REBECCA ROOD'S MAILBAG................

Dear Rebecca,

How about this idea for a new addition to the bidding box : a " May Day - SOS " or " Thunderbirds Are Go " card . There are dozens of occasions where you have opened on an appalling or non-existent suit, only to see your LHO double, partner pass, and your RHO gleefully leaving the double in for penalties. This the time when you need to have a May Day card at your disposal.

The benefits of having this little gem are twofold. Firstly, it means the " Redouble " card is restricted to carrying only positive messages. Responder can use it to show good values, and the opener can use it bachgammon style to say " I want to up the ante because the odds favour me making this contract ". Therefore, when the May Day is played it clearly flags up an opposite message : " partner the odds of me making this contract are zero, so for pity's sake bid your best suit to help us get out of a dire situation ".

Yours always striving to overcome bidding ambiguities, Arther Brane

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Dear Rebecca,

What a fantastic notion of yours of having more bidding cards to choose from. The one card that is absolutely must in any bidding box is a " Guillotine " card. This would allow a player to stop his partner from bidding again, other than plonking down a pass.

The advantages of having such a card are tremendous. Firstly, it will avoid the calamity of partner making a phantom sacrifice against an opposition contract, which might well fail. Secondly, it will stop partner from making a likely bid which would be destined to incur a very painful and damaging penalty double. Thirdly, it enables you to control the bidding far more effectively, giving you loads more opportunities to be declarer.

Fourthly, it would stop partner from making unsuccessful and fatuous doubles. And lastly, it guarantees that even when you have a partner, who is an aggressive over-bidding maniac, the bidding can never go beyond the point where positive scores are certain.

Yours hating partners who stick their bloody necks out, Anne Boleyn