Although it is probably of little interest to the readers of this magazine, one of my major issues currently is my teeth! I have known for at least 20 years that at some stage I was going to need all my teeth out and implants fitted. And finally the day came. Unfortunately, they found that my bones were softer than they had thought, so they were only prepared to do my upper jaw now, with the lower to come later. The process was not as bad as I had feared, the worst feature being the necessity to eat only soft food for eight weeks. And the prospect of doing the same again in a few months’ time.
My first weekend of soft food I went to Cardiff to play with Gilly Clench in a Welsh women’s event. It was pairs on the Saturday and teams on the Sunday. She had made a magnificent effort and provided lunch for everyone as well as organising the bridge.
We did not do particularly well in the pairs but managed to win the teams playing with a junior pair, Hanna Tuus and India Leeming, who played extremely well. It was a really fun weekend – on the Saturday evening, after the bridge, we went to Maggie & David’s house for an excellent Indian takeaway banquet … and plenty of wine and beer.
The following weekend was the first stage of the English Mixed Pairs Teams trial.
My team (Barry & me, Frances Hinden & Graham Osborne, Fiona Brown & Michael Byrne) headed the table at the end of the weekend and so won the right to pick our opponents for the first knock-out match from the remaining three qualifiers. As I write, we have yet to decide. We now need to win two knock-out matches in December if we are to earn the right to represent England in the European Championships next February.
Then it was the start of the new Premier League season. Barry and I play with Heather Dhondy & Brian Callaghan in that.
This was a rather exciting deal from an early match:
Dealer North. Love All
At our table the bidding was:
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♥️ | 3♣️ | Pass | |
| Pass | Dbl | Pass | Pass |
| 3♦️ | Dbl | Pass | 4♦️ |
| Pass | 5♥️ | Pass | 6♠️ |
| All Pass |
At equal vulnerability, South decided to go for the penalty, expecting his partner to reopen with a double with short clubs. Barry decided to rescue me from 3♣️ doubled, and now South had to catch up, ending up in the excellent slam.
In practice, Barry switched to a club after cashing a diamond at trick one. But even if he had switched to a trump, say, declarer will succeed on a double squeeze. He wins the trump switch, ruffs a club, ruffs a diamond, ruffs a club, ruffs another diamond back to hand and runs his trumps.
The position as he cashes the last one is:
Since West has had to keep the ♦️A and East the ♣️K, he knows that both opponents have only two hearts left, so the queen must drop. Superficially, it looks better defence to break up the squeeze by switching to a heart at trick two, but declarer just cashes his outside winners (two hearts and a club) and cross-ruffs for twelve tricks.
After a dodgy start, we mostly did OK for the rest of the weekend and finished the first weekend in third place. As always, the first goal is to avoid relegation, and then to finish in the top two and so get a Camrose match.
In the meantime, life trudges on – Toby and Briony are both still living with me. Toby has yet to find a job, while Briony is working as a nanny for more than one family, while waiting for her Open University degree course to start in October. Until she gets started, she won’t know how much of her time it takes up, and therefore how much nannying she will then be able to do.
It was her birthday in mid-September, and the three of us went to the Boat Show in Southampton, which was good fun. In the evening, Barry came over for a game of Monopoly, but we were all in the doghouse as we didn’t let Briony win!
