The Post-mortem

The new friends had done creditably in their recent tournament. They had scored below 50% but had had a few unlucky boards. For a first tournament outing it had gone quite well. Meeting for afternoon tea in Gordon’s bachelor flat they were looking at hand from the morning session (where Frieda was East and Gordon was West).

	♠J8 ♥QJT53 ♦652 ♣KT5
♠AQ62 ♥K ♦AQ7 ♣J8764		♠953 ♥A862 ♦KJ84 ♣92
	♠KT74 ♥974 ♦T93 ♣AQ3

They recalled the rather strange bidding:

West	North	East	South
			Pass
1♣	Pass	1♦	1♠
2♦	Pass	Pass	Pass

Frieda knew that she had played the hand spectacularly well and was eager to relive the triumph. “South led the ♥9 and, already I knew heaps about his hand” she said proudly.

“What do you mean?” asked Gordon.
“Well”, she went on, “Surely that is a doubleton heart since with a singleton North would have had 7 hearts and would have bid. Also, South had overcalled so must have exactly 5 spades since with 6 he would have opened a weak two.”

Gordon certainly agreed with her reasoning so tactfully did not point out that South was a madman who had overcalled on a 4 card suit and made a rather non-standard lead. Encouragingly, he said “And what happened then, Frieda?”.

Frieda remembered very clearly. “I won the heart in dummy, led a small club won by South who played a trump that I won in my own hand. Then I played my remaining club which was won by North. North played their singleton spade which I won with the ♠Q in dummy and I played a third round of clubs, ruffing it with both opponents following. Now I started to count. South began with 5 spades, two hearts, and (I now knew) exactly 3 clubs; so they must have had 3 diamonds to begin with. But that meant that trumps were dividing 3-3. So I could draw trumps, ending in dummy and cash my two established clubs and the Ace of spades. I made 10 tricks for a top board.”

Gordon’s own finest hour had come about through Frieda’s overoptimistic bidding so he was relieved when she herself recalled the hand. “You played that 6NT in the afternoon beautifully, Gordon”, she said fondly (at least, Gordon interpreted her tone as a fond one and felt a frisson of excitement). This time, Gordon was South and the full hand was

	♠AQ75 ♥— ♦8 ♣AKJT9874
♠K9643 ♥T93 ♦J97 ♣Q2		♠82 ♥AQ8752 ♦AQT5 ♣6
	♠JT ♥KJ64 ♦K6432 ♣53

West had been the dealer and the bidding had been

West	North	East	South
Pass	2♣	Pass	2NT
Pass	3♣	Pass	3NT
Pass	6NT	Double	Pass
Pass	Pass

Frieda would have been the first to concede that her 6NT was an overbid but she was disappointed that she was not being allowed to play in her magnificent 8 card suit. East’s final double was made with some confidence. Here is how the play proceeded. West led their fourth smallest spade which Gordon ran around to his ♠J. He then played the ♠T, West covered with the ♠K, and dummy’s ♠A won the trick. Now Gordon played 8 rounds of clubs on one of which West made the slight error of discarding a spade.

This was the position with 3 tricks to go:

	♠Q7 ♥— ♦8 ♣—
♠96 ♥— ♦J ♣—		♠— ♥A ♦AQ ♣—
	♠— ♥K ♦K6 ♣—

On the ♠Q East discarded ♦Q and South ♦6. Gordon now played dummy’s last spade. Poor East had lost track of the discards so didn’t know which Ace to keep. He discarded the ♦A and West had to give the last trick to Gordon’s ♦K.

Memories of their good boards had quite dispelled those of their disasters. They decided to enter the forthcoming A point tournament and to meet regularly from now on to practise their bidding. The suggestion to meet for bidding practice was made by Gordon who was beginning to find many things in Frieda besides her bridge that attracted him. He had been widowed for several years and Frieda’s bubbly chatter quite dispelled his loneliness. But he was shy to declare his feelings fearing that Frieda would think him foolish. He would have been surprised to know the real state of Frieda’s heart. She was very taken by his courteous old-world charm but her upbringing made it hard for her to give obvious encouragement.

We shall leave our heroes there, hoping that they may find a way past their mutual reticence.

← Previous Post | Table of Contents | Next Post →