Dealer: S Vul: E/W
NORTH
♠ AQJ108
♥ J8
♦ A963
♣ AJ
WEST EAST
♠ K5 ♠ 742
♥ KQ10 ♥ A52
♦ K54 ♦ QJ
♣ Q9863 ♣ K10754
SOUTH
♠ 963
♥ 97643
♦ 10872
♣ 2
Card games, especially bridge, have given rise to various sayings such as “keep your cards close to your chest”, “do your best with the cards that you are dealt” and “having possessions or qualities in spades”
In bridge the spade suit is valued because it outranks the other three suits. When you bid spades your opponents must raise the level of the bidding if they want to stay in the auction.. Lois James and Sandra Head, leaders after Round 1 of the Handicap Pairs Championship, were dealt spades and used them to good effect on Board 19 (above).
The bidding appears to have been 1C by West, 1S by North, 2C by East and a brilliant 2S by South, which ended the auction. Who needs points when you have spades and a singleton club? East predictably led the five of clubs, only to watch declarer (Lois) win with the Ace and then trump a club in dummy (South). A spade was then led from South’s hand, trapping West’s King. All that declarer had to do now was draw trumps and win two diamonds: the Ace and finally dummy’s ten. Winners for East/West were just two hearts and two diamonds. The 140 matchpoints for Lois and Sandra was a top score. No other North/South pair valued their spades sufficiently to win the auction. We can confidently assume that Lois and Sandra would have bid as high as 3S if necessary.
Results, Monday, 02/09/24 (5-table Handicap Pairs Championship Rd 1): N/S L. James S. Head (122.5) 1; N. Collins M. Simpson (98.7) 2. E/W C. Duggan N. McGinness (110); W. Milne J. Sipple (109) 2. Friday, 06/09/24 (5 & 1/2-table Howell): J. Smith R. Hart ( 64.0) 1; P. Kelly D. Moran (63.8) 2; N. Collins M. Simpson (59.7) 3; T. Hinde J. Mobbs (56.8) 4.
