Deadly serious
Susanna Gross
BROWSING through the latest issue of English Bridge magazine, I came across a letter from Hugh Tarran in Stroud complaining that the membership at his village duplicate club is dwindling because there are too many rules and regulations. Most players, he wrote, want to socialise in a relaxed environment. They don't want to spend their time filling out convention cards, and they find it intimidating when other players shout 'Director!' when someone makes a minor mistake.
Quite. Perhaps the managers of 'social' bridge clubs should crack down on those players who take it all too seriously — not least on the man I heard about recently who called the director over to complain that his 98-year-old opponent had hesitated before bidding.
This sort of behaviour makes everyone nervous. Last week I myself was worded about the length of time I'd paused after my partner Neil Mendoza made a positive response to my 24 opener. So I decided to take the pressure off Neil — who might be accused of gleaning information from my pause — by jumping straight to a grand slam:
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