

NW E

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NW E

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STOP PRESS – SUMMER SENIORS CONGRESSAS a result of the strength of feeling shown at Eastbourne over the proposal tocombine the Southern and Northern Summer Seniors Congresses and to relocateto Birmingham, the Tournament Committee has reversed its decision and confirms that theSummer Seniors Congress will continue to be held at Eastbourne. The 2009 Congress willtake place from 10 to 12 July (one week later than the date proposed for Birmingham). In viewof the poor support for the Northern Congress this year, the viability of that event will bereviewed by the Committee at its next meeting but no such event will be held in 2009.

AUG_08_EB_p45 North.qxd 16/7/08 10:28 am Page 41


systems, and thus enhance the sociability ofthe experience. Many people who are notfast typists are content to read the banterthat floats across the bottom of theirscreen, adding just the occasional comment.Then there’s others who are like me –gabby in life and just the same on the chatbar!

In my sample, this sociability was a keyelement in peoples’ enjoyment of BridgeClub Live – whether online or atgatherings face to face.

Just like any private club, ours has rulesand we do enforce them. It’s true thatsome people think they can hide behindthe relative anonymity of their onlinepersona, playing chaotically as they neverwould at the local club and, sometimes,being quite rude in a way they would notdream of if physically sitting oppositetheir partner.

Without our Ethics Code and Admin-istrators we would be akin to the WildWest with players shooting off on the chatbar, exchanging unauthorised informationor abandoning deals, ruining the enjoy-ment of many and spoiling the gameitself. We make no secret of the fact that wehave an aggressive Ethics Code and thatthose who flout it are quickly encouraged

to mend their ways, or head on out oftown! This stance scored very high on the‘plusses’ in my mini poll.

In many, if not most, ways online bridgeis very similar to F2F bridge, but let’s beclear: it is not the same. Technical issues,local distract ions, etc . a l l make i timpossible to rely on ‘tempo’ and that can

cause some CAPITAL LETTERS(i.e. ‘shouting’ on the internet)on the chat bar.

Our TDs, who are experts inall the main systems, aresuccessful tournament playersas well as Senior TDs in theirown NBO (National BridgeOrganisation), and are con-stantly alert to the idiosyncrasiesof our computers and ISPs (In-ternet Service Providers). Theyare also well versed in the rulesof bridge and the onlinevariations that may apply.

Sometimes, because we are aninternational club with playerswho speak many different lan-

guages, making system agreementscan be rather time-consuming or evenconfusing. Software is catching up andmaking this better.

For some people, there will never be asubstitute for F2F bridge. However,word of mouth is the best advertising andknowing that our members are ourambassadors, inviting and encouragingtheir friends to try online bridge, is a suresign that ours is a quality product and thatwe are right to work hard promoting it tonew members.

For EBU members we offer a specialmembership rate plus the option to payquarterly/annually or three-yearly

So, according to my sample of helpers, weare fulfilling online, via our computers, allthe factors that bridge players look for. Theyhad some reservations and they also offeredsome ideas. We will be looking carefully atall of them. �

BRIDGE provides us with a mix ofentertainment, sociability, competitionand intellectual stimulation. For as long asthere have been people to play, we havegone out in all weathers to clubs, for our‘fix’ of this addictive pastime.

Recently I was asked in thecontext of my role in BridgeClub Live, to explain ‘OnlineBridge’ and found myself think-ing it would be easier to describea spiral staircase without usingmy hands! So I set aboutmaking a checklist and alsoasked a few of our members tohelp me.

First of all, being able to sit atour own computers in our ownhome or office and play as few oras many hands as we choose isprobably the single biggestdifference between online(internet) and F2F (face to face)bridge. We can fill ten minutes or tenhours, and still answer phones, watch TV(though the bridge definitely suffers), eatour meals or even work, while indulgingourselves ‘for just a few boards’.

Interestingly, most of my ‘helpers’play at least once a week in their local club– but still they managed at least a coupleof hours a day online.

Bridge Club Live offers a good varietyand quality of bridge, evidenced by thefact that many of my ‘sample’ regularlyplay in competitions as well as in thevariety of daily drop-in games. We havedifferent ‘rooms’ for each activity so thematch-pointed pairs room (MPs Room)that is open daily for just a few minutesshort of 24 hours is the one many peoplefind their way to when there’s only timefor a few hands.

As technology has developed, so has ourability to incorporate efficient chat

Playing bridgeon-line

ON

-LIN

EB

RID

GE

Fran Bramzel

BRIDGE TEACHERS CAN DO IT ONLINE!For a very long time we have been working towardsimproving the availability of teaching within BCL for ourmembers, many of whom are really keen to improve theirbridge expertise.

We are offering qualified bridge teachers access to ourmembers worldwide, so that they may contact and arrangelessons with you. Any payments will be strictly private.

Our offer includes the facility of a ‘Teaching Room’ wherehands may be specified by you and replayed with differentplayers in different seats.

You will be advertised in our listings and promoted in ournews and mails – all free of charge.

For more information and to discuss this fully [email protected].

AUG_08_EB_p46 Bramzel 16/7/08 10:28 am Page 42


game really took off, with many Britishexpatriate school teachers teaching bridgein Botswana’s Secondary Schools. Theywere not qualified ‘bridge teachers’, simplyenthusiasts who wanted to pass on theirown passion to another and younger gene-ration. The result was the foundation of theBotswana Bridge Federation (BBF) in 1988and so the official organiser of tournamentsfor the pupils to play in. Since then, bridgehas continued to be popular in the countryand is a fixture of many people’s lives. TheBBF can currently boast over eight hundredmembers and at peak times there can be asmany as six hundred children playingbridge – something which is unique inAfrica, let alone the western world!

As one would expect,the week was intensiveand there was a lot to gothrough. One of theimportant parts of theteacher training course is to test thestudents’ ability as teachers, and so each ofthem presented a short lesson lasting nomore than thirty minutes. As John said inhis blog: ‘Each course member – well, theywere friends by now – stood up and saidtheir piece. I can become quite emotionalthese days and they said such wonderfulthings, right from the heart, that I had abit of difficulty holding back the odd tear.I didn’t realise how much it meant to each

and every one. We take so much for grantedat home but the material I brought hadreally meant so much to them.’ At the endof the course each student was awarded acertificate commemorating their newqualification by a member of the BotswanaNational Sports Council.

Another highlight of the week was John’sinterview with ChillieBoy on Yarona FM 106.6– a small radio stationhidden away in the topcorner of a shopping

mall. The interview was conducted in amix of English and the local dialect –Setswana – which makes interestinglistening. After the interview, the Yaronateam commented that John had ‘anincredible voice for radio’ and offered hima job as breakfast show host! Althoughtempted, John kindly turned down theoffer – but his radio career was not overyet. On the next day, the radio stationinvited John to come down and recordsome greetings, which they planned toturn into radio jingles!

‘Hi, this is John Pain from the EnglishBridge Union in Aylesbury, England.You’re tuned to Chillie Boy on Yarona FM.Live the music!’

What were the highlights of his trip toBotswana? ‘Well, I could answer the people,the countryside, and lots more. However, Ithink my answer has to be the fact that Icould just be there; of all the countries insouthern Africa, Botswana really is a hiddentreasure. It is a stable, friendly country, thatjust gets on with its life and its business,and for that reason goes largely unnoticed.I am so pleased that I visited this absolutelyfascinating and friendly place. Long livetheir bridge!’

Long live their bridge indeed. �

THE most popular sport in Botswana isfootball, closely followed by cricket andrugby. However, additionally, and maybesurprisingly, many people in Botswana arealso dedicated to the learning and playingof the card game bridge! Here is the fullstory of John Pain’s great adventure . . .

In October 2007, the Botswana BridgeFederation contacted John at the EBU andasked for advice on how they could set upa bridge teacher training programme. Atfirst it was not clear where they were writingfrom, and typically John offered to comealong and do the course for them. How-ever, all became clear with their reply:‘That’s all very interesting, but we arein Botswana. Do you want to come?’Of course, such a unique opportunity wasnot to be missed and John started a fullweek of teaching on 17 May 2008 in thecountry’s capital, Gaborone. The trip wasfunded by the BBF and the BotswanaNational Sports Council, with the EBUdonating course material.

John was very excited about visitingBotswana: ‘Working at the EBU has takenme to a variety of places I probably wouldnot have visited; Isle of Man, Jersey andGuernsey are possibilities I suppose, Por-tugal and Tunisia less so, but this really isunique. I can’t wait!’

Bridge was first played in Botswana thirtyyears ago, but it was the 1980s when the

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Matt Betts reports on John Pain’s

Trip to Botswana

Top right: John Pain with student Thapelo Letsebe before his radio interview at Yarona FM;bottom left: some of John’s students in Gaborone.

John also proved to bea hit on radio – Yarona FM

offered him a job!

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AUG_08_EB_p47 Botswana 16/7/08 10:30 am Page 43


that you are quite likely to find partnerwith some length in one of your suits andshortage in the other, allowing you to ruffthe second suit good.

Diagram (i) shows the potential of HandA if even a semblance of a fit is found:

Diagram (i)♠ 2 ♠ 8 6 4♥ A 4 ♥ 8 6 3 2♦ K Q J 10 6 ♦ A 4♣ A Q J 9 8 ♣ 10 7 6 2

East-West may have only 21 high-cardpoints between them, but 6♣ will make ifthe club finesse (taken through the openingbidder) is right. Given time, East’s heartscan be discarded on West’s diamonds andthe four of hearts can be ruffed. Moreover,if North-South have some shape (e.g. dia-monds breaking 5-1 and clubs 3-1), thenthey might well make 4♠.

Even Hand C can have playing strengthfar in excess of its point count, as shown indiagram (ii):

Diagram (ii)♠ 9 ♠ 8 6 4♥ 9 4 ♥ 8 6 3 2♦ K 10 9 7 6 ♦ A 4♣ K Q 9 8 5 ♣ 10 7 6 2

North-South will comfortably make 4♠but East-West may well only be two off in5♣ – certainly a good sacrifice if youropponents are vulnerable and you are not.

Do you see the common theme of dia-grams (i) and (ii)? If West bids an Unusual2NT over South’s 1♠ opening bid, then itis right for East to compete to 5♣ over 4♠whether West has Hand A or Hand C!Two-suited hands tend to have a potentialplaying strength far in excess of their point

count. It certainly pays to get your two-suiter into the auction at an early stage.

When do you bid on?

However, suppose you decide to bid2NT over 1♠ with Hands A, B and C. Theauction might start:


2NT Pass 3♣ Pass?

When do you bid on? If you do bid on (saywith 4♣), the auction is becoming veryhigh. If you bid on with Hand B you riskthe horror story in diagram (iii). East haslittle choice but to bid 3♣ over 2NT. In thiscase it is a strangled preference, not realsupport for clubs. If you play two-suitedovercalls you must understand the differ-ence between support and preference.

Diagram (iii)♠ 2 ♠ Q 10 7 6 3♥ 8 6 ♥ K 7 5 4 3♦ K Q J 7 6 ♦ 3♣ A Q J 9 8 ♣ 7 4

So West chooses to pass 3♣ with Hand B,but now this is the layout:

Diagram (iv)♠ 2 ♠ 10 7 6 3♥ 8 6 ♥ A Q 3♦ K Q J 7 6 ♦ A 3 2♣ A Q J 9 8 ♣ 7 4 3

You can’t really expect East to do muchmore than bid 3♣ opposite 2NT if Westmight have Hand C, but an excellent gamehas been missed when West has Hand B.

I CONCLUDED my last article by showingthat the one type of hand not obviouslycovered by standard overcalling/doublingmethods is the two-suiter. I am going toassume that a two-suited hand has at least5-5 shape when you are overcalling a suitbid (though I am aware that some partner-ships agree to use them on 5-4 shapes).

To illustrate two-suiters, I am going tostart with a conventional bid that most ofyou will already play: the Unusual No-trump.

If an opponent opens with a suit bid, ajump to 2NT is widely played as showingthe lower two unbid suits. 2NT is not reallyneeded to show a strong, balanced hand(except in the protective position) becausewith such a hand you double first andthen bid no-trumps. So your right handopponent opens 1♠. How much potentialdo these hands have?

Hand A Hand B♠ 2 ♠ 2♥ A 4 ♥ 8 6♦ K Q J 10 6 ♦ K Q J 7 6♣ A Q J 9 8 ♣ A Q J 9 8

Hand C Hand D♠ 9 ♠ A♥ 9 4 ♥ K 6♦ K 10 9 7 6 ♦ J 7 4 3 2♣ K Q 9 8 5 ♣ Q 5 4 3 2

If you show two suits, your chances offinding a fit are greatly enhanced and thedanger of suffering an adverse penalty cor-respondingly diminished. Another factor is

The UnusualNo-trumpovercall

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AUG_08_EB_p48-49 Kambites + QzAnsw 16/7/08 10:32 am Page 44


COVER STORY

HITCHIN Bridge Club found a new way to publicise their club and also raise money forthe local Hospice into the bargain, by entering two stalwart members in the fancy dressrace at Hitchin Pancake Festival. The King of Spades (Norman Bond) and the Queen ofHearts (Larraine Cooper) did us proud, as can be seen from the photographs on the frontcover and above! Anyone who thinks that this was a bridge too far, can see us behavingnormally at Bancroft Hall in Hitchin, Herts, every Wednesday. Robert J. Girvan

Can you see the problem? The Unusual2NT consumes a lot of bidding space.Effectively it pre-empts partner as well asthe opponents. If the call can be made withHands A, B and C then you simply haven’tgot the bidding space to investigate the rightlevel. Happily, there is a solution. You needto classify the strength of a two-suiter.

Hand A is strong: 16+ high card points.Hand B is intermediate: 11-15 high cardpoints.Hand C is weak: 6-10 high card points.

You only use the Unusual No-trumpif you are weak or strong.

With Hand A, you jump to 2NT over 1♠and make a further bid if partner bids 3♣or 3♦.

With Hand C, you jump to 2NT over1♠ and pass partner’s choice.

With Hand B you must content yourselfby bidding 2♦ over 1♠ and hope you canintroduce your clubs later.

Now we can look at diagram (i) againand see how the bidding might go:

Diagram (i)♠ 2 ♠ 8 6 4♥ A 4 ♥ 8 6 3 2♦ K Q J 10 6 ♦ A 4♣ A Q J 9 8 ♣ 10 7 6 2


2NT Pass 3♣ Pass 3♥ Pass 5♣ All Pass

East knows that West will be weak or strongfor 2NT (not intermediate). Initially heassumes West is weak. West’s 3♥ does notshow that he just likes the sound of hisown voice. It shows a strong Unusual No-trump, and as we have seen, a strong two-suiter is genuinely strong. The heart bid isalso more flexible than 4♣, showing a heartfeature and keeping the bidding below3NT in case 3NT is the right contract.

Finally, Hand D is not suitable for 2NTover 1♠. The intermediates in your suitsare poor and there is too much defensivestrength in the majors. Partner will neverbe able to judge accurately what to do ifthe opponents bid to 4♠ unless you workon the principle that with a weak handyou only make a two-suited overcall ifyour points are in your long suits. �

QUIZ master Julian Pottage gives hisview of the best line of play in our Junecompetition and awards prizes in threecategories.

♠ A 10 3♥ K Q J♦ 9 7 5 4 3♣ Q J

♠ 9 8 7 6 ♠ 5 4 2♥ 10 8 3 ♥ 6 4 2♦ Void ♦ A 10 8 6♣ K 7 6 4 3 2 ♣ 10 8 5

♠ K Q J♥ A 9 7 5♦ K Q J 2 ♣ A 9

You play in 6NT after an uncontestedauction. West leads the nine of spades.

Outside of diamonds, you have eighttop tricks. If diamonds break 2-2 or 3-1,you can make the extra four tricks youneed simply by knocking out the ace ofdiamonds. Since the contract is hopeless

if West has all the missing diamonds(even if the club finesse works), youshould focus on four diamonds withEast.

Win the first trick in hand, cross todummy with a heart and lead adiamond. Assuming that East plays low,you win, cross to dummy with a heartand repeat the process. If we assumeEast plays low again, you win, cross todummy with a heart and lead a thirddiamond. This time East does best towin. However, you are in control. Youcan win anything in hand and cash yourlast diamond to unblock the suit.Finally, you cross to the ace of spades toenjoy the long diamond.

PRIZE PLAY ANSWERPrizes kindly donated by PIATNIK,makers of playing cards since 1824

Congratulations to the winners:

County: Henry Lockwood,Cambridge

Regional: Norman Less,Great Barton, Suffolk

Open: Peter Hawkes,Radley, Oxon

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This month’s new Play Quiz is featured on page 49.

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AUG_08_EB_p48-49 Kambites + QzAnsw 16/7/08 10:32 am Page 45


that your opponents also know a lot aboutyour hand, and the second is that overallyou may pre-empt less often. I believe thathelping partner do the right thing is moreimportant than hiding information fromthe opponents: even if they know what youhave, they are still guessing as they have todescribe their hands at a higher level. As forhaving to pass more frequently, that is trueto an extent, but often it is better to learnmore about the deal’s potential at a lowerlevel than by guessing immediately. If youreally don’t like passing, you can always playa very light style of pre-empts and openingbids; just follow the same requirement ofclear definition. As long as partner knowswhat playing strength you promise for apre-empt he can decide whether it is rightto pass, to double for penalties or to save. Ifyou can have anything, then he cannotmake a useful contribution to the auction.

Discipline is completely different toconservatism. A conservative style wouldbe the classical ‘Rule of Two and Three’ –expecting to be three off non-vulnerableor two off vulnerable opposite nothinguseful in partner’s hand. In The CompleteBook of Bridge (1973), Terence Reese andAlbert Dormer mandate a pass, vulnerable,with ♠ 72 ♥ KQ109832 ♦ 104 ♣ J5.I doubt anyone would pass on this handtoday. Discipline means having a clearagreement about what constitutes a pre-empt, and sticking to it. If partner opens 3♠in first seat non-vul. against vul. on:♠ Q109xxx ♥ x ♦ Jxxx ♣ xx ,

that is perfectly disciplined, because it isexactly the type of hand I expect, neither:♠ KQ109xx ♥ x ♦ Jxx ♣ xxx(a 2♠ opening), nor:♠ AQ10xxx ♥ x ♦ Kxxx ♣ xx(a 1♠ opening). Similarly, if partner opens1♠ in first seat and the next hand doubles,it is perfectly disciplined to bid 4♠ on:♠ 765432 ♥ 2 ♦ 5432 ♣ 32,because that it what we have agreed thebid shows: a lot of spades and no defence.What I can’t do is also bid 4♠ with:♠ KQxx ♥ AQxxx ♦ xxx ♣ x.With that I must show a hand worth gameon strength.

A disciplined pre-emptor looks carefullyat both position and vulnerability beforebidding. Just as even the most undisciplinedplayer restrains themselves when opening infourth seat when there is no strong hand topre-empt, so the disciplined player loosensup in other positions. Non-vulnerable vsvulnerable with a passed partner, a pre-emptive opening or overcall can be widerange. Now you know that it is theopponents’ hand; you also know thatpartner does not have a pre-empt of hisown so there is little point in treadingcarefully. The only consideration is the sizeof the possibly penalty compared to theirgame or slam. After a pass from partnerand a strong 1♣ opening on my right(Precision or similar) then anything from♠ KQJx ♥ x ♦ xxxx ♣ x x x x t o♠ 10xxxxxx ♥ xx ♦ xx ♣ xx lookslike a 2♠ overcall to me.

To conclude, a repetition of the mostimportant point. If your opponents comeup with all sorts of undisciplined pre-empts, that means they are trying torandomise the results and hence that other-wise they must expect to lose. Rememberthat makes you better players. �

WHAT is the point of a pre-empt? Is it toimprove the score you expect to get on thehand, or is it just to make the result morerandom? Randomness is only desirable ifyou would expect to do badly without it,but as most bridge players like to believethemselves better than their opponents,very few should want to increase the vola-tility of their results.

A perfect pre-empt does a number ofthings. It tells partner what your hand lookslike, allowing him to make a decision basedon your combined assets, while forcing theopponents to start exchanging informationat a higher level. For this to work, a pre-empt needs to be all of: weak in high cards(so taking away opponents’ space is a goodthing), a well-defined hand (so that partnercan make an informed decision) and a handwith some playing strength (so the rightcontract is not two levels lower). It shouldnot have a strong side-suit, as a pre-emptorexpects to have his suit as trumps. How canpartner know what to do if your 3♥opening may be any one of the following?

♠ 2 ♥ J109432 ♦ 32 ♣ KQ32♠ Void ♥ AJ105432 ♦ A83 ♣ 742♠ J3 ♥ KJ109632 ♦ 843 ♣ 7

In first seat non-vulnerable, the first ofthese should be a normal pass, the secondis an Acol light 1♥ opening and only thethird is a disciplined 3♥ opening.

It’s true that keeping your pre-emptsdisciplined has disadvantages. The first is

Disciplinedpre-emptsare best

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Frances HindenTwo top players debate a hot bridge topic. Tell us whose argument

has won you over by e-mailing the Editor at [email protected]

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For the catalogue and price list contact Carole at Bridge Gifts Direct Limited20 Parson Street, Hendon NW4 1QB Tel: 020 8346 0979 Fax: 020 8346 4694

AUG_08_EB_p50-51 Debate 16/7/08 10:36 am Page 46


to slam. Your decision will be fairlystraightforward facing a partner who hasshown 20-22 points (or some similarnarrow range). When the auction starts(3♣) – 3NT – (Pass), partner could haveanywhere from a good 16-count to a 26-count. Slam could be cold when you holdan 8-count, or 4NT could be too high facinga 16-count. How strong a hand do you needfor a quantitative raise to 4NT when partnerovercalls 3NT? Are you sure that you andyour regular partner would give the sameanswer to this question? If not, how doesthe overcaller know when he has enough toaccept the invitation? It all sounds like anawful lot of guessing, doesn’t it?

Let’s recap the possible plusses of opening3♣: the opponents will sometimes bid thewrong game, sometimes overbid to gamewhen their partner is broke, and will have atough time judging when they are in theslam zone; sometimes they will play in 3NTor 4NT with twelve easy tricks and some-times they will bid a hopeless slam. All ofthese will provide significant swings to yourside, particularly if the opponents arevulnerable.

What about the downsides? Yes, partnermight hold the good hand. If he decides totake a shot at 3NT, it may well go downwhen your hand is poor. If he passes, youmay miss a game that would have madewhen you have the good hand. Don’t forget,though, that you are non-vulnerable, soscoring +110 rather than +400 or goingdown in 50s when you could make +110 arenot disasters. Ah, but what about those hugepenalties you’re bound to concede, I hearyou say. Of course, that will happen occa-sionally, but far less frequently than youmight think. Besides, losing 800 when theopponents can make anything from 620 to1440 is no disaster.

Let me stress again that my argument islargely based on the assumption that youare non-vulnerable as dealer. This is theposition when the odds most favour open-ing with random pre-empts. If you are insecond seat, for example, then your 2:1 asdealer odds have now become an even-money shot – if someone has a good hand,it is either LHO or partner. You should stillbe aggressive, but rule out opening on handssuch as ♠ Jxxxx ♥ xx ♦ xxx ♣ xxx. Essen-tially, up the lower limit of your range just alittle. Pre-empting when vulnerable is a dif-ferent ball game, and I suspect that I wouldthen agree more closely with Frances’s viewof what a pre-empt looks like.

The point about random pre-empts isthat they are only ‘random’ within theagreed parameters, which should bedependent on position and vulnerability. Itis a bit like opening 1NT on a 1-4-4-410-count. To anyone watching, this mightlook like a random action, and it is unlessyour agreed method is a mini no-trumpthat may include a singleton. If that is yoursystem, then the opening bid becomes quitenormal. Similarly, it your agreement is thatnon-vulnerable in first seat an opening 2♠shows thirteen cards, some of which areblack, then you are at liberty to open anyhand that takes your fancy since partner willknow to tread warily. If, however, you haveagreed that a 2♠ opening shows 6-10 HCPand a six-card suit including two of the topthree honours, and you then open a handthat does not meet these criteria, that israndom.

In summary, you should be very disci-plined within the confines of your agreedsystem. But when deciding what thoseconfines are, you should stretch theboundaries as much as possible in certainfavourable positions. �

AN average player who watched me playwould probably conclude that my pre-emptive style was random. For example,playing in my regular partnership, I wouldopen 3♣ in first seat at Love All on both:

♠ 7 ♥ 862 ♦ 85 ♣ AQJ9752♠ 7 ♥ 862 ♦ J985 ♣ Q9752

‘But how is partner supposed to judgewhat to do?’ is probably the immediatereaction that many of you will have. And,therein lies the major difference in philo-sophy between random and disciplinedpre-emptive styles.

The point is that bridge is a percentagegame, and opening a pre-empt is essen-tially a gamble: your pre-empt is likely toforce the player with the good hand toguess. When you are the dealer, though,the odds are hugely in your favour as it isa 2:1 bet that an opponent holds thestrong hand rather than your partner.

The most likely result of opening 3♣ onthe second hand above is that an oppo-nent with a balanced 20-count will bid3NT. Of course, he may make it, but theupsides to this auction are huge . . . Thinkabout the times when your partner opens2NT. How often do you just raise to game?I doubt it is as often as a quarter of thetime. More likely, you either use Staymanor transfer to a major before one of youdecides which game to play. When theauction begins (3♣) – 3NT – (Pass), youhave no such options.

Occasionally, too, you pass partner’sopening 2NT (and often even that is toohigh) and, of course, sometimes you make aslam try. With something like a balanced 8-14 count facing a 2NT opening bid, it willusually be obvious whether to raise to game,invite slam with a quantitative raise, or drive

Marc Smith

Randompre-emptsare best

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Or vote by post (Editor, English Bridge, 23 Erleigh Road, Reading RG1 5LR).Comments for publication (not more than 200 words, please) are welcome.

AUG_08_EB_p50-51 Debate 16/7/08 10:37 am Page 47


you do, but only if East is not ruffing thesuit. There is no need to convince West tocontinue spades, indeed, that is the lastthing that you want; many players wouldfalse card with the four or five of spades,but all that does is to conceal the spadetwo and make West think his partner hasstarted an encouraging signal. Better tofollow with the two and hope to get lucky.

In example (iii) West, who overcalled1♠, leads the ace of spades and East followswith the two. Declarer can see that East hasa singleton spade as he would normallyencourage with a doubleton – but Westdoesn't know what declarer knows. Declarershould drop the queen and West maybelieve that it is he who has the singleton, inwhich case attempting to cash the king ofspades next would establish dummy's jackas a trick. If declarer plays low at trick one,West can always afford to continue the suit,as East either has the queen or can ruff thethird round.

In example (iv) it is East who has over-called 1♠ and West leads the two of spades.Declarer plays low from dummy and Eastwins the ace. There is only one card declarercan play which gives him a chance ofavoiding a spade ruff, and that is the jack.Why? Declarer can see that the two ofspades is a singleton, but East does not yethave that information. Suppose declarerfollows with the ten, will East believe thathis partner has led the two from ♠Q-J-2?He will not, as the queen would be thenormal lead from that holding. And if de-clarer follows with the queen? Again, Eastwill not be fooled. That would leave Westwith ♠J-10-2 and he would lead the jack.However, if declarer plays the jack, thatleaves West with ♠Q-10-2, and that isconsistent with the lead of the spade two.

The middle card will tend to be thecorrect choice whenever declarer has threetouching honours from which to choosehis play. For example, left-hand-opponentleads the three of spades against 3NT,

GOOD technique can take you a long wayas declarer but many more contracts can besuccessful if you can add an extra dimen-sion to your play, making yourself difficultto play against by concealing what is goingon from the defence whenever possible.

If you always win a trick as cheaply aspossible, always follow with your smallestspot card, and always play your highesthonour when you want to knock out ahigher one, you are very easy to playagainst – however good your technique.What declarer needs to remember is thathe has the advantage of seeing thecomplete assets of his side, both his ownhand and dummy, while the oppositionare in a less comfortable position, eachseeing only half their side's assets. Whatmay be clear to you may not be so to thedefenders and if you can put yourself intheir shoes there will be many oppor-tunities to play upon their doubts andincomplete knowledge.

It always pays to check what signals youropponents are using, that way you may bein a position to muddy their commu-nications. If declarer wishes to attract acontinuation or persuade the defence toswitch to a different suit, one way is to'signal' just as though he was a defender.Assuming that the defence is playingtraditional signals, high to encourage, low

Deceptive Playor how to be a

tricky opponent

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Brian Senior to discourage, high-low with an evennumber, upwards with an odd number,declarer follows suit in exactly the samemanner.

(i) ♠ 7 4 2 (ii) ♠ Q 8 6

♠ Q 8 3 ♠ 10 5 4 2

(iii) ♠ J 8 3 (iv) ♠ K 7 3

♠ Q 10 5 ♠ Q J 10

West leads the ace of spades againstcombination (i). Declarer can see that heis not going to make a spade trick unlessthe defence makes an error, as surely thelead indicates that the ace and king areboth sitting over the queen. The only hopeis that West continues with a second spadeat trick two and that will only happen if hebelieves that East has encouraged a conti-nuation. Signalling, just as if he were adefender, declarer follows with the eight. IfWest believes his partner to hold the ♠3,he will also believe that East has invitedhim to continue with another spade.

In example (ii), West again leads the aceof spades. If West also holds the king,dummy's queen will be a trick whatever

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AUG_08_EB_p52-53 Senior + Quiz 16/7/08 10:39 am Page 48


Sometimes, something a little moredramatic may be required. Here, Southplays 3NT on the lead of the ten of clubsto East's ace. It is clear that the defence cancome to at least three club tricks plus twoaces. Is there any hope?

If South follows with an unthinking sixof clubs under the ace there is no reason atall to imagine that East will do anythingother than return his partner's suit, anddown will go the contract. But what ifdeclarer drops the king under the ace –after all, he doesn't need a club trick. Willnot East imagine that declarer has the kingand queen of clubs and, with dummyholding the jack, has two stoppers? Aspade switch may look very tempting, asthe suit will not have been bid. If East fallsfor it, declarer wins a spade trick, knocksout the diamond ace and has nine tricks.

Another idea which is pretty well esta-blished is that declarer should generallylead the highest card he can afford if hewants to attract a cover from the nextdefender, the lowest card if he wants thenext defender to duck.

(v) ♠ A 3 2 (vi) ♠ A K 4 3 2

♠ Q J 10 9 8 ♠ J 10

If declarer has combination (v), the Southhand being concealed, he may want thedefence to play its king early to ease hiscommunication problems. West is highlyunlikely to play the king on the lead of theeight or nine, but may be tempted to do soif declarer leads the queen.

In example (vi), dummy may have nooutside entry to the spade winners. If de-clarer leads the jack on the first round, Westmay well cover and the suit will be blocked;declarer can win but then have only twowinners, or duck and hope for four tricks, ifthe defence have not taken too many tricksbefore he regains the lead. West shouldprobably get it right most of the time, butleading the ten may slip past him. Declarercan run this then lead the jack to the ace andtry to run the whole suit. �

dummy holding two small. When RHOplays the jack, the king is the best card withwhich to win from a holding of ace-king-queen. Few defenders will believe thatdeclarer would win the ace if that was hisonly stopper, so that would be a poorchoice, virtually marking him with the kingalso, while winning with the queen tells theopening leader where all three top cards areplaced. Winning with the king tells LHOwhere the ace is, but leaves open all sorts ofpossibilities in the mind of RHO.

♠ 7 6 3 2♥ J 9 8♦ K 5 4♣ 8 5 3

♠ K Q ♠ A J 8 4♥ 7 6 3 2 ♥ 10 5 4♦ J 10 9 8 ♦ 7♣ A K 6 ♣ J 9 7 4 2

♠ 10 9 5♥ A K Q♦ A Q 6 3 2♣ Q 10

South opens 1NT and plays there. Westleads the jack of diamonds. How shouldSouth play?

There will be no problem if diamondsbreak three-two, but what if they are four-one, as is quite likely after the lead? Ifdeclarer wins the first trick then plays threemore rounds of diamonds to establish thefifth round, it will be very easy for thedefence to find the killing switch and thecontract may go several down. If declarer isnot greedy he is almost certain to succeed.Duck the first trick in both hands, followingwith the six. This will surely convince Westthat his partner has encouraged diamondsand why should he do other than continuethe suit when he has so little information togo on? Now declarer can win and run hisseven red winners.

♠ 7 6 5♥ K Q 4♦ J 9 5 4♣ J 7 5

♠ 4 3 2 ♠ A 10 9 8♥ J 8 6 3 ♥ 10 9 7 2♦ A ♦ 10 6♣ Q 10 9 8 2 ♣ A 4 3

♠ K Q J♥ A 5♦ K Q 8 7 3 2♣ K 6

PRIZE PLAYQQQQUUUUIIIIZZZZ

A competition you can all enter

TAKE a look at the play situation belowand give your answer. Please include verybrief details of your reasoning.

There are three categories in our com-petition: for players up to and includingCounty Master; for those up to andincluding Regional Master; and for thosewith higher ranking.

Against silent opponents, South, dealer,opens 3♠ and North raises to 4♠. Westleads the ♦2. East wins with the ace andreturns the three to your king. What isthe best line for the contract?

♠ A 8♥ A Q 7 4♦ 7 5 4♣ A K 6 2

♠ Q 9 6 5 4 3 2♥ 6♦ K Q♣ 10 5 3

NW E

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This twin-pack of charming playing cards(‘Vintage Bouquet’) is the prize on offerin our series of play posers set by JulianPottage.

playing cards now on sale online.For more information visit

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Entries to Julian Pottage, 17 BeachRoad, Porthcawl CF36 5NH, or [email protected]. Entriesmust arrive by August 20. Please indicateon the top left-hand corner of theenvelope, or in the e-mail subject line,the category for which you are entering.Julian Pottage will judge the entries andthe first correct answer drawn in eachcategory will win a prize.

NW E

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AUG_08_EB_p52-53 Senior + Quiz 16/7/08 10:39 am Page 49


Master Pointpromotions

Avonwww.avoncba.org.ukCongratulations to Steve Tomlinson –Steve Turner who, with Somerset teammates, have reached the last 16 of theGold Cup. Also well done to Brian Dyde,Peter Sherry, Brian Wibberley, PhilChannack, Trevor Ward who havereached the quarter-finals of the NICKO.

In the National Pairs Final, DuncanCairns (with Rob Lawy of Somerset)finished in 6th place. In the GardenCities Trophy South West Regional Final,the West of England Club (Robert Covill,Mike Davies, Tony Gammon, JanineGriffiths-Baker, David Jones, Huw Oliver,Aidan Schofield, Andrew Urbanski re-presented Avon and finished second.

County Leagues: Div. 1 – 1. Andrew,Cathy and Ralph Smith, Steve Tomlinson,Steve Turner; Div. 3 – 1. ChristineBickerstaff, Rod Woodford, Ian andMargaret Mundy.

County Knock-out: 1. Andrew, Cathyand Ralph Smith, and Steve Tomlinson,who will represent Avon in the Pachabo.Knock-out Plate: 1. Damian Nicholls,Gareth Evans, Bernard Mitchell, RichardFarrer.

Brian Dyde – Peter Sherry won theSenior Swiss Pairs at the Jersey Congress.

In the Western League, Avon has had amoderate season finishing in third placein the B and C Divisions but a verydisappointing 7th in the A division.

Bristol Bridge Club has been celebra-ting its 50th anniversary with a series ofevents held in June.The principal eventwas a Teams held early in the monthwhich was won by Fil and Diane Kurba-lija, Peter Goodman, Adrian Thomas, JillCasey. The Swiss Pairs held over thesecond weekend was won by Mike Davies– Mike Elliott.

Bedfordshirewww.bedsbridge.co.uk

THE BBA held the AGMat Wilstead on 15th Mayduring which Val Lawsonwas elected as new Chair-man. Richard Chester hastaken over as Vice-chair-

man. New committee members electedwere Gina Dunn (Secretary), Rita Keable(Treasurer) and Brian Taylor. Good luckto the new committee.

Winners of the Champions’ Trophy on12th June with a very strong field of localcompetitors were Kathleen Gilbert –Bryden Keenan with a score of 59.60%.Congratulations to them both on theirachievement.

Wardown Bridge Club, the premierclub in Luton, held a 10-year Anniversaryevening on 19th May. The event was wellattended and the occasion was celebratedwith a glass or two of champagne as wellas plenty to eat. The club is now flouri-shing with two club bridge evenings perweek on Mondays and Thursdays, as wellas an ‘Improvers’ session on Tuesdayafternoons, all of which are well attended.An ‘Anniversary Cup’ was presented andwill be competed for in May each year.The first winners from 23 competingpairs were John Neville – Monca Lucy.With the recent addition of BridgemateScoring, duplimated boards and hand

records, the club now has an enthusiasticmembership. Bridge coaching/teachingsessions will be resuming again at the clubin September.

Diary Dates: Sept 11, ‘Opening Pairs’at Wilstead (7.30 pm). Sept 13-14,Bedford Congress, Towcester Racecourse.

Berks and Buckswww.berks-and-bucks-cba.co.uk

WE are very appreciativeof the EBU’s decision todonate half of this year’slicence fees for charityevents to Ovarian Cancer

Action in memory of our much lovedChairman, Margaret Hatch.

It was a busy end to the season, startingwith the Men’s Pairs won by DavidBarnes – Nigel Guthrie and the Ladies’Pairs which Carol Humphreys – CaroleMueller won for the eighth time. Carolwent on to triumph in the Victor Ludorumby a single point from Ed Scerri – thatmakes it a mere seven times for Carol!

A lively Berks v Bucks match (won byBucks) was followed by the Friendly Pairs,won by Susan Hegi – Rosyln Foxwell andthe Swiss Teams which went to JoyceBaldock, John Greenhalgh, Graham andAnne Lucy. At the AGM, the League ofFour winners, David Perkins, PhilThornton, Carol and Herb Mueller, werepresented with the Brown Cup and weacknowledged the huge contributionwhich David Beever has made to BBCBAbridge by electing him to Life Member-ship.

An innovation this year was a ‘Slow-motion’ Simultaneous Pairs for the Day-time Clubs – slow motion because clubsplayed on their normal afternoons overa week in May. It was won by SimonGalvin – Ken Swarbrick from the GardenRoom BC.

Congratulations to Tim Rees onwinning the Schapiro Spring Foursomesand the Championship Pairs at the SpringBank Holiday congress. Simon Cope wonthe Swiss Teams and was 4th= in thePairs. With his partner, Andrew Murphy,he was second in the Under 28 Trials.

We are moving the start time forwardfrom 2.30 to 1.30pm and with the use ofBridgemates we will both finish earlierand have the results out much sooner.

Cambs and Huntswww.cambsbridge.org.ukIn national events, Chris Jagger’s teamwon the Spring Foursomes, while PaulFegarty, Catherine Curtis, JonathanMestel and Catherine Jagger lost narrowlyin the Punchbowl. At the Spring BankHoliday Congress, Catherine Curtis – PaulFegarty won the Swiss Pairs, with RogerCourtney – Robin Cambery ending sixth,and in the Swiss Teams Chris Jagger, IanPagan, Jonathan Mestel, David Kendrickwere second. Paul and Catherine werealso third in the National Pairs final.

In county events, Geoff Burbidge –John Frampton won the Novice Playerstournament; joint winners of the JubileePairs were Peter Bhagat – John Liebe-schutz and Gladys Gittins – DavidCarmichael; and Chris and CatherineJagger, Julian Wightwick, JonathanMestel retained the County Knock-out.

Cambridge Bridge Club qualified for thenational final of the Garden Cities.Stephen Goodwin – Jonathan Taylorwon the Clare Swiss Teams.

Diary Dates: Oct 26, Cambs & HuntsSwiss Teams, New England Complex,Lincoln Road, Peterborough.

Channel Islandswww.cwgsy.net/community/cicba/

THE County Mixed PairsFinal saw a tie for first placewith Lynda Mildon – ColinTostevin from Guernseysharing the top spot with

Marion Miles – David Hole from Jersey.At the Lambourne Jersey Festival of

Bridge, the highest CI placing in theSwiss Pairs were Lynda Mildon – ColinTostevin (Guernsey) who finished =12thout of 98 pairs. The following weekendsaw Lynda and Colin teaming up withRobert Plumley – Susie Farnon in theSwiss Teams and finishing the highestplaced CI team in 18th position out of44 teams. During the week, the MultipleTeams saw thirty entries competing overtwo nights. The winners were the all-Jersey team of Douglas Romain, DavidHole, David Friswell and Roz Bavin. TheMid-week Championship Pairs was wonby Marion Miles – Roz Bavin fromJersey from a field of 50 pairs. The MixedPairs Championship saw the Jersey pairof Peter and Gill Pitcher finishing 5thout of 63 pairs and winning the Fox Cupas the highest-placed CI pair.

At District level in Jersey, the OpenPairs championship was won by DouglasRomain – Kay Johns. The Restricted Pairsupper section was won by David Hole –Marion Miles whilst the lower sectionwas won by John and Fiona Honey.

In Guernsey, the District Individualwas won by John Seymour with MikeAllen in second and Vera Rose third.

Cornwallwww.jkeast.freeserve.co.uk

JAN and Ken Keast, JoeBryant and Wally Heatonwon the County Knock-outfinal.

A very successful Corn-wall Congress was held forthe first time at Falmouth.Friday Afternoon Pairs: 1.

Nick Grenfell – Derek Griffiths, 2. Rogerand Janet Putnam. Friday Evening Pairs:1. Val Pitman – David Stone, 2. TerryCannon – Phil Palmer. The ChampionshipPairs were headed by four Cornish part-nerships: 1. Chris and Sandra Bickerdike,2. Sue Howley – Stephen Crouch. FistralCup: 1. Ian Hopkins – Sandra Bennett,2. Ros Morgan – Joan Chandler. CollingsCup: 1. Wally Heaton – Wendy Thornton,2. Keith and Heidi Law. Swiss Teams:1. Richard Lingham, Ann Slee, BrigidMcElroy, Ruth Edmondson; 2. the un-heralded Cornish quartet of Viv Mably,Celia Bishop, John Harnett, Harry Livesey.

Helston held an excellent Swiss Teamscompetition, raising £400 towards build-ing a children’s Hospice in Cornwall: 1.John and Pauline Deal, David and LyndaChidell; 2. Rod Bell, Ian Macfarlane,Owen Prior, Wendy Miller.

Penzance are the first Cornish club toinstall Bridgemates and would welcome

AvonLife MasterMr M ElliottPremier NationalMasterMr M L Letts7 Star PremierMasterMr I DuncanMr C Panes2 Star MasterMr D BeachamMasterMr K RayfordDistrict MasterMr B P BurridgeDr R J HardieArea MasterMr T J A ButlerClub MasterMr B WibberleyMr C Wilkins

Bedfordshire2 Star RegionalMasterMr C WatsonLocal MasterMr R Jones

Berks & BucksPremier LifeMasterMrs J M BaldockLife MasterMrs B VittyPremier NationalMasterMr R Bridgen1 Star RegionalMasterMrs E Crossley10 Star PremierMasterMr S R BarrowPremier MasterMr J Paul1 Star TournamentMasterMrs J Greenstein5 Star MasterMrs H Weatherby3 Star MasterMr D W ElfordMrs K L Webster2 Star MasterMr L ChampnissMrs M S Mercer1 Star MasterMrs P A Cannon

Mr M JenningsAdvanced MasterMrs J GraysonMr D LawrenceMrs O M LewisMasterMrs F E VickersCounty MasterMr D FariaDistrict MasterMr C CubittMrs B Milling SmithMr G W NoyesArea MasterMrs A E RaynerMrs L M Scott-PriestleyMr H WesselMrs E S WhiteMrs M WillsClub MasterMr C CollinMr C E DaleMr R FordMrs J E MaulDr P R MaulMr P H ThirkellLocal MasterMrs J GalvinMr K J SwarbrickMrs M P Vint

Cambs &Hunts3 Star RegionalMasterMr P J Somerfield12 Star PremierMasterMr J R Leeming2 Star MasterMr D R SayersAdvanced MasterMr P R BeavanMrs S HollingworthMasterMr G GardnerCounty MasterMr S R C KingMr D NewmanArea MasterMrs A McShane

ChannelIslandsLife MasterMr H T Basden-

SmithMr D J FriswellPremier NationalMasterMr H Walden

COUNTY NEWSCongratulations to thenewly promotedPremier Grand Master:Mr R. Garthwaite, Yorks

Congratulations to thenewly promotedGrand Masters:Mrs A. Flockhart, HertsMr D.M. Franklin, SussexMr W. Naqvi, MiddxMr G.R. Sadie, GlosMrs S. Woodcock, Lancs

AUG_08_EB_p54_61 County News.qxd 16/7/08 10:42 am Page 50


Master Pointpromotions National MasterMiss J Watts-

WakehamMrs L Williamson11 Star PremierRegional MasterMr B L Skiming2 Star PremierRegional MasterMr P Pitcher1 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs G Pitcher1 Star PremierMasterMrs S AmyPremier MasterMr D C BabbeMr C BlackstoneMrs P A SelfClub MasterMr D F Waters

CornwallLife MasterMr A D Tooley2 Star TournamentMasterMrs A P James5 Star MasterMrs P J DodgeMrs M D Walker4 Star MasterMr J M Rishworth3 Star MasterMrs E A Williams2 Star MasterMrs J E Fisher1 Star MasterMr D A BarberMr J N JamesMr M RowbottomAdvanced MasterMrs C BishopMr R G S DraycottCounty MasterMr W HarrisMrs A L MitchelmoreMrs J VaughanDistrict MasterMr A J Biggs

CumbriaLife MasterMr K Johnston5 Star RegionalMasterMr A AitkenMasterMrs S JacksonClub MasterMr G C Bramwell

DerbyshireLife MasterMr B R Elliott2 Star PremierRegional MasterMr P B Dodson1 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs M A Beale4 Star MasterMrs M Plant3 Star MasterMr A Skidmore1 Star MasterMrs A CapewellAdvanced MasterMrs A P HobsonMrs M NewtonMrs M Watson

MasterMrs D L SuterMrs O J WebsterCounty MasterMr N H EmpsonMr G MacArthurMr J SquiresLocal MasterMrs I White

DevonPremier NationalMasterMs C Ritzen5 Star PremierRegional MasterMr K Wynn6 Star RegionalMasterMrs S CrowleyRegional MasterMr C StaresDr P Wood6 Star PremierMasterMrs J Algar2 Star PremierMasterMr N MasseyTournamentMasterMrs C Davey5 Star MasterMrs F Lane3 Star MasterMrs A EwinsDr W R Pickering2 Star MasterMr D L BiscoeMrs R W Davis1 Star MasterMrs M VanstoneAdvanced MasterMr C J BakerMr G K BakerMr P HartnellMasterMr P BlatchfordMr G TompkinsonMrs J TompkinsonMrs M WaterfieldCounty MasterMrs D LomaxArea MasterMr J M BrownClub MasterMrs S B SeymourLocal MasterMr P A G Keith

DirectArea MasterMrs M E CrossMrs J C RostollanLocal MasterDr B J Gardner

DorsetRegional MasterMr P CatonPremier MasterMr P Craven4 Star TournamentMasterMs L Angus1 Star MasterMr R BurrowsCounty MasterMs S FazakerleyDistrict MasterMr T BenjaminClub MasterMr J Holland

COUNTY NEWSCOUNTY NEWSmembers of other clubs wanting to seethem in action.

Diary Dates: Sept 7, AGM and indi-vidual championship, Ladock; Sept 20,Falmouth Swiss pairs; Sept 28, One DayGreen Point Swiss Teams, WadebridgeSchool.

Cumbriawww.ccdba.co.uk

EDEN Bridge Club staged their annualSwiss Teams competition on April 27th:1. P. Mollart, J. Halliwell, L. and P. Smith;2. A. Robertson, S. Service, A. and N.Watson.

Our last Cumbria Competition of theseason was the Swiss Pairs, held on May18th: 1. John Mclachlan – BruceDenwood (90 VPs); 2. Babs Matthews –David Strawbridge (87 VPs); 3. JimBlackwell – Howard Brown (72 VPs).

Derbyshirewww.dcba.org.uk

THE Mixed Pairs Cham-pionship for the Bill PrattTrophy was won by Rogerand Jennifer Floutierwith David Taylor – LizHall second. The Derby-

shire team of Malcolm Young,Alan Kenny,Miranda Vinecombe and Gary Watsonwon the inter-county team of fourcompetition at Oxford for the Beck Cup(photo page 55). David Briggs – JimTomlinson were 4th at the CorwenTrophy.

At the inaugural competition for theMidlands Teams Challenge Bowl, whichhas replaced Derbyshire’s Macfarlane Cupand the invitation events of several otherMidland’s Counties, Roger and JenniferFloutier, and Arnold and SandraChandler came third out of an entry of18 teams.

Diary Dates: Aug 21, Second roundof the Three Counties Teams of 4 Event.Sept 17, India Cup. Sept 18, Third roundof the Three Counties Teams of 4 Event.Sept 21, Atkins Cup. Sept 27-28, GreenPoint Pairs and Teams Events at Spondon.

Devon www.devonbridge.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS toRichard Lingham, AnnSlee, Brigid McElroy andRuth Edmondson onwinning the Swiss Teams

at the Cornwall Congress, and to SandraBennett – Ian Hopkins on winning theFistral Cup for the Secondary Pairs.

In the Spring Bank Holiday Congressat Bournemouth, Stefan Lindfors camethird in the Championship Pairs playingwith Rob Lawy from Somerset.

The Devon Teams (Western MorningNews) was won by Robin and MargaretMardlin, Bill Oke, Julian Foster, who wenton to represent Devon in the Pachabo.

The highest placed Devon pair in theCorwen Trophy were Carol Ritzen andRichard Carter in 8th place.

The Kevin and Ann Slee Trophy(Victor Ludorum) was won jointly byNethie and Geoff White.

The AGM was held at Exeter on 15th

June. There is a vacancy for TournamentSecretary. Terence Treeby would bepleased to hear from any memberprepared to take this on. Following themeeting, the County Swiss Teams Cham-pionship was held with a very disappoin-ting eleven teams taking part. Results:=1. Terry Cannon, Robin Giles, PhilPalmer, Jenny Flood; and Carol Ritzen,Richard Carter, John Boxall, RogerLuckham; 3. Ruth Edmondson, BrigidMcElroy, Alison Pollok, Ann Slee.

Diary Dates: Sept 20, Devon Pairs.Aug 11, Closing date for entries forDevon Teams (Western Morning News).

Dorset www.dorsetbridge.org.uk

NATIONAL and otherresults: Spring BankHoliday, Bournemouth:Qualifiers A Final: Miles

Cowling – Eddie Lucioni, Janet Smith –Harold Wayne, Martin Brook – HelenAckroyd; Qualifiers B Final: DaphnePhilipps – Ann Sharples, John Gardner –Margot Wilson, Eugene Sheehan – MaryClews. Swiss Pairs: 10. Paul Bennett –Chris Denton, 17. Mark Hooper – JonHolland. A Flight Swiss Teams: 7. MartinBrook, Martyn Hill-Jones, Helen Ackroydand Ann Sharples, 10. Miles Cowling,Eddie Lucioni, Steve Tomlinson andSteve Turner. B Flight Swiss Teams: 1.Eugene Sheehan, Mary Clews, DorisHutchinson and Inga-Lill Button.

County Results: Udall Trophy: 1.Martin Brook, Helen Ackroyd, KeithBartlett, Ann Sharples. Allendale Trophy:1. John and Marion Howitt, David andIsabel Marr.

Please note that entries for the CountyTeams KO will close on the 14th Augustand the draw will be made shortlythereafter. Dates for the Knight Cupqualifiers will be announced shortly onthe County website.

Diary Dates: Aug 8-15, EBU SummerCongress at Brighton. Sept 14, MixedSwiss Teams for the Flemmich Cup,2.00pm, hosted by Dorset CBA at theAllendale Community Centre. Oct 12,Swiss Teams for the Hardwick Cup, 2.00pm, hosted by Sherborne BC at DigbyHall, Sherborne. Please feel free to e-mail any information of interest forinclusion to [email protected].

Essexwww.essexbridge.co.uk

THE very sad news forEssex is the death of SidPrince on 12 June, after along illness. Sid had beena long-standing ECBACommittee member and

was Tournament Secretary and ChiefTournament Director during the period1988 -1999. From 1986 to 2008, he was adelegate to the EBU Council and then ashareholder. He received the DimmieFleming Award for services to bridge in2001, and was Eastern Counties captainfor some years. He was a winner of theNational Seniors Pairs and also theNational Seniors Team of Four, thelatter in 2005. He will be very muchmissed by us all.

At the AGM in May, Ted Cockle waselected to Tournament Secretary andNicole Cook to Tournament Director.We wish them the very best of luck intheir new roles.

In Essex competitions, the winners ofthe Team of Four Trophy were DennisValtisiaris, Alan Drew, Simon Moormanand Ray Clarke, who beat Roger and JillTattersfield, Alaric Cundy, Chris Megahey,Martin Smith and Ted Cockle in thefinal. The Switch Cup winners wereRoger and Jill Tattersfield, Alaric Cundyand Chris Megahey, with Peter Oake,Ray Clarke, Ray Cornell, David Clarkrunners-up. The League First Divisionchampions were: West Essex: WalthamForesters (Tony Verran, Remi Tatur, PhilMattacks, Andy Barker, Stuart Dunstan);South East: Crowstone (Alan Cohen, BobHair, Allan Greenstein, Yvonne Dias,Richard Register, George Wilcox). LeagueCup winners were Hanley (Rick Hanley,Michael Sherer, Jeff Orton, Eric Newman,Bill Tweddle).

Winners of the Eve Goblets trophies,for overall results during the year, were:Ladies: 1. Jill Tattersfield, 2. MargaretCurtis . 3=. Val Mollison and Sue Taylor.Men: 1. Roger Tattersfield 2. Ray Clarke3. Alaric Cundy.

Diary Dates: Sept 3, Autumn Seniorspairs.

Hants and IoWwww.bridge.hampshire.org.uk

THE AGM, held on June15th, was better attendedthan usual, probably dueto a last minute nomina-

tion of Keith Palmer to Chairman. Thevote was close but the position is retainedby John Carter, who has put a huge am-ount of time into his work as Chairmanand been scrupulously neutral whenhandling the EBU ‘Pay to Play’ proposal.This proposal had not found approvalwith the majority of clubs, and, accord-ingly, had been opposed at the EBU’sEGM where it was, however, accepted.

Congratulations to Chris Kinloch –Miles Cowling for winning the NationalPairs Championship and to the followingCounty event winners: League 1: BrianAnderson’s team; League 2: MadelineLawson’s team; League 3: Mark Witham’steam. Hicko Cup: Swanmore; BasingstokeCup: Titchfield; Solent Cup: Southamp-ton; Cahalan Cup: Jeremy Baker’s team.Pottage Cup: 1. Dave Ross – BarryMitchell, 2. Sonia Zakrzewski – GarethBirdsall. Farley Trophy: 1. Roy Riley – RickStaff, 2. Miles Cowling – Steve Turner.Ladies’ Teams: 1. Chris Ray, ChristineMcNiven, Karen Dewar, Eleanor Rice; 2.Babs Boswell, Celia Carter, Kathy Vaile,Lesley Lewis. Hill Head Trophy: 1. JohnDakin, Susie Russell, Chris and RichardRay; 2. Marilyn and Mike Mollart-Rogerson, Philip Clemow, Sheila Clifford.Finale Pairs winners: Seniors, PaulineSerby – John Moore; Intermediate, MaryLucas – Sandra Ruffell; Non-experts, GillVaughan and Sharmane Hoey. Congratu-lations also to this year’s Victor Ludorumin the county competitions, a tie thisyear: Rosemary and David Spencer.

The new season will be starting onSept 7 with the Ladies’ and Men’s Pairs –meanwhile enjoy the summer break.



Herefordshirewww.herefordshirebridge.co.uk

IN recent years, six counties in theMidlands have all experienced poorentries for their own annual invitationteams events. They therefore decided topool their efforts into a revived MidlandTeams Challenge Bowl annual joint event,with each county hosting the event inrotation. It fell to Herefordshire to behosts this year; each of the six countiesentered two teams and two neighbouringcounties responded to our invitation toenter. These, together with four clubteams from the host county, made up theeighteen-teams field. The winners wereone of the Warwickshire teams (DarrenEvetts, Susan Stockdale, Tony Poole, JohnRobbins) with a Herefordshire team(Richard Croot, Tony Truluck, GeorgeBarrett, John Griffiths) second. The bestresult by a Herefordshire Club team wasthat of the Hereford Bridge Club (SarahMathews, Peter Watts, Robin Lewis, PaulSmith) who finished 7th. These countieswill meet again in a similar Pairs eventlater this year.

Congratulations to Mike Ralph – JohnThacker who finished 5th in the CorwenTrophy. And to Carol and Albert Brown,playing with Ian Plewis – David Schiff,who finished 6th in the Swiss Teams atthe Cheltenham Congress.

At the Green Point Weekend jointly runby the Herefordshire and GloucestershireCBAs, in the Pairs the Northants pair ofJim Bainbridge – John Larkin shared firstplace with Lindsay Geddes – WendyAngseesing from Gloucestershire; JanetHolder – June Homes were the highestplaced Herefordshire pair at equal 4th.The team of Cathy Smith, Andrew Smith,Ralph Smith and Steve Tomlinson fromAvon won the Swiss Teams; best Here-fordshire result was the 12th place ofCarol and Albert Brown, Pat Jenkins andBob Underhill.

Hertfordshire

www.hertsbridge.co.uk

THE Hertfordshire AGM took place on18th May. Mike Hancock, after four years,stood down as president. We would liketo thank Mike for all his hard work aspresident; he continues on the committeeas Membership Secretary. The HBA nowhas a new president in Bernard Eddleston,our former treasurer; a new secretary,following the untimely death of FredaWarner, in Bob Turnham; and a newtreasurer in Bill Blackman. We wish themsuccess in their new roles. Following avery lively AGM, the Mixed Pivot Teamswas won by Gila Tiplady, Mike Robson,Paddy Dymoke and John Marmery.

In National Competition, well done toAlan Kay, playing with Tim Rees, on win-ning the Pairs A Final at the Spring BankHoliday Congress in Bournemouth.

In the Bedfordshire Green Pointed SwissTeams, Hertfordshire players filled the firstthree places: 1. Sheila Evans, Bill Black-man, David Stimson, Roger Edmonds;2. Barbara and Derrick Kime, with Celiaand Derek Oram; 3. Dave Dickson, IainRoberts, David Ould, Dave Walker.

The Hertfordshire team (Peter Clark,Vernon Gaskell, Anne Flockhart, Mike

Hancock, Alan Kay, Dave Walker, MariaBudd, Malcolm Harris) just missed outon qualifying for the final of the GardenCities Trophy by 1VP.

Congratulations to Malcolm Harrisand Alan Kay on different teams, whowill play each other in the semi-finals ofthe Crockfords Plate. Also to FrancisEddleston, Maria Budd, Rick Irwin,Malcolm Harris who are through to thequarter-finals of the Nicko Plate.

Diary Dates: Sept 28, Green-pointedSwiss Teams, Club de Havilland, Hatfield(details and entry forms: Mike Minting� 01442 833247, [email protected]). Oct 10, Club ChampionsCup, Bridge Centre. Oct 24, Mixed Pairs,Bridge Centre.

Kentwww.kcba.org.uk

THE Green-pointed ButlerScored Pairs held in Junewas enjoyable and very wellattended: 1. Jeremy Willans– Ian Draper (Kent), 2.Colin Wilson – Diana Avis.

A very successful Green-pointed Brack-eted Teams was held in May. The winnersof each bracket were: A: Keith Ashcroft,John Griffiths, Roland Gronau, GrahamPollack; B: Malcolm Judge, Margery Rum-below, Robert Shilling, Linda Radford. C:Graham Ford, James Henderson, RichardBird, Ian Galletti; D: Fred Tedore, BerylTedore, Brian Grimwood, Janne Green;E: Brigid Lavelle, Susan Brown, Kay Allen,Michael Harrow.

Metropolitan Cup (Home Counties funevent): our A team were first out of 7counties, 20 VPs clear of Berks & Bucks;the B team finished second out of 5counties losing to Surrey by only 3 VPs.

KCBA competition winners: ArnoldCup: John Cullingworth, Pat Collins,Denis O`Donovan, Peter Law, John Short,Derek Patterson. Arnold Plate: GrahamForeman, Lyn Forman, Graham Pollack,John Griffiths. Corbett Cup: ChislehurstA; Corbett Plate: Farnborough C. BrookShield: the North West Kent League Teamof Allan and Gillian Foster, Jennifer Viles,John Hemington.

At national level, Denis O’Donovan,John Short, John Cullingworth, PatCollins, Peter Law were runners up inboth the Gerald Faulkner Salver and thePachabo Cup.

Cheltenham Congress: the Evesham Cupwas won by Kent’s Marie Horlock, JohnAmor and their team.

Diary Dates: Sept 5-7, Tunbridge WellsOpen Congress. Oct 5, Dyer Smith-Hunter Cup Mixed Pairs, Tunbridge Wells,11am. Oct 25, Kent Congress Swiss Pairs,Tunbridge Wells, 1pm; Oct 26, Kent Con-gress Swiss Teams, Tunbridge Wells, 11am.

Lancashire www.lancsbridge.co.uk

AT the Annual GeneralMeeting in May, JacquelineWright took over fromAndrew Petrie as Tourna-ment Secretary. A volunteer

is needed to update the calendar andproduce the handbook in 2009.

Congratulations go to Nick and SueWoodcock, Catherine Draper and Andrew

Master Point promotions Local MasterMrs P M Morrison

EssexLife MasterMr A RiachMr C TaylorMrs S TaylorNational MasterMr S MoormanPremier RegionalMasterMr L Lapszys2 Star RegionalMasterMrs J NichollRegional MasterMr N Bresler21 Star PremierMasterMiss K J Parr13 Star PremierMasterMr G E Wilcox7 Star PremierMasterMr M MaddenMrs A MorganTournamentMasterMrs F E Drewe5 Star MasterMrs G Spindler4 Star MasterMs B CagleMr S V Pond3 Star MasterMrs L V MoranMr M Tinn2 Star MasterMr J SitchAdvanced MasterMr D E BrightMrs R J CleggMr C J RidgwellMrs E M WilliamsMasterMr K FreitagMrs G SizerCounty MasterMr R OrangeMrs J PatemanDistrict MasterMs G SmithArea MasterMr M ParryClub MasterMr M MorrisMrs V Potter

GloucestershireGrand MasterMr G R SadiePremier LifeMasterMr I ConstableRegional MasterMr M A Rogers5 Star PremierMasterMr R G DalgleishMrs J Rowley2 Star PremierMasterMrs D Vowles1 Star MasterMrs C LewisMasterMrs E S Armstrong-BuisseretDr D FairmanerMrs J V HughesCounty MasterMr C R FoxMr M McWilliamMrs E A Roberts

Club MasterMr T RobertsLocal MasterMr A ChecksfieldMr J N DavisDr J SeddonMr R K WalkerMrs R Young

Hants andI.O.W.Life MasterProf. A KellyNational MasterMrs M AbbottMrs M Rumbold5 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs J Whitehouse3 Star PremierRegional MasterMr P Aubeck5 Star RegionalMasterMr W D Lewis2 Star RegionalMasterMrs R SpencerMrs E M Stewart1 Star RegionalMasterMrs C Mobbs5 Star PremierMasterMrs D A Rivers4 Star PremierMasterMrs J A McMahonTournamentMasterMr AG Poole5 Star MasterMr D A Goodlake3 Star MasterMr H J GasserMrs V Moules2 Star MasterMr R HerbertMrs C ParkesMrs J ReidAdvanced MasterMrs J HerbertCounty MasterMr D BonnerMr P N OsborneDistrict MasterMr M BeerMr J ClarkMr J WhitcherClub MasterMrs S K RussellLocal MasterMr M CrossMr M Hayden

HerefordshireNational MasterMr D WellerRegional MasterMr M GreenMr T F Paske8 Star PremierMasterMrs L Boddington2 Star MasterMr R RossiMr B Snell1 Star MasterMrs J BakerMasterMrs J C BrenchleyDistrict MasterMr A T ShadforthClub MasterMrs C Jones

Local MasterMr A DavisMrs C Dixon

HertsGrand MasterMrs A FlockhartNational MasterMrs G M Tinsdale1 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs F Littlewood5 Star RegionalMasterMrs S Bond2 Star RegionalMasterMr P C EllingerRegional MasterMr J Leake18 Star PremierMasterMr W E Kenney14 Star PremierMasterMrs Y D Doyle7 Star PremierMasterMr C J Goodban2 Star PremierMasterMr S AgalawattePremier MasterMr C Holehouse5 Star MasterMr B MullerMrs M Steven2 Star MasterMs R AllenbyDr G SingerAdvanced MasterMrs C G AndrewsMrs L F BancroftMrs D CookMrs S GanneyMr D ReidMasterMrs S J BarnettMrs S EarlyMr M H KingMrs E MartinMiss M E MoleMs J MumfordMrs A V RamsdenMrs J R ThornhillMr R N ThornhillMrs S WelshCounty MasterMs G ParryMr J PopleMrs S H Usher-SmithMr A YoungDistrict MasterMrs S FordMrs VF HulattMr T McWalterArea MasterMs L A ChesterMrs M CraigMrs J EvansMrs H FrickerClub MasterMr K Lawler

KentNational MasterMrs M M RumbelowMr D W SteeleMrs M A White12 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs D Servante6 Star PremierRegional MasterMr L Harris

4 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs G E Foster2 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs S C Morgan1 Star PremierRegional MasterMr P L Morgan8 Star RegionalMasterDr C J Garrett7 Star RegionalMasterMrs A G Baldwin5 Star RegionalMasterMrs S P Smith3 Star RegionalMasterMrs A S M Jeffery1 Star RegionalMasterMrs J Lawrence8 Star PremierMasterMr D T Hudson7 Star PremierMasterMr I Galletti5 Star PremierMasterMrs J Batson8 Star TournamentMasterMr D E Brown1 Star TournamentMasterMrs J G HogstonMiss J H PakemanTournamentMasterMiss R V Ericson4 Star MasterMrs E A Mitchell2 Star MasterMr J R HeckscherMs C RichardsonMrs T SirettMr J A Walker1 Star MasterMr R HoareAdvanced MasterCdr J A ColemanMrs E HardwickMrs M HellierMr J PlumptonMr G StarkMr L E WhiteMasterMr G E ClementsMrs K GravesMr W J MarleMr J K McCallMr K L MonkMrs S PercivalMrs G RapleyCounty MasterMrs K DavidsonMrs C P LohanMrs A M WarwickDistrict MasterMr R C BakerMrs J S BaronC CagneyMr M S CollinsMr R K O'SheaMr C OwenMr C SawyerMr T SherwenMr P WillisArea MasterMr J BryanMrs J C NewcombMr R PayneMrs C E Plumpton



Woodcock on winning the LancashireKnock-out Teams of Four, thus becomingLancs’ representative in the Pachabo Cup.

Catherine Draper will be running aworkshop at Blackburn Bridge Club onFriday, 19th September 2008.

Madeline Berney Swiss Pairs: 1. Bernardand Rhona Goldenfield. Bolton SwissTeams: 1. Ewart Evans, Julia and BarryNewall, Brian Ripley. Blackburn SwissPairs: 1. Roger Smith – Linda Yates.Gazette and Herald Trophy: 1. EwartEvans, Julia and Barrie Newall, BrianRipley.

Diary Dates: Aug 10, Preston Pairs;Aug 30, Northern Bridge League –Round 2; Sept 5-7, Bolton Congress,Bolton Bridge Club; Sept 11-14, Isle ofMan Congress, Douglas; Sept 21, LCBAMixed Pairs, Poulton Bridge Club; Sept27, Northern Bridge League – Round 3;Sept 28, Pendle Witch Pairs, BrierfieldBridge Club.

Leicestershire www.leicsbridge.org.uk

THE formal businessof the 62nd AGM wascompleted speedily. Thereports of the commit-tee and of the treasurer

were adopted and the elections were un-contested. The new committee compriseschairman Hugh Cairns, vice-chairmanand fixtures secretary Nick Stevens,immediate past chairman Dick Pathan,treasurer Henry Cooklin, general secre-tary Robert Northage, league secretaryJohn Thompson, tournament secretarySteve Wright, membership secretary PatBeasley, webmaster and minutes secre-tary John Wilcox, master point secretaryNeil Beasley; other members: MikeAyers, Irene Krantz, David Pollard andPat Watson.

The Guest of Honour, Frank Travers,chairman of the County Bridge Club,presented the trophies and prizes to the2007-08 competition winners.

Final results of last season: StanleyTrophy (Butler Pairs) overall: 1. Ian Bruce– Mick Mahoney, 2= Hugh Cairns –Steve Francis, Paul Cross – AnneMoncrief, 4. George and Mary Brown(winners of the final heat). Joyce MixedPivot Teams: 1. Jenny Grant, GerryBucciero, Bob Parker, Bharat Thakrar;2. Joan and Ben Gibson, ChristinaBrewster, Chris Heames; 3. Irene Krantz,Bill Gray, Peter Halford, Tony Odams.Hyman Crammer (Club Pairs): 1 GaryDuddle – Simon Stokes (Clarendon),2. Ben Gibson – Mike Osborne (Melton),3. Tim Glover – Peter Neville (Glenfield).

Diary Dates: Aug 15, Summer Knock-Out Cup and Plate, semi-finals play-by date. Aug 21, Three Counties 2(Spondon). Sept 4, League Meeting andLCBA Committee Meeting (LGS). Sept5, Summer Knock-Out Cup and Plate,finals play-by date. Sept 10, StanleyTrophy Heat 1 (Glenfield); Sept 14,Midlands League v Worcestershire, away.Sept 18, Three Counties 3 (Spondon);Sept 24, LCBA League season firstmatches. Sept 27-28, Green Point week-end (Spondon). Oct 1, Otto and EdithBowl, Mixed Pairs incorporating MidlandFlitch qualifier, (County Club).

Lincolnshirewww.lincsbridge.org.uk

THE Annual Champion-ships in May had adisappointing entry inthe teams. Suggestions/ideas from members are

welcome! Please contact the secretary.Championship Pairs: 1. Sue York – DavidStoddard, 2. Mike and Vic Llewellyn;First Consolation: 1. Sally and DavidWilliams; 2. Roy Hughes – DennisMellor; Open Pairs: 1. Eileen and BillHerbert. Championship Teams: 1. StuartKnox, David Caldow, Nick Hunter, AlanMillington; Consolation Teams: 1. GlynElwick, Stuart Watson, Mike and VicLlewellyn; Open Team: 1. John Gaunt,Debbie Burton, Andrew Green, JonathonFarmer. The Lucy Osbourne Cup forhighest placed seniors was won by MoParsons – Maurice Ladlow. The MargaretBriggs Trophy for highest non-expert pairwas won by Jonathon Farmer – Chris Job.

Ghost Pairs: N/S was won by Dreneand Alan Brown, Roy Hughes – KeithStewart runners-up; E/W was won byAndrew Green – Andrew King withMike and Christine Grant runners-up.

At the AGM on 22nd June AlanAndrews was elected the new Chairman,Vice-chairman Glyn Elwick, Drene BrownSecretary, Mike Llewellyn Treasurer andStuart Knox Competition Secretary.

Members’ envelopes were given toclub reps at the July meeting, whichcontained: (1) calendars for next season,(2) entry forms for those competitionsrequiring pre-entry (n.b. Gold, Daveyand League closing date: 1st Sept), (3) re-printed constitution. If anyone has notyet received their envelope, please contactthe secretary.

Members may like to note that thenew season will start with the Mixed andMarried pairs on Sept 21.

Sadly Roger Haywood died in April.He had not been a Lincs member long,moving from Sussex in 2007 but was akeen player and will be missed. Condo-lences to family and friends.

London www.metrobridge.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS toGunnar Hallberg and RossHarper, members of thewinning England team inthe inaugural Seniors Cam-

rose, and to Bernard Teltscher, TonyPriday and Robert Sheehan, members ofthe second-placed Patron’s team. Welldone also David Bakhshi, Tony Forre-ster and Andrew Robson, Crockfords Cupwinners, and David Gold and SusannaGross who won the Corwen Trophy.

Apologies to those London playerswhose achievements in the Ranked MastersI omitted to mention last time: Rob Cliffe,who won the Premier Grand Masters,Gordon Rainsford – Dom Goodwin whowon the Premier Life Masters, Nick Boss– Richard Johnson who won the NationalMasters, and Mark Gurney who camesecond in the National Masters.

Well done to Alan and Olivia Woo,who won both the Swiss Pairs and the

Swiss Teams at the Jersey Lambourne Con-gress. Also in Jersey in the Swiss TeamsMike Fletcher came second. At theSchapiro Spring Foursomes, AndrewRobson, Tony Forrester and DavidBakhshi were losing finalists, and RogerMapp and Michael Ranis won thePunchbowl. At the Spring Bank HolidayCongress, in the Championship Pairs BFinal, Gordon Rainsford – Paul Martinwere second.

In recent one-day events, Tim Ryanwon the Hants & IoW Swiss Teams,Richard Harris won the Dorset SwissTeams, and Sarah Dunn, David Gold,David Ewart, Tom Townsend finishedsecond in the May Beds Swiss Teams.

Results: Newcomers Day: N/S: 1.Shelley Evans – Leszek Lubaszewski, 2.Yoshimi Furukawa – Ikugo Sasaki; EW:1= Jan Holman – Ian Stewart, MalaLever – Ned Paul. London Trophy: 1.Oxford & St Georges Old Boys & Girls(Cecil Leighton, Alf Wilkins, MontyKrimgoltz, Myrna Woolf); Della PortaPlate: 1. IBM (Simon Cochemé, PeterSaies, Mel Simon, Peter Davies). HomeCounties League: 1. Surrey, 2. London Red.

Manchester

www.lighton.btinternet.co.uk/

AT the MCBA AGM, JeffSmith retired as chair-man and was presentedwith a TomTom in reco-

gnition of the excellent work he has doneover the last five years. Kevin Comriewas elected as the new chair. There wereno other changes except the SelectionCommittee which is now Denis Robson,Bob Cooke, Rhona Goldenfield, JennyMorris and Alec Smalley. Gary Hyett wasannounced as winner of ManchesterPlayer of the Year and Mike Bell winnerof Intermediate Player of the Year.

Well done to the Manchester playersinvolved in the European Championships.The Open team qualified for the secondround robin with Paul, Jason and JustinHackett and John Holland in the team,and Bill Hirst non-playing captain. AlanMould is non-playing captain of theWomen’s team.

Congratulations to Paul Hackett andJohn Holland, who won the inauguralSeniors Camrose, and to John Hassett,Bill Hirst and John Holland, who wonthe Gerard Faulkner Salver.

Manchester were represented in theGarden Cities Regional Final by BramhallBC (Rod Franks, Kevin Higgins, HowardStubbings, Dhun Daji, Jim Morris, JennyMorris, Bill White, Joyce White) whofinished fifth. In the Spring Bank HolidayCongress at Bournemouth, Michael Byrnewas a member of the young winningteam. Well done also to Mike Bell and EdLevy, who won the secondary event, thePunch Bowl, at the Stratford Spring Fours.

Diary Dates: Manchester Bridge Clubcelebrate 30 years at Palatine Road witha Teams Event and Party over theweekend of the 23rd and 24th August2008. All MCBA members, and past andpresent members of the Club are invitedto attend. Information from Jeff Morris� 0161 445 3712.

Master Pointpromotions Club MasterMr B FordhamMrs S HarperMr M S HarrowMrs B LavelleMrs M MaybankMrs P SainsburyMr N ShillingLocal MasterMr B K Smale

LancashireGrand MasterMrs S WoodcockPremier LifeMasterMrs E A Wattleworth3 Star PremierRegional MasterDr L Hoy10 Star PremierMasterMr R J Parry3 Star PremierMasterMrs A J BellPremier MasterMr D W Briggs2 Star TournamentMasterDr G A Khan5 Star MasterMr L Macauley4 Star MasterMr S H Blaiwais3 Star MasterMr D BrewerMr C B Wood2 Star MasterMrs E E HoughtonMasterMr R A PinsonMrs H ShawDistrict MasterMr S D BrownMr I FowlerMrs F MounseyMr I ParkesArea MasterMrs S PickfordMrs I PinsonClub MasterMr J Vallance

LeicesterLife MasterMrs D M PenningtonMr R PenningtonPremier RegionalMasterDr Y Haider5 Star RegionalMasterMr R C CookMr D Nutt4 Star RegionalMasterMr R C Parker10 Star PremierMasterMr G Bucciero9 Star PremierMasterMr F G Maccabee5 Star PremierMasterMr G Brown4 Star PremierMasterMr R Ferguson2 Star PremierMasterMr P D Cross

Mr A J MackriellMrs L A Stone1 Star PremierMasterDr C ShahDr S Shah5 Star MasterMr G R F Jones4 Star MasterProf R O Davies3 Star MasterMr R SneddonMr J J StevensonMr D B Symonds2 Star MasterMr J G BloodworthMrs G M ClellandMr R McCulloch1 Star MasterMrs B FarrellDr M C HarrisonMrs J HopeDr G R OlssonAdvanced MasterMr C W LanderMr R R PatelMrs M S RushtonMasterMr J F BeeMr C M HariaMr G W HaywoodMr D JamesMr J StinsonMr J SwiftCounty MasterMr C M AllenMr E BlountDr G JenkinsMrs C VoyceProfessor H YangMrs K YangDistrict MasterMrs D BowdenMs B ChantlerMiss D C CoeMrs P GibbMr W GibbMs D KettleMr I LeaverDr R J LewisMr S MensleyMr R ReesMr P ShahMr C J SleighArea MasterMrs H HughesMrs J M HuntMr P F HuntMr D MobbsMrs A MoxonMr B K SmithMrs B SteadClub MasterMr P AndersonMr R FordMr D M LeggMrs R LeggMr G NormandMrs T RoweDr D SteepleMrs E Turner

Lincolnshire4 Star RegionalMasterMr E W Parsons2 Star PremierMasterMr P D IsonMiss S B York3 Star TournamentMasterMr D C Cross

COUNTY NEWS



Merseyside/Cheshirewww.mcba.org.uk

THE Deva BC teamwere successful in theregional final of theGarden Cities Trophy

(club teams of 8). With the top twoteams going forward, they were in equalfirst place with Hurworth BC, thoughhad beaten them in the head-to-headmatch. Sadly prior commitments affectedthe line-up for the national final and theteam could only win three of its sevenmatches to finish below average. Welldone to the team: John Hampson (whoorganised everyone), Matt Foster, BobPitts, Pete Broster, Chris Pope, SimonEdwards, Julian Merrill, Paul Roberts,David Flacks, David Stevenson, SimonWhitehouse.

The County Mixed Pairs was won byPam and Ralph Churney, with Joan King– John Griffith runners up. The annualMayday Swiss Pairs was won by PaddyMurphy – Barry Jones. The County Ladies’Pairs champions for this season are LynEdge – Lilian Johnson; Nan Stephensand Sheila Grey finished second.

The new County Open Swiss Pairs was ahuge success: 1. Sid Travers – David Collierof Manchester; 2. Simon Edwards – ChrisPope. Well done to the organisers forgetting this new event off to a great start.

The winners of this year’s CountyTeams Consolation event (Cheshire Salver)were Richard Davies, Dave Shaw,Bernard Krasner, Chris Raymond, StuartScholes, Steve Downes.

Diary Dates: Aug 30, NorthernCounties League match 2; Sept 27,match 3; Oct 25, match 4.

Middlesexwww.middlesexbridge.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS toMiddlesex members whorepresented England in theEuropean Championships:Heather Dhondy, AnneRosen and Nevena Seniorin the Women’s series, TonyWaterlow in the Open and

Victor Silverstone in the Seniors.Well done to Alexander Allfrey for

winning the Crockfords Cup and fini-shing second together with Glyn Ligginsat the Shapiro Spring Foursomes. AndrewMcIntosh and Liggins finished second inthe Crockfords Cup final.

At the Spring Bank Holiday Congress,Brian Senior won the B Pairs Final andIan Pagan was second in the Swiss Teams.

Dafydd Jones won the Hants & IoWSwiss Teams. Uday Hegde, Richard Bow-dery, Jerry Harouni and Ray Robinsonwon the South of Ireland Teams at theKillarney Congress.

Middlesex Championship Pairs: 1. JillFeldman – Neil Rosen, 2. Ernest Glanville– Alan Gradus. Middlesex CommitteeCup: 1. Charlotte Vine, Greta King, HarryAshar, Ron Adam. The Middlesex CupFinal (Tobias v Vine) was won by JacquiTobias, Uday Hegde, Gary Jones, NoorulMalik. Richard Bowdery replaced Malikat the Pachabo, where they finished sixth.

The Ace of Clubs (Neil Rosen, PeterKaufmann, Ivor Miller, Catherine Seale,

Keith Bennett, Jeremy Dhondy) qualifiedfor the Garden City National Final wherethey finished second on a split tie.

Further Results of the Middlesex Leaguewere: Div. 2: Susan and David Moss, Gailand Jonathan Hoffman; Div. 3: CharlotteVine, Chris Morren, Brenda and GeoffFoley; Div. 4: Viv and Derek Proops,Debbie Breslaw, Lynne Daly, LindsayBlair.

Peter Hasenson and Gill Walker wereelected to the Middlesex Committee.

Please consult the country website forthe autumn schedule, in particular theMiddlesex Cup entry deadline. Do reportpoints of interest to [email protected].

Norfolkwww.norfolkbridge.co.uk

AFTER the County A, Band C teams all sufferedheavy defeats at the handsof Northampton, the threeteams had comfortablewins over Essex.

The County summer programme isnow in full swing with an Open Pairsand/or a Trophy event each week untilSeptember. The Norfolk and NorwichBridge Club is also hosting an OpenPairs evening on most Wednesdays untilSeptember.

Trophy Winners: Hudson Cup: 1. PeterBrett – Peter Cotes, 2. Jill Innes – StuartLangridge. Dereham Trophy: 1. RogerAmey – Dave Newstead, 2. Ray andChristine Sadd. Harry Hunt Cup(Lowestoft): 1. Phyllis Spratt – PeterRowlett, 2. Paul Whittley – DavidThompson. Shaw Trophy: 1. Phil Jones –Jill Innes, 2. Neville Hill – Alan Hourd.Swaffham Trophy: 1. Paul Darby – RogerAmey, 2. Nawal Fenwick – John Harrison.

Open Pairs winners: Graham Grist –Joe Merz, Roer Amey – Mike Walsh,Peter and Margaret Smith, Mike andBarbara Harnden, Kitty Cozens – LeslieCarver, Nigel Block – Mervyn Scutter.

Diary Dates: Aug 4, Kings LynnTrophy for teams, South Wootten VillageHall; Sept 3, YMCA Trophy, pairs, GirlsHigh School, Norwich.

North East www.neba.co.uk

IT is with great sadnessthat we report the deathof Ian Spoors, whoworked tirelessly forboth NEBA and the EBUover many years (see

obituary on page 25).At the end of April, Brian Smith, Bill

Dixon, Ken Pattinson and Peter Allen,representing Darlington, won the Cham-pion Club Teams, and in May ReneeMcMahon – Margaret Gilbert won theClub Champion Pairs competition. TheKempson Cup (knock-out teams of four)was won for the second year running byClive Owen, Malcolm Oliver, Bill March,Damian Hassan, Martin Kane and DaveBroadhead, and Bo Hnyda’s team collec-ted the Plate.

At the AGM the Executive Committeewere re-elected unopposed, DamianHassan was declared the Sun Player ofthe Year, and Morpeth won the JohnClarke Salver as Club of the Year.

The Hurworth ‘Fun Day’ Congress

Master Point promotions

5 Star MasterMrs B BassfordMr GP Shaw4 Star MasterMrs S BuntonMrs J Clark3 Star MasterMrs B J Cryer2 Star MasterMr K A TaylorAdvanced MasterMr C F J FosterDistrict MasterMr A D MilnerArea MasterMr L MiddletonClub MasterMrs S Keast

LondonPremier Life MasterMr M ClackPremier NationalMasterMrs E De MercurMr D N SchiffNational MasterMr N Boss6 Star RegionalMasterMr A GordonRegional MasterMr P Mitchell16 Star PremierMasterMr C Moore3 Star PremierMasterMr C A ElliottPremier MasterMr N Irens5 Star MasterMrs J Arnot2 Star MasterMr K J BentleyMr R J Cross1 Star MasterMr Y Sannie-LampteyMasterMr J DrummondCounty MasterMr T ChanterMr G MartinMr M RanisMs H M WildsmithDistrict MasterMr M AllinMr T BoothMrs M Gordon-SmithMrs D GrimstonMr L LubaszewskiMr R MappMrs C R M PanisArea MasterMr T RyanClub MasterMr G SokolowskiLocal MasterMrs J Milliken

ManchesterLife MasterMrs J A MorrisMr J F MorrisPremier NationalMasterMr N J K Thomas6 Star RegionalMasterMrs E J Roe4 Star RegionalMasterMr D N DajiMr S Mattinson

6 Star PremierMasterDr J M Asher4 Star PremierMasterMr G Cohen1 Star PremierMasterMr G M FinkMr K HigginsPremier MasterMrs I Davies4 Star MasterMr A Rhodes3 Star MasterMr D B Haydock2 Star MasterMr A A TranterMrs M M White1 Star MasterMr S BoothAdvanced MasterMrs H BoydellMrs M E HalsteadMr J S HalsteadMasterMrs S A ArcherMrs E BlackDr J M BraganzaCounty MasterDr B BarryMr M BraidMr M ClarkeMr M A JabbarMr P JacksonMr P J KenyonMrs L J MollanMr E RoseMs M WarrenDistrict MasterMr L AbramsonMr J AshcroftMr J A BicknellMr K W BoultonMrs A BrenninkmeijerMr C BrenninkmeijerMr A I BurnettMr J CreerMrs W S CreerMr G CurrieMr R DeaneMr J FarnworthDr J C P GarrettMiss L GoldsteinMs P GorhamMr K R GortonMr H GrayMrs JK HarrisonMr F H HayesMr T I HempstockDr R HillMr E J HuttonMrs M JabbarMrs C KramerMr M L LockeyMr D E O'ConnorMr NP PearceMrs G RileyMrs A TurnerMrs L VincentDr M WadsworthMrs G WatmoreMr P WilkinsonMrs L F WrightArea MasterMr R A BennettMrs I BuxtonMrs E H CampbellMr N CatterallMrs J DodsonMiss M M EssayanMiss L H FramptonMrs A GibbonsMrs M GilesMr J GlassMr P Greene

Mr J HermanMrs A J HoyleMr G KasnickiMrs B KingMrs M LesterMr T P LoweMrs A B LukeMr D MarksDr M MattisonMr N P McGrathMrs J MessengerMr P MottMr R O’ConnorMr A O’NeillMrs A TaylorMr A K ThomsonClub MasterMr K BennettMr M BradyMiss L CookMrs S E GreensmithMr B HartMrs P HegartyMr R HoptonMrs M A JacksonMrs M E LeachMs D A LewisMr R PriceMrs C RileyMr M SandersMr K Taylor-ThomasLocal MasterMiss C A BoalMiss L BonneyMrs V M GodliebMs F GoodeMr D R HigginbottomMrs M HolloranMs G J MealingMrs A ParkinsonMr J M QuinnMrs J RichardsMiss H J SchofieldMs M A Taylor

Merseyside/CheshireNational MasterMrs J V Eakin3 Star RegionalMasterDr C Whaley9 Star PremierMasterMr C Nugent3 Star PremierMasterMr R RobertsPremier MasterMs E Hatfield5 Star MasterMrs K E Schneider3 Star MasterMrs M E FosterMrs J R Greasley2 Star MasterMr A SheridanMasterMrs E LoughreyCounty MasterMr S EverittMr M GreatbatchMr J RobertsDistrict MasterMr I BlackhurstArea MasterMrs A C LoweMr G RobertsMrs J RobertsClub MasterMr R BarlowMr G A CharlesworthMr E R IllingworthLocal MasterMr A Bailey

Miss C BlakeMr J P CurranMr D B HillMrs A H HillMr S O'Brien

MiddlesexGrand MasterMr W NaqviPremier Life MasterMr A McIntoshMr H J SchoggerLife MasterMr A P AllfreyMr S Cane5 Star RegionalMasterMrs D Stein2 Star RegionalMasterMr A S Perelman10 Star PremierMasterMrs J Moss4 Star PremierMasterMr D R Arundel2 Star PremierMasterMrs M Robertson1 Star TournamentMasterMrs D OkrzejaTournament MasterMrs G D Hanstead5 Star MasterMrs O M Stretch3 Star MasterMr I S Anderson2 Star MasterMrs S R Anderson1 Star MasterMr T WheatleyAdvanced MasterMr A MallickMr D MargoMasterMs B A BridgenMr C E CohenMr VJ MartinDistrict MasterMrs S BardwellMrs D GolendArea MasterMs S NewtonClub MasterMr A BhandariMr W CurtisMr I D IwiMr N ShahMr D ShethMrs J ShethMrs H WestburyMrs S L WintonLocal MasterMr J Y JimMrs J LivingstoneMrs R MannMr S SheldonMrs M Verrier

NorfolkPremier Life MasterMr M J Hill12 Star PremierMasterMrs B HowlettMr P Howlett11 Star PremierMasterMr D W C ThompsonMr P E Whittley2 Star TournamentMasterMr D J Macro

AUG_08_EB_p54_61 County News.qxd 16/7/08 12:57 pm Page 54


resulted in a Pairs win for Agnes Blewitt –Stan Collins; the evening Teams title wentto Tom Dessain, Dominic Maloney,Robin Sigmond and Phil Smith.

Further afield, Clive Owen, Bill March,and Julian and Val Gibson won the EBUSilver Plate; Clive Owen, playing withthree Mancunians (John Holland, BillHirst and John Hassett), won the GerardFaulkner Salver, and the Durham team ofJames Ewington, Tom Dessain, DominicMaloney and Robin Sigmond beatOxford to win the Portland Bowl, theUniversity Championship.

Nottinghamshirewww.nottsbridge.org.uk

AT the AGM, Gordon Fullerton waselected President. The existing Officersand Committee were re-elected.

In the county match v Worcestershire,the first and second teams lost 6-14 and0-20 respectively, while the third teamwon 12-8.

The Inter-Club Pairs Final was won byEleanor Gauntley – Catherine Waldron,representing Phoenix, with Liam Tynan– Wendy Walker from Woodboroughsecond, and Pat Pickworth – StuartWells from Radcliffe-on-Trent third.Priday Cup: 1. Clive Kaye, 2. John Auld.

Any new team wishing to enter theTeam-of-Four League should contactChris Clark � 0115 927 4939.

Diary Dates: On Wednesdays the Blackand Farr Cups continue in alternateweeks. The President’s Cup will recom-mence on Oct 1 and there will be a BGBSimultaneous Pairs on Oct 8. The datesof the new season’s Sunday events,commencing with the NCBA Swiss Pairson Sept 8, are on the website.

Oxfordshire www.oxfordshirebridge.co.uk

ALL EBU members areinvited to enter Oxford-shire’s Green-Pointed SwissTeams event on Sept 27(see advert on page 10).

Oxfordshire’s meetingwith its clubs and EBU Board / MDAGmember John Carter was very well-attended. A lively debate demonstrated aclear majority approving the EBU strategyproposals. Free refreshments plus bridgefollowed.

Congratulations to Alan Wilson oncapturing the coveted Premiership award,having won the Tuesday Pairs and Butler-scored Ladder plus the Tuesday Champion-ship together with Stuart McPhee. GeoffNicholas, and Dinah and Andrew Lintott,jointly won the Tuesday Teams Ladder.

The President’s Cup was won by MikeRobinson, Rob Procter, Dave Thomas,Richard Hayden, Nathan Piper.

Alison and Peter Jackson, Colin Jones,Malcolm Currie, Adrian Lambe, JohnClifford won the Chester Cup.

Congratulations to Dinah and AndrewLintott on winning the County PairsFinal, and Erica and Christopher Shep-pard, winners of the OBA Sim Pairs.

The Seniors Pairs events which conti-nue monthly throughout the year fea-tured Peter Baxter – Keith Goswellwinning in May and Alan Prior – RoyEast in June.

Officers elected at the county AGMwere: John Slater (Chairman), Mary-AnnSheehy (Secretary), Lynne Hayes (Trea-surer), Stephen Brown (Chief Tourna-ment Director), Alan Grunwald (Tourna-ment Secretary), Maxine Henry (Mem-bership Secretary), Geoff Nicholas (Wessexleague, President’s & Chester Cups’ Sec-retary), Nick Smith (Match Secretary),Alison Nicolson (Education Officer) andBrenda Harris (Publicity Officer).Dr Evan Harris, OBA President, presentedthe prizes. Free refreshments plus bridgefollowed.

Diary Dates: Sept 8, OBA Manage-ment & Wessex league meetings 6.30pm,Oxford BC; Sept 14, Dawes League vStaffordshire (away); Sept 27, Green-pointed Swiss Teams, Steventon VillageHall.

Somerset www.somersetbridge .org.uk

THE Charity Teams event inmemory of Paul Wickham(obituary on page 25) raised£900 to be shared betweenMotor Neurone Disease andthe Wivey Link. The winners

were Marjorie and John Dilworth playingwith Janet and Chris Jones.

Percentage Pairs final: 1. Sheila Coda –Marjorie Dilworth, 2. Colin Simcox –Frank Coltman. County Sims Pairs:1. John and Gweneth Bellinger, 2. Boband Pam Hooper.

Somerset’s ‘A’ team had a very strongfinish in the Western League, beatingboth Avon and Wiltshire 20-0. This resul-ted in Somerset winning the A Divisionfor the second year running. The ‘C’team also had a successful year, finishingsecond in the C League. This resulted inSomerset finishing second in the overalltitle for A, B and C Leagues combined.

Congratulations to the SomersetPachabo team of David Howard, GrahamHeal, Gina Howard and Sheila Coda oncoming 9th in a very strong field, andalso to Colin Juneman, Roger Sweet and

Avon team-mates in knocking out aseeded team to reach the last sixteen ofthe Gold Cup.

Diary Dates: Sept 13, Paul Jones atNailsea; Oct 3-5, West of EnglandCongress, Weston-super-Mare.

Staffs and Shropswww.wolverhamptonbridge.org.uk/Staffs/

PEARL Evans – Sheila Mudge tied withCelia Day – Jane Stirton in the Ladies’Pairs, but Pearl and Sheila were declaredthe winners after splitting the tie. GillianAllsop – Pat Poxon finished third. TheMens’ Pairs had to be cancelled (therewas a suggestion that the Champions’League cup final may have been thecause). Mixed Pairs: 1. Judy and MalcolmMitchell, 2. Annette Lucas – Mike Cornes,3. Pam Allen – John Hartley. Geoff Davies– John Sheppee were our leading pair inthe Corwen with a respectable 53%, withPaul Cutler – David Moir also in the tophalf of the field.

Dan Crofts, Edward Levy, and Justinand Paul Hackett won the Staffs Cup afteran exciting final against Geoff Davies,John Sheppee, Anne Jones and JohnSeymour. Sadly, due to other commit-ments, the county could not field a teamfor the Pachabo.

The Shrewsbury team of Roger Bowles,Keith Shuttleworth, John Waller, DavidSmall, Mike and Seb Jones, and Judy andMalcolm Mitchell represented the countyin the Garden Cities semi-final at Brad-ford, but could not quite squeeze intothe finals.

Edward Levy, Jason, Justin and Pauldid a double by winning the Warwick-shire League and the Handicap. The nextweekend Paul was in the winning En-gland Team in the Seniors Camrose. Paul,Jason and Justin represented England inthe European Championships at Pau wherethey ended 12th out of the final 38th.

Diary Dates: Nov 2, Multiple Teams(open only to county members).

Suffolk

www.suffolkbridge.co.uk

SUFFOLK is going Green!At the Felixstowe Congressthis year ‘Green Pointed’Pairs will be played on the

Saturday. The dates to put in your diaryare 11-12 October. Please support thisannual event to ensure its continuity.Entries and enquiries to Jeff Orton [email protected] � 01206 861729.Entry forms are available on the Suffolkwebsite.

At the AGM Claude Stokes resignedas Chairman. Claude has served on thecommittee for several years in differentoffices. Andrew Moore was elected as thenew Chairman. He gave a vote of thanksto Claude and presented him with aprint in recognition of his service tobridge in Suffolk.

Results: Congratulation to Andrew andJane Moore who came third in the SeniorsPairs and also in the Swiss Teams (withRoz Bavin – Paul Martin) at the JerseyLambourne Congress. Clare Swiss Pairs:1. Jonathan Taylor – Stephen Goodwin,2. Chris Chambers – Julian Lang, 3.Norman Denny – Rosmarie Mascall;

Master Pointpromotions TournamentMasterMr E J Brister5 Star MasterMr A J H Metcalf4 Star MasterMrs K LiversidgeMrs G PocockMrs H Tindal2 Star MasterMrs S L ChamberlinAdvanced MasterMrs A BlouetMrs L BrowningMr R HillMasterMr D BreeseMr J F LambertMr S LawrenceCounty MasterMrs M AbelDistrict MasterMr W A SparrowArea MasterMrs G Dansey-SmithClub MasterMr M Drobny

NorthantsPremier NationalMasterMrs G BaronMr P Dunn16 Star PremierMasterMr B M McKenzie3 Star PremierMasterMrs J SwannellTournamentMasterMrs M J BinleyMrs E MayesMr J W Mayes2 Star MasterMrs M L JeromeAdvanced MasterMr R GriffithsMrs W SteerCounty MasterMr W SimpsonDistrict MasterMr H Williams

North EastPremier LifeMasterMr S Payne12 Star PremierRegional MasterMr J Wooton2 Star PremierRegional MasterMr B Rodger1 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs P M OwenMrs S Rodger13 Star RegionalMasterDr I N Gordon3 Star RegionalMasterMrs A Bell13 Star PremierMasterMrs V Webster9 Star PremierMasterMr D Jolly6 Star PremierMasterMr B A Pacey

5 Star PremierMasterMrs P J GreenhillMrs A Young4 Star MasterMrs M Edwards3 Star MasterMr R D HornettMrs G C Saunders2 Star MasterMrs P L Gladwin1 Star MasterMs J BerryMiss C CaldowMr R MeredithAdvanced MasterMr S H StilesMasterMr N J GreenMr A RobsonCounty MasterMrs M BallMr B HooperDistrict MasterMr J PanayotidisArea MasterMr C CarswellMrs I FitzgeraldMrs P JohnstonClub MasterMrs M G GilbertMiss I GreenMiss J E MarshallMr D TomlinsonMr G TurnerDr W M WalkerLocal MasterMr M BirdMiss J Spear

NottsNational MasterMrs E L BagleyMr R W Bonnello11 Star PremierMasterMrs C D Waldron5 Star PremierMasterMrs J Jacques3 Star PremierMasterMrs M Griew5 Star MasterMr D R BallMrs K Wills3 Star MasterMrs J HardwickMr D Quinton1 Star MasterMrs E EldridgeAdvanced MasterMr D B AdderleyMrs M BallMrs J SevernMasterMrs M BradleyMrs T K DownMr K HardingCounty MasterMr M J ParkesMrs B M RichardsonMr E R RowlandMr J J WatsonMrs V R WatsonDistrict MasterMr D C BallMrs S HardingMr M C ParkerMr V A SavidgeMrs P D ScottArea MasterMrs D J AbbottDr D H Dunford

COUNTY NEWS

Dr Evan Harris, President of Oxfordshire Bridge Association (centre) presented thecounty’s prestigious Beck Cup (Invitation Teams of Four) to the Derbyshire winners:(left to right) Gary Watson, Malcolm Young, Miranda Vinecombe and Alan Kenny

Pho

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AGM Pairs: 1. Con and Pauline Hanson,2. Anne Wilmer – Judy Birley, 3. ClaudeStokes – Norman Less; Mixed Pairs:1. Andrew and Jane Moore, 2. Con andPauline Hanson, 3. Malcolm andBarbara Carey.

Diary Dates: Sept 14, Ipswich &Kesgrave Swiss Pairs, Woodbridge Com-munity Centre 2pm (please note changeof venue); Sept 24 Men’s / Ladies’ Pairs,Needham Market 7.15pm; Oct 5, ClubTeams of 8, Stoke-by-Nayland 2pm; Oct11-12 Felixstowe Congress, Pier LeisureCentre. For further information onSuffolk competitions, please contact theCompetitions Secretary, Rick Waters,� 01379 870291 or by e-mail [email protected].

Surreywww.surreycountybridge.org.uk

CONGRATULATIONS to the Mayfieldteam of Malcolm Pryor, Bill Hodgkiss,Sean O’Neill, John Frosztega, Peter Lee,Bob Rowlands, Liz Phillips and RogerMorton for reaching the Garden CitiesTrophy final. Sadly they finished 7th inthe final itself.

However, three members of theMayfield team, Peter Lee, Liz Phillipsand Bob Rowlands, playing with BobMcRobert, won the Lady Rose Cup in thefinal match from the holders in a veryexciting final. Congratulations also toNorma and Bill Macmillan, Derek Eneas,Roger Hitt and John Ward for winningthe Lady Rose Plate.

Tim Cook, Liz Phillips, Sean O’Neilland Bill Hodgkiss won the AffiliatedLeague Division 1 final. Jane Morton,Mac and Varda Derwig, and RichardCurrie came first in the Affiliated LeagueDivisions 2 and 3 finals. Ed Girdler, JackiePooley, Cindy and Mark Gregory camefirst in the Newcomers Teams. CindyGregory and Ed Girdler also won theNewcomers Pairs. Michael Hill and MikeClack won the Surrey Golf Bridge. In Clubrepresentative events, Walton & Hershamwon the Mary Edwards Pairs Cup, andFarnham won the Wanborough TeamsTrophy.

If you are a parent or grandparent ofan aspiring young bridge player, pleaseput the following date in your diary. OnSunday, 21st September a one-day JuniorTeach-in has been organised at Charter-house School in Godalming with guestteachers conducting morning seminarsand competitions in the afternoon.Parents and grandparents are invited toattend. Further details from BomiKavarana (CYO) on � 01737 812767 [email protected].

Sussexwww.sccba.co.uk

EASTBOURNE Club hostedthe Kremer Dersch Trophyfor club committee teams:1. Eastbourne Club (JohnTostdevine, Ann Hall, WinniePerry, Hugh Ball); 2. LewesClub (Richard Burnett, Mike

Keeping, Di Johnstone, Janet Cattermole).In the Mid-week Teams at the Jersey

Congress, Viv Fielding and ChristinaBackholer, with Bernard Themis andChrissie Mobbs came third.

In the Green-pointed Swiss Pairs heldat Ardingly on May 10, Dave Franklinand Gerry Stanford were first with 117VPs, ahead of Ian Hesslewood – PyersPennant.

Hastings Basic Bridge competition:1. Christina Backholer – Iris Lee, 2.Barbara Herold – David Bacon.

Many teams enjoyed an excellent sup-per catered by John Porteous at HenfieldCandles Swiss Teams Event. For the firsttime duplimated boards were used andthis ensured a very smooth running daydirected by Eddie Williams: 1. Roger Hitt,Rosemarie Thompson, Derek Eneas,Christine Dyer; 2. Karen and MalcolmPryor, Dave Muller, Andy Morris.

Well done to everyone at the NoviceSwiss Teams at Keymer on June 8. Pleasecome and try some other team events inthe future – they are all very friendly!1. Hazel Beveridge, David Williams,Roy Hamilton, David Hewer; 2. FrankHoward, Avril Strong, Jill Tickner, DavidWilkes.

Diary Dates: Sept 19–20, SCCBAAutumn Congress (entry forms fromCarol Watson), Steyning Village Hall,Swiss and Pivot Teams and pairs events.Oct 12, BUPA Swiss Teams at Bexhill.

Warwickshire

www.warwickshirebridge.co.uk

CONGRATULATIONS toCoventry’s Steve Green,Graham Link, Rob Helle,Roger Bryant, David Jones,Gary Watson, GeorgeCuthbertson, and Gareth

Roberts on winning the National Finalof the Garden Cities. Rob Helle withDutch team-members won the HamiltonCup at the Schapiro Spring Fours andSusan Stockdale, Darren Evetts, TonyPoole, John Robbins succeeded in the newMidland Counties Challenge Bowl. TheGoodman Cup winners were Roger Bryant,Rob Helle, Steve Green, Graham Link,with runners-up Graham Lightfoot, AlanWebb, David and Julie Ashford.

Warwcks finished the Inter-CountiesLeague 2nd, 2nd and 3rd= in the Dawes,Porter and Markham events. Paul Cotterill– David Hulston won the County Men’sPairs, Carolyn Fisher – Jane Hall tookthe Ladies’ Pairs, and Jane and PeterNicholds succeeded in the Mixed Pairs.Dodo Georgevic – Graham Sherlock-Brown led the Cock o’ County Pairs, andChris Adams – Geoff Cooper won theCounty Sim Pairs. The Frank Cup winnerswere Steve Byrne, Margaret Wort, TerryRamwell, Graham Weir.

Successful teams in the WarwickshireLeague were Moseley A (Div. I, P. Hackett),Harborne (Div. II, N. McWhirter) andSutton E (Div. III, K. Crane).

In the IPs, George Cuthbertson – IanHandley won the Premier, Steve Byrne –Guy Kendall led Birmingham I, NormanSutton – John Walter won BirminghamII, and Val Cooper – Dorothy Foster wonat Coventry.

The Coventry Pairs were again closelycontested: Div. I, 1 John Collin – MikeLeese; Div. II, 1. George Cuthbertson –Ian Handley; Div. III, 1. Sue Goldman –Julian Wernick; Div. IV, 1. Pat Watson –Ian Woodward; and Div. V, 1. GrahamCope – Malcolm Green.

Master Point promotions Mr D HazeldineMr J C HobbsMr D KingMr C PettittMr S PrinceClub MasterMrs J H LangworthyMrs V S MorrisMrs D PearsonMr G SladeMr S W WhartonLocal MasterMrs B BellMrs I BrownMrs M BullerMr R BullerMs L BurdenMrs P PayneMrs J RichardsonMr S SignoriniMrs M Waterhouse

OxfordLife MasterDr D C Talbot9 Star PremierRegional MasterMr A Parker3 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs E Sheppard1 Star PremierRegional MasterMr C A GidmanPremier RegionalMasterMrs L JonesMr P Owen-Smith2 Star RegionalMasterMrs A M Powell11 Star PremierMasterMr D B Marsh8 Star PremierMasterMrs C A Wadsworth5 Star PremierMasterMrs R Todd4 Star PremierMasterMrs M Henry2 Star PremierMasterMr N S Henry1 Star PremierMasterMrs L Swadling1 Star TournamentMasterMr V J Doherty3 Star MasterMr M ShepherdMr D E Simms2 Star MasterMr J Bowen1 Star MasterMr D A Del NevoAdvanced MasterMrs P RixonMasterMr C A LeeMrs J WhelanCounty MasterMr A WebbMrs C WrightDistrict MasterMr H ArnesMrs J B GreenMr R KingMrs G KrallArea MasterDr K CollinghamMrs E M CoxhillMr A E German

Mrs J M JenningsMr I RaynesDr G WilsonClub MasterMrs C MarriottMs S PughMr P SmithamMrs A M Withers

GreenLocal MasterDr J AndersonMrs R JonesMrs D O O LordMr M PhillipsDr M Wilkinson

SomersetPremier NationalMasterMrs J M Baker5 Star PremierRegional MasterDr L Botting2 Star RegionalMasterMrs J Wigley3 Star MasterMrs B WolseleyAdvanced MasterMr J H LambMasterDr A AtkinsonMr G LittleDistrict MasterMr D S BrookeClub MasterMrs M AllfreyMr J Kimber

Staffs &Shropshire2 Star PremierRegional MasterMr J R HartleyAdvanced MasterMr I MellorMasterMr A DavisMr C M PenriceCounty MasterMr J PughArea MasterMr T G LeesMiss P PalmClub MasterMrs J M HargreavesMr M A McCartney

Suffolk5 Star RegionalMasterMr J A Standley21 Star PremierMasterMr M Malin10 Star PremierMasterMr M J Bailey3 Star MasterMrs J L S Jones1 Star MasterMrs J EastonAdvanced MasterMr N FarrMr J M LeighMr R LingMrs J MorleyMasterMrs M J A HeathMr D A HuxtableCounty MasterMr R FerrisMrs G WinkworthDistrict MasterMrs M J Wilson

Mr S R M WilsonClub MasterMr A BignellMrs M HarrisMr K WillettsMrs S WillettsLocal MasterMs R AllisonMr M FreestoneMs J Menzies

SurreyPremier NationalMasterMr S IspahaniMrs S P PriceNational MasterMr G Clarke3 Star PremierRegional MasterMr R A Collins7 Star RegionalMasterMr D V Lofts5 Star RegionalMasterMrs M Lundqvist2 Star RegionalMasterMr I Robertson1 Star RegionalMasterMrs N Buxton26 Star PremierMasterMr G J Wells22 Star PremierMasterMr R W Guille15 Star PremierMasterMr R K Boothman11 Star PremierMasterMrs S HayterMrs P J Wells9 Star PremierMasterMs G HannaMrs S Young8 Star PremierMasterMr J R BalsonMiss H C BarnesMr J DerwigMrs W LancasterMrs L G LeakeMr A Martelli7 Star PremierMasterMrs D K BeaumontMr J F FlowerMr S Whiteside6 Star PremierMasterMr P Devon5 Star PremierMasterMrs L Murphy2 Star PremierMasterMrs J Jones4 Star TournamentMasterMrs M S Dunbar2 Star TournamentMasterDr J A Davis1 Star TournamentMasterMr R J ColesMr A W FilkinsMrs J VandenberghTournament MasterMr J G Hayter

5 Star MasterMrs S FeinmesserMrs J TaylorMr J A Yonge4 Star MasterMrs B M BarkerMr AE BirdMiss A H KennellMr J D Malcolm3 Star MasterMrs E D AshMrs M G BowersMrs J A CrabtreeMr H R DockrellMr R Lovelace2 Star MasterMr J W ArcherMr A CadgeMrs C R GunterMrs P M HunterMs P HuttonMr P A LaneMrs F S MorementMr P Phipps1 Star MasterMr I W CameronMrs M D JohnstoneMrs J B MorrinMr E A S PorterMrs J PorterAdvanced MasterMrs I A AyshfordMrs J M BromwichMr G N BrownMr T J KearnsMrs J LowMrs S M McDanielMasterMrs M E S BogueMr G S GillMrs B S MaccarthyMrs J V SamsonMs L SwalesCounty MasterMrs M J BrindleMr. D MayseyMr Z NiznikMrs A TroianoDistrict MasterMs V J ParkerMrs J WilsonArea MasterMr M AlexanderMr D C W CareswellMr E GreenhalghMrs A HerewardMrs B HumphreyMr A M WildClub MasterMrs M MargettsMr P RossLocal MasterMr B BarnettMr A GardnerMr D E HudsonMr J LeeMr A N Margetts

SussexGrand MasterMr D M FranklinLife MasterMrs K R BellMr P J Wright8 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs B Tolhurst4 Star PremierRegional MasterMr M A RoundsPremier RegionalMasterMr A Lea11 Star RegionalMasterMrs J Pells


Diary Dates: Sept 5-7, CoventryCongress. Sept 15, EBU Sim Pairs,Moseley. Sept 21, Midland CountiesPairs. Sept 24, Moseley Bowl.

Wiltshirewww.wcba.co.uk

IN the Western League,the sleeping giant had alittle doze in his final

match, resulting in a third-place finishoverall – still a considerable improvementon recent years. Our A and B teamsfinished 4th and 5th respectively, butpride of place goes to our C team whoromped away with their division. Davidand Margaret Thackaberry, MarionCowley, Prabir Nandi, Nick Pegg,Roger Williams, Roger Bendall, MauriceBaker will now represent the WesternLeague in the Inter-Area event on 13thJuly. We don’t know the result at thetime of writing, but we’re confident.The Wiltshire competitive programme

ended with the Chairman’s Cup, ahandicap pairs event held in conjunctionwith the AGM. This was won by PatDavies – Valerie Austwick, who have afine record in handicap events. TheCommittee, chaired by master diplomatColin Webb, was re-elected nem con.

In the Corwen Trophy, Norman Botton– Richard Samter finished a creditable38th (out of 113 pairs), while in thePachabo Pat Davies, Gwynn Davis, KeithSharp and Keith Williamson finished14th (out of 28 counties).

The team chosen to represent Wilt-shire in the Tollemache is: Andrew Law,Bob Bannister, Norman Botton, RichardSamter, Pat Davies, Gwynn Davis, PhilGreen, Roger Karn, Keith Sharp and KeithWilliamson.

Urgent! Those Wiltshire members whohave yet to enter the coming season’sPremier League and County Knock-outcompetitions should do so withoutdelay – see the website for details. Also,if there are any Wiltshire members whohave not been asked to declare theiravailability for the Western League, pleasecontact Diana King.

Diary Dates: Sept 28, Cliff SibleyMultiple Teams, Nursteed Centre,Devizes; Oct 12, Corsham Pairs. See thewebsite for details of both these events.

Worcestershirewww.wcba.freeserve.co.uk

IT is with deep sadness thatwe learnt of the suddendeath of John Cattanach.John contributed hugely toWorcestershire bridge as a

former chairman, and latterly as mem-bership secretary and editor of the pop-ular Worcestershire Bridge News. He willbe very sorely missed and our sympathiesare with Rosemary and his family; pleasesee the obituary on page 25.

Richard Jephcott’s tenure as chair cameto an end at the AGM in May and he wasthanked for his valuable contribution.Nick Forward was installed as our newchair.

The Seniors Pairs title was retained byJohn Sansom and Richard Jephcott. Out-side of the county, Carol and Brian Varleyhad a very successful time at the Jersey

Lambourne Congress winning both thePre-congress pairs and the Seniors Teamswith colleagues from Kent.

The county continues to promotebridge, holding another very successfulteaching event run by Ian Thompsonand Mike Theelke – our thanks go tothem. The association is also celebratingits 60th anniversary on 21st July.

Diary Dates: Aug 4, Summer Swissteams. Aug 11, Phillipps qualifier. Aug18, Pairs Ladder. Sept 1, Phillipps qua-lifier. Sept 8, Swiss Pairs. Sept 15, EBUSim Pairs (Phillipps qualifier). Sept 22,Club and League Multiple Teams. Sept29, Pairs Ladder.

Yorkshire www.ycba.freeserve.co.uk/

BELATED congratulations toSwanland Bridge Club play-ers, Marilyn Pearson andDavid Holmes, winners of

the National Newcomers Pairs. In theNational Pairs final, David Robinson –Peter Waterman of Sheffield finishedfourth. In the final of the CorwenTrophy, Mark Bratley and Paul Breretonwere in third place.

There are many results to report froma busy spring calendar of events.Yorkshire Congress – Mixed Pairs: Janetand Ted Latham. Ladies Pairs: SarahTeshome – Fiona Brown. Men’s Pairs:Les Jones – Geoff Kenyon. MoortownCup: Giles Foster – Richard Winter. YorkMount Group Trophy: Les Brown –Karen Bradley. Chairman’s Plate: StephenPeterkin – Samantha Punch. Fell-VincentTrophy: Fiona Brown, Susan Stockdale,Hugh McGann, Tom Hanlon. JohnstoneCup: Robin Zigmond, James Ewington,Clare Dutton, Eve Hatfield. ScarboroughTrophy: Ian Johns, David Waxman,Richard Pike, David Fletcher.

The winners of the county’s knock-out teams events were: WaddingtonShield: Tom Gisborne, Sandy Davies,Mike Pomfrey, David Banks. YorkshireTrophy: Heather Hobson, Roy Garth-waite, Dennis and Pearl Murphy. SeniorsTeams: Bill Townsend, Bob Ross, GilesFoster, Tony McNiff, Sue Logan.

First places in the Non-league andLeague Club Teams of Four events wentto Guiseley and Sheffield respectively.

The winners of county pairs eventswere: Yorkshire Masters Pairs, Grade 1:Jack Stocken – Phil Godfrey; Grade 2:Bob Brown – David Butler; YorkshireMixed Pairs: June Manning – MarkStead; Castle Swiss Pairs: Richard Pike –David Waxman.

Bridlington Congress, ChampionshipPairs: Graham Jepson – Keith Cornish.Swiss Teams: Judith Biles, Carole Kelly,Ted and Janet Latham.

Sheffield Charity Swiss Teams: GillWoodcock, Sue Wormald, Bernard andJennifer Fletcher.

Diary Dates: Sept 7, Examiner RoseBowl (Huddersfield). Sept 21, GarforthSwiss Teams (Collingham).

Master Point promotions 5 Star RegionalMasterMrs G Springer4 Star RegionalMasterMr D T Burman3 Star RegionalMasterMrs A Burgess8 Star PremierMasterMrs B E AllenMs B E Herold7 Star PremierMasterMr J M Henderson4 Star PremierMasterMr R H Weir2 Star PremierMasterMr P Hunt1 Star PremierMasterMr D MunicchiTournament MasterMr D B Gillespie4 Star MasterMr D E AshbyMrs B M JonesMrs F B Lecky-

ThompsonMrs B Rignall3 Star MasterMrs P HobdenMrs H G Tozer2 Star MasterMr M J Dancy1 Star MasterMr J F BushellMrs S GrayAdvanced MasterMr D HarrisMasterMrs G R BainbridgeCounty MasterMr M CausleyMr P E GoldsmithMr R HarrisMrs D IrelandMr P LindstenMrs S M MorganMrs A StrongDistrict MasterMr T TribeArea MasterMr M BeglinMrs C BondMrs W B BotfieldMr J B K Carrie-

WilsonMrs J ColeMr B DaviesMrs K M C HumphreyMrs E JonesMr R NaldrettClub MasterMrs B AlldridgeMrs W KeechMr R C SaundersMr B SladeLocal MasterMrs P FelthamMr B E T FryMrs M MayMr M Sheppard

WarwickshireLife MasterMr D A AndrewsMrs Y Andrews2 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs S Green

1 Star RegionalMasterMr M K DeanMr P Randall2 Star PremierMasterMr E Legg5 Star MasterMrs M Beaumont2 Star MasterMrs S Littlestone1 Star MasterMrs A CoxAdvanced MasterMr FR BeghMr G Sherlock-BrownMr C A WaltersMasterMrs N HaleCounty MasterMrs G D CharltonMr G N KempMrs K Moen

District MasterMrs V CooperMrs B HardstaffMs M WelchArea MasterMr P I HardstaffMrs S SmithClub MasterMr S CreaseyMr B GouldMr P MarkhamMr H ToyLocal MasterMs S Fursier

Westmorland2 Star PremierMasterMr M A MarshallCounty MasterDr M L HowseMrs J JeffreysDistrict MasterMrs W EllwoodMrs S J HowseLocal MasterMr R BrazierMiss A Ford

Wiltshire5 Star RegionalMasterMr D Cooke7 Star PremierMasterMrs T K H Attwater2 Star PremierMasterMr R WilliamsPremier MasterMr A J Snell4 Star MasterMr R J Gwyer1 Star MasterMrs R J FussellMrs S NesbittMr T A ParkerMasterMr P Nicholson

County MasterMrs E M Reeves

District MasterMrs F Dewar

Area MasterMr J Treble

Club MasterMrs A M O'Reilly

Local MasterMrs M S Turner

WorcesterLife MasterMr M J DowningPremier NationalMasterMr M A Stretch6 Star PremierMasterMr I ArgylePremier MasterMr D Philpott3 Star TournamentMasterMrs A E Hampton3 Star MasterMr C J MallinsonMr M R Powers2 Star MasterMr R T Keates1 Star MasterMrs D A GriffithsMr G M HerbertDistrict MasterMr S ArmstrongArea MasterMr P B AdamsMrs S ShawMrs D A WoodClub MasterMrs M D BlooreMr J BlooreMrs E A BrandonMiss S BristollMrs R J CarterMrs L A KennedyMrs C PowerMr J StevensonLocal MasterMrs F AllsopMr D J BellMrs E A BurtMrs A V BusseyMr B CarterMrs J B DowtyMrs S DowtyMrs E EvansMrs J C KavanaghMrs A KendrickMr R W KendrickMr A MoyseMrs D Whitehead

YorkshirePremier GrandMasterMr R Garthwaite

Life MasterMr S HallPremier NationalMasterMr A GouldingNational MasterMr T DessainMrs K Hall5 Star PremierRegional MasterMr P R Tempest1 Star PremierRegional MasterMrs J P Powell2 Star RegionalMasterMr M ArmitageDr R A LittonRegional MasterMr T W Copeland8 Star PremierMasterMr J Barnett6 Star PremierMasterMr R P Eaton4 Star PremierMasterMr P Lloyd

Mrs J F Shedden

2 Star PremierMasterMrs C Heron

2 Star TournamentMasterMr M Brennan

1 Star TournamentMasterMr N Smith

Tournament MasterMr I A Willmott

5 Star MasterMr D J DonaldsonMr E PattenMr A M PearsonMr R Williams

4 Star MasterMr M JealMrs C Laverack

3 Star MasterMrs S HultonMr SJ VickerstaffMrs B White

2 Star MasterMr J R BrayshawMr D GannonMrs J HeyMrs E Watson

1 Star MasterMr M ChapmanMrs M ChapmanMrs B A Huxstep

Advanced MasterMrs L BurdettMr J D BurnsMr D A CrosslandMr J R HooleMr J W Johnson

MasterMr J BlackettMr S FletcherMrs V LoweMr G L NashMr P PascoeMr I L Walker

County MasterMrs S BellardMr G BurdettMrs C EasthamMrs W V McLeanMr J S SheehanMr L S TaylorMrs H Wigley

District MasterMr C BaxterMrs A ColeMr R C JohnstonMs R M MarstonMr A MontgomeryMr D A Shaw

Area MasterMr P S Y AnwarMrs P J BaileyMr R CornfieldMr J R FearnleyMr A JeffersonMr J LinkMrs S StevensMrs D SykesMr E A VickermanMrs G Wooler

Club MasterDr A J I FarajMrs C KayeMrs A Knox-MilneMrs K Leeson

Local MasterMr K M BrownMr R HallMr P JonesMrs M I PrattMr C Roberts


COUNTY NEWS

AUGUST 23 is the closing datefor the submission of countyreports for the next issueof English Bridge. Please e-mail: [email protected]



played the game before, I won. The samething happened when, some time later, afriend asked me to play rubber bridge withhim at a local club. Success spurred my inte-rest, and I set to learning the game bywatching great players such as TerenceReese at play. When I won my first dupli-cate, I was ready to pack in the diamondtrade and take up a job as a bridge host.

Mainly, I am still doing that. NowadaysAudrey and I divideour time betweenLondon and Lauder-hill, Florida, but thepattern of the day isthe same. I maysometimes have lunchat home first, but Isoon set off for theclub for an afternoonof rubber bridge. Ioften walk there, asthat is one physicalactivity I do enjoy.Once at the club, Iplay for the house:it means I only receivehalf of my winnings,

but I don’t have to pay table money orworry about paying for food. This arran-gement suits me: my game is a lot sharperif I am not risking my own money!

That’s not to say that I don’t like a bit ofgambling. In fact, when I was younger, Iwas heavily into betting on the dogs; Ieventually lost huge sums and was verylucky when the bookies wrote off my debts.Nowadays, dog racing is still one of mypassions but I keep control of the size ofmy bets and limit the number of my visitsto the track, where I go with my friendMoeshe. I can often be found at theBetting Office in the morning, though,studying the form for a couple of hours.

Most of my time, however, is spent play-ing bridge. I only ever play professionally,and am not worried by the standard of mypartners. I am not worried by their nation-ality either: I have partnered players from

I USUALLY wake up around 7am. I havenever needed much sleep, but I do need agood breakfast, which I usually preparemyself. I am an avid reader of the news, soI take my time over coffee and cereals, andread the newspaper. I enjoy this ritual butI will also read any other newspaper thatcomes my way later during the day.

Having found out what’s new in theworld, I settle down to writing. Thirteen ofmy books have beenpublished, and there isalways at least onemore in the pipeline.Terence Reese, myfriend and first editor,used to say that I couldnot write without helpfrom my wife, Audrey.I think that was put-ting it a bit strong! Butmaybe Audrey is rightwhen she says that, leftto my own devices,my books would allbe written in a fewdays since I rattle offhands at the speed oflightning!

I know I tend to do that, but then bridgeis my life, though I fell into it by chance. Iwas born in Czechoslovakia, and, aged 15,was liberated from Buchenwald by theUS Army who made me their mascot. Myfamily had died in the Holocaust so, aftertwo years in rehabilitation, I went to livewith a family in Finchley and worked as adiamond cutter. It was not a bad life: at atime when a policeman was earning £5 aweek, I brought home £45! In spite of themoney, and satisfactions such as meetingthe then Princess Elizabeth – for whommy company made an engagement ring –working conditions were not healthy, andafter eleven years I was ready for change.

The family with whom I lived was keenon card games, and I picked them up easily.When one day I was asked to play in a whistdrive, I said yes and although I had never

the UK, the US, India, Iran, France, Austria,Germany – wherever they happen to befrom, as long as they are pleasant peopleand don’t mind paying my fees! I amavailable for rubber and duplicate, club andcongress events everywhere in the world.

This does not leave much time for familylife, but Audrey is very supportive and doesnot mind keeping herself busy teachingbridge and playing tennis or golf. We don’thave children, but are lucky in that we couldalways play parents (now grandparents) toour friends’ offsprings. I really enjoy thecompany of children and love telling themstories and keeping them entertained.Although they tend to go off me as theygrow up, they have well repaid my interestin them. It was because of my friendshipwith their little girl that my Finchley familytook me in and gave me a start in myEnglish life, and later, another little girl waskey to another rewarding friendship, withher parents, Judy Dench and MichaelWilliams. Lovely people – but what a shamethey did not play bridge! �

A day in the life of . . .

Martin HoffmanMartin Hoffman is reputedly the best pairs player in the world,

and has enjoyed a long string of successes both in the UK and abroad.He was also the winner of ‘Master Bridge’, the 1982 Channel 4 TV tournament contested

by bridge stars such as Omar Sharif , Zia Mahmood and Rixi Markus.

Martin’s Top Tip

Count the hand – then the biddingwill tell you how to play!

THIS tip applies to all play situations,but is especially useful when you havea two-way finesse:

N/S Game. Dealer East. Pairs.♠ K Q 6♥ 10 7 5 ♦ K J 6 5♣ A Q 2

♠ J 8 4 3 2 ♠ 10 9 5 ♥ 8 ♥ K Q J 9 6 4♦ Q 9 3 ♦ 7 ♣ J 9 4 3 ♣ 8 7 5

♠ A 7 ♥ A 3 2♦ A 10 8 4 2♣ K 10 6

West North East South2♥1 2NT

Pass 4NT All Pass1 Weak, 5-9, six-card suit

Once West leads a heart and you winEast’s jack with your ace, you cannotafford to lose the lead. Don’t guess theposition of the ♦Q: cash all your black-suit winners first, and note that Eastshows up with three cards in each. AsEast opened 2♥, he must have sixhearts and so can have only one dia-mond. Cash your ♦A in case the sin-gleton is the ♦Q, then finesse againstWest for two overtricks!

NW E

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AUG_08_EB_p62 Hoffman 16/7/08 11:50 am Page 58

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Beige

Brown

Approx size: 195 x 108mm (9” x 5”)

BridgePartner Duplicate boardsSet of 16: RRP £34.95 EBU OFFER £30 (specify colour)Set of 32: RRP £59.95 EBU OFFER £50 (specify colour)Set of 40: RRP £72.50 EBU OFFER £60 (specify colour)

- Can be used with or without Duplicate machine.

- Made from a durable hard-wearing plastic making them perfect for clubs or home use.

- Holder for traveller/score-sheet on the back.

- Each board measures: 260mm x 105mm x 12mm (10.25” x 4” x 0.5”)

- Available in choice of colours: Red, Green, Blue and Black

Bidding Boxes: Set of 4 from only £20see website or call us for further details


The very best Acol-playing Software available

Q

Make your cheque payable to and send to: Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH

� 01483 489961 www.mrbridge.co.uk/mrbridge-shop Fax 01483 797302

PLUS 9.1

FEATURES

� The Usual Friendly Interface (see above)

� Hint and Help Buttons – always at hand

� Easy Windows Installation

� Comprehensive Manual

� Rubber, Duplicate and Teams Scoring

� Instant results playing in teams mode

� 2,500 pre-played hands for teams

� 2,000 pre-played hands for match-pointedpairs including 1,000 new hands

Check your pairs percentage and ranking

Systems include: several versions of Acol,including Bernard Magee’s system, StandardAmerican or create your own.

� £79.95 including postage

BUY 8.8 NOWReceive 9.1, at no extra charge,when published in October.

Order with confidence.

SYSTEM

� 8mb RAM

� CD-ROM

� Pentium or equivalent

� Windows XP or Vista

HANS LEBER

ReadyOctober

NEW

NEW


Documents

AUG 08 EB p01 Front Cover 16/7/08 11:35 am Page 1