By Neil Bonnell, Warwick Bridge Club
Contract bridge has its own language, which is incomprehensible to non-bridge players. If you happen to be close to a group of bridge players you might hear them saying, “The only way I could make would have been to have dropped North’s stiff King,” or “All I had in hearts was Queen small,” or “Dummy was useless,” or “My best suit was frozen.”
Having a frozen suit sounds uncomfortable, but this term describes a suit like both spades and clubs in the deal above (Board 6 last Monday) where each hand has one of the top honour cards: Ace, King, Queen or Jack. When playing 3S from the West hand, David Moran had to cope with two suits of this kind. The classic frozen suit is one in which the pair that opens the suit i.e. first leads the suit, usually gives their opponents an advantage. North led the Jack of diamonds, which David won with the Ace in dummy (East). Defying the odds he then led the Jack of spades. South followed with the Queen, West with the King and North with the Ace. North’s advantage was fleeting as West’s ten of spades was the highest spade and dropped North’s nine when David regained the lead. This promoted dummy’s eight, allowing David to draw trumps without further loss. The defence could not be prevented from making the Ace of spades, the Ace of hearts, the King of diamonds and the King of clubs, but David fulfilled his cheeky contract of 3S, which required nine tricks for 140 points. This was an equal top.
Results: Friday, 04/11/22 (5-table Mitchell): N/S T. Hinde J. Mobbs (69.1) 1; Jenny Smith R. Hart (52.6) 2; B. Reid J. McKeen (48.8) 3. E/W P. Kelly J. Nankervis (64.5) 1; S. Goddard N. McGinness (51.3) 2; W. Milne J. Sipple (50.7) 3. Monday, 07/11/22 (7-table Mitchell): N/S N. Collins M. Simpson (64.2) 1; R. Hart H. Price (62.1) 2; J. Nankervis P. Kelly (56.7) 3. E/W N. Bonnell D. Moran (65.4) 1; W. Milne J. Sipple (54.3) 2; P. Campbell N. McGinness (52.5) 3.
