Bridge is not a game for born losers, or anyone for that matter born under a bad sign. Moreover, for many of those cursed never to win, the only luck they get is bad luck. As for the fortunate ones, they have all experienced from time to time Lady Luck sitting on their shoulders. For me, she has been a regular and most welcome companion, but on one occasion she deseted me completely. Never in my life have I been so gutted at the table. So let's look at what happens when it doesn't just rain....but chooses to pour instead ! The opposition was a team from Manchester which included the highly-rated Evans brothers. It was the quarter-finals of the NICKO teams.
It was a very closely contested match all the way through, but on the pen-ultimate board I was dealt as North : Jxxx....xxx....(void)....Axxxxx, opposite his partner's A10x...AQ......xxxx.....xxxx. After bold bidding on our part, we reached 5C, which they doubled. Their diamond Ace was ruffed at trick one, and with only one trump trick, and one spade trick available to the defence (courtesy of a cleverly engineered throw-in ), the contract was made for +550 to us. Good result...this would surely win us the match.
In other room my team mate opened the bidding 1S with West hand, holding: KQxxx....Jxx...KQxx...Q. This recieved a 2H response from East with his x.....KJ19xx....AJxxx...KJ. So with the opposition pair not entering the auction, our team-mates sweetly sailed into an ambitious but not unreasonable 4H contract. This was speculatively doubled by South as a belated gesture of defiance. A diamond was led at trick one and ruffed. And with 2 losing top trumps, another diamond ruff, PLUS two black Aces.....the contract was 3 off.....vulnerable ....for minus 800 !! The net gain of 6 imps to the opponents was just sufficient to enable them to progress forward to the semi-final round of the competition. And to cap it all off, as I made my weary way home on foot, the heavens opened up once more to piss on me yet again......
No comments:
Post a Comment