BRIDGE
No way home
Susanna Gross
AS Tammy Wynette once said, sometimes it's hard to be a woman — especially if you want to be taken seriously at the bridge table. For some reason (and this has been the subject of constant specula- tion), the world's top players have always been men.
As a result, many players assume their female opponents will be a soft touch. Obvi- ously, this rankles. So last weekend, in a dis- play of girl-power, I played on an all-female team at the Swiss Teams in Brighton — a huge annual bridge tournament. My team- mates were Margaret Courtney, Tracey Capal and Sandra Penfold (who plays for Great Britain).
We finished well above average — and, more gratifyingly, disconcerted our male opponents a number of times. In particular, Margaret was the only player in the room to find the perfect defence on this hand: 4 A Q 5 3 2
♦ A Q J 8 ♦ 10 5 • 10 9
4 1098
✓ K 7 6 5 2 • 9 3 +I 8 3
4 K J 7 4
♦ 4 ♦ K 8 7 6 4 + A 7 4
N W E S
• 6 • 10 9 3 • A J 2 + K J 65 2
The Bidding South West North East 1+ pass 14 pass 2+ pass 3V pass 3NT pass pass pass Margaret led the ♦3, and South cap- tured my ♦K with the ♦A. He then played a club to dummy's +10, which I ducked, and another club, which I won with the +A. I returned a diamond, declar- er played low and Margaret played her • 9, letting dummy's •10 win!
South was now done for: he had no way back to his hand. He tried the °IQ, but Margaret ducked; he followed with the 1►J, but Margaret ducked again. In desperation, he switched to a small spade, which I won with the 4J. I then played a diamond to Margaret's ♦Q, and she switched to spades. There was no way South could avoid losing five tricks.
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