BRIDGE
Ladies first
Andrew Robson
LAST SUMMER, the British Ladies Bridge Team, which had recently won the European Championships, was challenged to a match by a Parliamentarian Bridge Team. Staged at The House of Commons, the contest was designed to raise the awareness of bridge as a sport. The hope is that bridge will become part of the Olympic movement. Things are certainly moving in the right direction — it is to be introduced as a demonstration sport at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Even the couple of intruders (including your columnist) who joined forces with the Parliamentarians could not prevent a victo- ry for the Ladies, though the result was in doubt until the very last deal. This week's deal represents a swing in favour of the Parliamentarian Team — they made game whereas the Ladies were defeated.
Dealer North North-South Vulnerable South West North East pass pass 1NT pass 3+ pass 44 pass pass pass West led +J and declarer for the Parlia- mentarians won with dummy's +A and led 4K. When this was ducked by East. He fol- lowed with 410, also ducked, and 46, won by 4A. East led +0 and West overtook with +K and continued with +10. East dis- carded *6 — an innocuous but fatal mis- take — and declarer trumped. He next led 114 to IFQ and VK and East switched to *7. Declarer rose with •K and drew East's remaining trump, discarding *10 from dummy. He cashed 11.1 and as he led 104 to NPA, West had to discard from *Q9 and +9. To discard +9 was clearly wrong dummy's 48 would be promoted. But her choice of discarding *9 worked no better. Declarer led dummy's •I to his *A and tabled *2 at trick 13, the only remaining *. He had mercilessly squeezed West.
But do you see that if East had kept hold of all his •s, he would have taken the last trick with *7 over declarer's *2?
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