Contract bridge TEN YEARS ON

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34151, 12 May 1976, Page 27

Contract bridge TEN YEARS ON

( By

J. R. WIGNALL)

I was surprised to note the other day that this series of bridge articles, which started for a trial period of three months on April 11, 1966, has been running for just over 10 years.

Five hundred and nineteen articles later (one was missing during absence overseas a couple of years ago) I feel entitled to think the trial has been successful. It has certainly been so for the editors, compositors and printers of “The Press” who coped admirably with the peculiar terminology and diagrams demanded by the bridge world. One of my favourite stories is told by an established English writer, who filed his copy and went away to a bridge congress for the weekend. He was pursued by an urgent telegram from his paper to the effect: “Copy reads ‘South finally lost two aces’ but in diagram supplied South does not hold two aces. Please check.” Quite so. If South was not dealt two aces, how could he lose them?

Happily, very few such misunderstandings have arisen wih “The Press.” CHANGES The last 10 years have seen substantial changes in the world of contract bridge. From being a rather select game with a limited following it has now become much more popular. In the old days, for example, we used to wear dinner jackets for the evening sessions of even local tournaments, but now such standards have fallen right away. It is, in fact, virtually impossible to persuade all the participants to wear ties. The average age of bridge players has fallen sharply, a trend even more noticeable overseas than here. Players representing their countries in high class competition are quite often in their early twenties whereas as recently as 1964 the British team would have had an average age of over 60.

Bidding systems too have undergone a substantial change. In 1907 the Italians emerged as a leading power in the bridge world playing systems based on an artificial strong one club. The majority of experts poured scorn but, after a few years of dominance, the Italians finally won. Now prepared club systems are common and in the international field probably outnumber the natural systems. The bridge population has been rising rapidly. In Christchurch and Dunedin clubs which had, 10 years ago, membership of around 200 have now built extensive club rooms and cater for memberships of 700 to. 1100. To cope with the interest in the game much more is written about it and we are beginning to see in New Zealand the emergence of the professional full time bridge tutor.

Many of us in the past did a little tutorial work to assist in attracting new members to our clubs. It was not easy and there were many pitfalls. One tutor was instructing his class on the importance of withholding high cards to capture other honours. “The proper place for an ace,” he expounded, “is on a king. And the proper place for a king is on the Queen. A snigger from the back of the class slowed him down but manfully he toiled on with: “And the proper place for a Queen is on a knave.” At this point he rapidly changed the subject before total disruption occurred. SPONSORSHIP

Another recent trend is the introduction of sponsorship to bridge competitions. Lancia in Italy has its own bridge team which plays all over Europe and the World, the Bols company sponsors a competition for bridge columnists. Alfred Dunhill, Ltd, is prominent in bridge sponsorship in New Zealand and more recently Phillip Morris have set up a European Cup. Run under the aegis of the European Bridge League, competitors may enter all or any of 10 major tournaments in "different centres, choosing their best three results from these. The events are held all over the Continent from December to July. Designed to encourage friendly international competition it also provides young playerse with travel opportunities. The winning junior pair in each tournament is entitled to receive a travel contribution for another Cup event. One of the leading pairs is English professional Martin Hoffman with his partner Desmond Hackett. The former is famous in England and on the Continent

'for his high speed card playbeing colloquially referred to las Hurricane Hoffman. This is a sample of his play:— N. A 105 V J ♦ KJ9752 & KQS4 W. E. A 42 A K 863 V 109876542 V AK ♦ 864 ♦AQIO A — A 10987 S. A AQJ9 7 V Q 3 ♦ 3 A AJ6.32 The auction was:— S. W. N. E. 1A 3V 4A 4V 4A No 5A Dble All Pass To facilitate the bidding of both his black suits South, Hoffman, opened one club and over West’s pre-emptive call of three hearts North raised to four clubs. When East pushed on to four hearts South called his spades and eventually alighted in five clubs doubled by East.

West led the 10 of hearts taken by East who correctly switched to a trump. When West showed out careful play was required to bring home the contract for there were severe communication problems in returning to the South hand. Hoffman found the best line.

Winning the club switch with dummy’s queen he led the spade 10 and when East played low won the trick in hand with the jack of spades. Then he ruffed his remaining heart to lead the small spade to his queen. The third round of spades was trumped on ,the table and after cashing dummy’s king of clubs he led low j diamond from the North hand. East won with the 10 but the Contract was now safe. When East continued with the ace of diamonds Hoffman ruffed in hand cashed the ace and jack of clubs and then the ace of spades dropped the king so that his remaining low spade was good. He had made his contract for the loss of only one heart and one diamond trick.