Switching off
Susanna Gross
Whenever I leave my mobile phone anywhere — which I do with alarming regularity — I feel as though I’ve been disconnected from the world. Still, there are times when mobiles can be a big nuisance: at plays, for instance, or concerts, or funerals. Or bridge tournaments. If your mobile goes off during an important competition, you’re not just reprimanded, you also have points deducted. This is what happened to Audrey Hartley and Stefanie Rohan at last year’s England Ladies Trials. Throughout, they were lying either first or second. But then — disaster! Audrey, who only uses her mobile phone for emergencies and wasn’t even aware that anyone had her number, heard a loud ringing from her handbag. While the other players glared and the tournament director hurried over, she tentatively answered. It was her daughter, wanting to know — and this would surely be an odd call to take under any circumstances — how to stuff a chicken.The upshot is that they were fined two points, and ended up coming second — one and a half points behind the winners.
The good news is that they got selected to play for England anyway, in a match against Scotland in April of this year. Audrey’s phone stayed switched off, and they came home triumphant. Here she is in action against the Scottish ladies (cover the E/W hands):
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