MADEIRA

BRIDGE

Hard times

Andrew Robson

IN THE second round of this year's Gold Cup (Britain's primary open teams tourna- ment), my team, captained by Rodney Leach, trailed by 30 IMPs (an IMP equals roughly 50 points) with eight deals remain- ing. Desperate measures were called for: Dealer East

4

♦ A Q 9 6 • 3 • Q .1 109 South double 3NT

• 0 ♦ K • 8 f 7 3 5 4

43 r8

• A • K West

21, all pass Neither side

108 7 J 10 2

vulnerable 5 4 2 4 A K 9 6 V 5 4 2

♦ Q 7 4 • A 6 2 6 5

East INT (1244) pass

N W

S

E

7 KJ 8 3 109 North 34 In one room, Tony Forrester and I sat North-South. South, Forrester, gambled a penalty double of East's 1NT, no doubt hop- ing his •s would all run. West bid Zr (why not 24?) and North jumped to 34. Fast passed and South's gambling continued. From his perspective 3NT was the only game contract that might succeed, relying on part- ner for a ♦ stopper. North did stop •s, but must have wanted to return to the safety of his seven card 4 suit (I was!). 3NT wasn't a classical contract, holding only 17 points, both hands being wildly distributional. It became a dreadful contract: West led 40, which East ducked and South won with 4K. He led a V on which West played low. A costly error — the defence had eight tricks to take if he had grabbed VA — doubtless he had no idea that his partner held +A. South rose with dummy's VK and led a •8. When East followed low, so did South. He led dummy's second ♦ and soon chalked up his contract with seven ♦ tricks, VK and 4K. In the other room, Leach, West, was declarer in 4". The 47 was lead and Leach rose with dummy's +A and tried to cash 4A and K in an effort to discard his singleton • . When South trumped 4K, West had to lose two trump tricks, a ♦ and 4K. An unlucky one down still represented a swing of 350 points (8 1MPs) to Leach: +400 (300 for the non- vulnerable game bonus) in Room 1 and -50 in Room 2. We recovered 32 IMPs over the eight deals and live to fight the third round!