CONTRACT BRIDGE A Little Knowledge Was Dangerous

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31504, 19 October 1967, Page 11

CONTRACT BRIDGE A Little Knowledge Was Dangerous

(Contributed by J R W ) In spite of his infrequent attendance at the club, the Lawyer has accumulated a fair amount of ill-will. He is querulous and argumentative, a retired solicitor for most of his working life, and his habit of invoking the rules on every conceivable occasion is particularly annoying to Charlie, who likes a quick easy-going game. So when they cut against each other, the outcome was bound to be interesting. Quoting an obscure club rule, the Lawyer prevented Charlie arranging a wager on the result of the rubber with the Doctor or indeed with anyone else within earshot, before dealing the first hand:

Sitting West, the Lawyer opened one weak no-trump.

the Admiral passed, and the Doctor jumped to three clubs. Charlie's three hearts was of course a psychic bid, aimed at confusing his opponents. Over West’s three no-trumps the Admiral mustered a raise of his partner’s alleged suit and East, convinced that Charlie was bluffing, doubled. South ran to his long spade suit, and was doubled again. There was a moment of tension as the Admiral fought his natural impulse to return to the seven card suit, but remembering Charlie’s occasional whim of calling a spade a heart he eventually passed. Switch Too Late West led a dub to East's ace, and the latter played the king of hearts before switching to a trump. West took his ace to lead another round, but it was already too late. The declarer won with dummy’s nine, ruffed a heart in hand, ruffed a diamond on the table and trumped another heart. By now all the adverse hearts had gone, so Charlie re-entered dummy by trumping another diamond and played off the three good hearts on which he discarded his remaining three diamonds. The doubled contract was thus made with the loss of the aces of clubs, hearts and spades, and Charlie sat back happily. “If you start by leading trumps we can defeat that ; contract,” said the Doctor, always at his best in the post-

mortem. Rising to his own defence the Lawyer countered that his partner could equally well have led spades at the second trick: In any event, East should not have passed the double for their side could make six clubs. “Or even seven no-trumps,” added Charlie, never loath to rub salt into the wound. Impervious to the atmosphere round the table the Admiral dealt the next hand:

1H No IS No 4S All Pass At this point the Admiral led the queen of diamonds and the Lawyer, smarting from the previous hand, pounced. “Lead out of turn,” he barked. “Partner, you can insist on the queen of diamonds being left as an exposed card, or you can forbid the lead of a diamond, or demand the lead of any other suit.” Charlie started to say something, but he was cut short, and the Doctor requested a club lead. The Admiral was allowed to replace the offending diamond queen in his hand, then Charlie explained that much as he would have liked he could not lead a club, but now that the requirements of the rule had been observed he was presumably free to lead anything. Defeated Himself

N. S—9863 H—J 9 8 7 5 3 C—10 8 6 W. E. S—A 4 S—2 H—A 6 4 H—K Q 10 D—K1073 D—AQ86 C—K953 C—AJ742 S. S—KQJ1075 H—2 D-J9542 The auction was: W. N. E. S. 1NT No 3 C 3H 3 NT 4 H Dbie 4S Dble All Pass

N. S—J7 H—763 D—Q J C—Q86542 W. E. S—Q 9 6 3 S—A K 10 8 H—AK85 H—Q 10 D—8 3 D—9 7 2 C—A97 C—KJ103 S. S—542 H—J 9 4 2 D—AK10654 C— This time the auction was straightforward: W. N. E. S. No 1C ID