The Diaries of Wendy Wensum Episode 93: Stormy Weather

Spouse’s elder brother Andy was staying with us for a few days. He and Spouse were recalling a particular escapade from their younger years when they lived in Felixstowe. It was a bleak and bitter winter’s day and they decided to cycle to Cobbold’s Point where giant waves were breaking over the beach. On the spur of the moment and with a roaring gale behind them they raced furiously and excitedly along the deserted coast road through the Felixstowe Ferry golf course ending their journey where the River Deben clashed angrily with a raging North Sea. Their return journey was more gruelling as they struggled against driving rain all the way home.

A session of bridge can seem a bit like that, easy one moment hard going the next.

Never a particularly keen bridge player Andy agreed to partner his brother at the evening’s duplicate at the Riverside. Millie and I had just finished the penultimate round of the session and were having a fairly good run. I glanced up to see Spouse and Andy returning from the bar with glasses recharged. Spouse as usual had a pint of real ale in his grasp and his brother a pint of cider. They seemed to be delighted when they discovered they were playing us in the final round. In contrast I had already had a premonition of impending disaster. This first board against them got Millie and me off to a bad start.

After I led the ♠️4 Andy ducked in dummy, Millie played the nine and Andy won in hand with the king. He then played the ♦️10, I ducked and after some thought he let it run. He took his five tricks in diamonds before returning to hand with the ♠️A. He now had seven tricks in the bag. He next played the ♣️9 towards his ten and queen. I ducked so did he and with the ❤️A still to come the game was an easy make.

The traveller revealed a shared top for the brothers. Most partnerships had finished in part scores of various denominations. Never mind we could redeem ourselves on the last board. Or could we?

Millie passed. Andy bid 1♠️. With four good hearts and 12 HCP I doubled for take out. Spouse took the opportunity to show his diamond suit at the two level. Holding four hearts and a spade singleton Millie jumped preemptively to 3❤️. Andy confirmed his long spade suit with 3♠️ and Spouse bid game. Millie now bravely ventured a double. Holding the top two hearts and with the ♠️K looking to be favourably placed I saw no reason to take any further action.

I led the ❤️A on which Millie played the four. I assumed this suggested a club switch so I faced the ♣️10 as the top of a sequence. Dummy and Millie both played low and Andy won in hand with the king. It was soon all over. We subsequently won two more tricks with the ❤️A and the trump king but Andy made his doubled contract easily enough giving us our second poor score in a row. There just has to be a moral here: Beware of Big Brother and avoid foul weather. Mind you George Orwell warned us about the former in ‘1984’; as to the latter climate change is more problematic.

BRIDGE January 2020 | Page 24

Sally’s Slam Clinic

Sally Brock Looks At Your Slam Bidding

Where did we go wrong?

For the second month running no one has sent me a well bid slam so again I will look at what a good sequence would be for the hands people have sent in. Nicholas Beswick asked about this deal from Crickhowell Bridge Club (both sides vulnerable):

At his table he opened 1♠️ and West overcalled 3♦️. His partner’s double ended the auction and 3♦️ went just one down. When the opponents bid at a high level against you double should show general values rather than just trumps usually the one who has bid a lot in a suit has most of the trumps. Here after the double I would have bid 4❤️. Partner would have bid 4♦️ which I think should be a cue bid agreeing clubs and then I would have bid 4♠️. Partner would probably just finish with 6♣️ though it wouldn’t be silly to bid 4NT after which I could bid 6♣️ to show an odd number of aces with a void if that is your agreement. However at least the small slam should be bid.

Having said that the West hand is far too strong for a 3♦️ overcall. After 4♦️ North would also double and now South would bid 4NT to show long clubs with a second higher ranking suit. Again North would bid 6♣️ but the higher preempt would have done its work as it is virtually impossible to bid the grand slam.

Colleen Haffey asked how these two hands should be bid:

She suggested that the bidding should start 1♠️ 1❤️ 2♣️ but I do not think that the South hand is worth a game force with no fit for partner. I would bid a simple 1♠️ and then the bidding would go:

Once North has made a simple preference bid of 2♦️ he can afford to show a bit more excitement later. His 4❤️ shows good trumps in a weak hand. Since South has implied short hearts this is one of the rare times that a cue bid of shortage in partner’s suit is acceptable and the same goes for 4♦️. Now South can bid the slam.