TRUMPS PLUS SEPTEMBER 2013 VOLUME 6 Issue 3 9 2 8 4 4 1 4 4 Published Quarterly 7 O D E R N C R E S C E N T President Gwen Wiles presenting Jean Field with a token of the club’s appreciation for her work over the last 7 years. Also inside this quarter: Club Championship winners Albert Benjamin—A memoir by Ursula Harper A Brief Look at Vacant Spaces—Peter Smith Wild and Crazy Bidding—Richard Fox And more, plus all our regular features CONTENTS Editorial SPECIAL ARTICLES Hopefully, the world of winter is slipping into Farewell to Jean Field 7 the past, and sunny days are almost with Club Championship Winners 14 us, tempting us out into An Enduring Partnership 27 the courtyard. The onset of spring marks BRIDGE ARTICLES one other event that False Carding 7 many of us will not The Wednesday Game have noticed, and that is the wind-up of Book Review 9 the year’s interclub teams competition. Fiske Warren Over one hundred members have participated in the interclub teams this Double Disaster at the Swan River 11 year. I don’t have the numbers for past Swiss Pairs years but I would think that the number Maura Rhodes involved this year must be something of A Brief Look at Vacant Places 12 a record. We have had two Open teams, Peter Smith three Intermediate teams, and four Adelaide ANC 14 Restricted teams. For those who don’t Noelene Law know how the teams work, each team plays a home and an away match Wild and Crazy Bidding 16 against each of the teams from the other Richard Fox clubs, giving members an opportunity to meet players from other clubs and to get Albert Benjamin 21 to know about those other clubs. For Ursula Harper example, in the past couple of weeks an CLUB NEWS AND REGULAR intermediate team and a restricted team FEATURES have travelled to Kalamunda to play Ron Klinger Column 4 teams there, and shortly the Kalamunda teams will visit us for return matches. So 17 when you see two tables of players over The Friday Morning Group 18 by the window on either side of the The Rueful Rabbit 26 playing area, seemingly divorced from the normal activities in the room, you are Canadian Bridge and Fishing Report 24 seeing these team competitions in Marcey Spilsbury action. Opportunities to play in Teams Library Notes 31 for next year will be announced in the Val Krantz opening weeks of the year and I do encourage you to participate. Teams Membership Notes - Date Diary - 32 matches are great fun, as I am sure all Solutions on those who have been involved this year would agree, and provide the opportunity to experience different playing styles to the ones we normally face in our day to day competitions. 2 Now for this edition and back to our world of bridge. In addition to our normal list of articles we have a very interesting President’s book review from Fiske, a blast from the past from a 1975 edition of the Women’s Weekly, a report on the Canadian bridge scene from Marcey Spilsbury, and a Report fascinating description from Ursula Harper of one of the greats in bridge, We have had a very Albert Benjamin, inventor of the rainy introduction to eponymous Benjamin Twos. I hope you Spring this year, enjoy them all. however it means more Finally, I regret to say that our assistant seats at the bridge table editor, Val Krantz, is leaving us. Val has and we welcome all made a great contribution to Trumps players. Plus, having been in the action from the New membership very start in May, 2008. We will sorely applications have slowed miss her editing expertise. However we but we still have over are pleased to say that she will still be 1000 members to date. The Saturday seen in our pages as she will continue afternoon Youth Sessions started by with her personal column, Library Jonathan Free and Ron Cooper are Notes. Thank you very much for all your particularly encouraging. It is wonderful to work Val. see the youthful faces, serious in their Once again, if you would like me to concentration, and learning at such a include anything please give me a call rapid rate that is envious to some of the on my mobile 0422 381 253, or email me older members. We all must encourage at their participation as they are the future of [email protected]. bridge. The Supervised sessions are still Chris Bagley well patronised and I thank all the members who give up their bridge days to run these sessions. Many of these players segue into the main room and are keen to improve and enjoy their bridge Editor: playing at the club. Chris Bagley We are in a very good financial position and have an experienced team on the Financial Committee who have given Helen Seward purposeful advice and have suggested Editing and inter- that the Management Committee look into views some Strategic Planning after the AGM. We intend to involve any interested Publisher members so that we can plan for the Lynne Errington future. We also intend to resurrect the Social Sub Committee to oversee the Printing many events throughout the year that and Records require special planning. The Sub Sheenagh Young Committees are very important elements in the successful running of the club and 3 their recommendations make it easier for the Management Committee to make the Ron Klinger right decisions. The Tournament Committee has Says: overseen a very full calendar of events this year and they have worked hard to Try ensure that you, the members, have had This a variety of events to enter. It is probably the hardest job at the club to be on this Problem Committee as the backlash is fast and furious when something goes wrong. We try hard to get things right but in future, I urge all members to understand that this STRANGE AND STRANGER is a bridge club, it is about playing bridge and it is about enjoying a wonderful, This deal arose in the finals of an social pastime. Interstate Teams: I would like to acknowledge the hard work that these members and the Directors do South dealer : Nil vulnerable each and every month which is often under appreciated by many members. THE AUCTION: The Management Committee is pleased West North East South that we have had continuing support from --- --- --- Pass members who volunteer their time to help 1H Dble 1S 1NT in the successful running of the club. We 2H 3D Pass 3NT urge you to put your name down for Pass Pass Pass something this year. The smallest deed helps us all out as the club relies on its volunteers. THE PROBLEM: The Annual General Meeting is being th held on Tuesday 8 October and I What should West lead from: encourage as many of you as possible to 42 attend. The popular Melbourne Cup th K1097542 luncheon will be held on Tuesday 5 7 November. Tickets will be on sale very AK3? soon so don’t miss out. The Hans Rosendorf event will be completed by the Compare the results in the Open time this goes to print and then we look Teams, Women’s Teams, forward to the Christmas Congress, Seniors’ Teams. Christmas Party and prize giving to round out the year of events. The Novice Pairs Courtesy of championship which was cancelled earlier www.ronklingerbridge.com] in the year has been rescheduled to be played on two consecutive Monday (Solution Page 32) Mornings 21st & 28th October. Happy Bridging! Gwen Wiles 4 WINNING NO TRUMP LEADS By David Bird and Taf Anthias A BOOK REVIEW by Fiske Warren Let me start by giving you we should have won. 3 problems from the Let’s start with the first problem hand: book. In each case, the opponents bid ♠AK3 862 ♦K96532 ♣8 1NT on your right and 3NT on your left. Many of us would lead ♦5, following the What do you lead from the following well known advice of “4th highest of our hands? longest and strongest suit”. Our reasoning is that we can set up our ♠AK3 862 ♦K96532 ♣8 diamonds and use our spade honours as ♠J86 95 ♦KQ72 ♣KJ72 entries. Bird and Anthias asked their ♠ KQ72 KJ72 ♦J86 ♣95 computer to construct 5,000 possible deals giving us this exact hand and where David Bird is a prolific writer of bridge the opposition would have bid 1NT-3NT. books and is probably best known for his Let’s see the results of how leading each humorous books about the bridge possible suit works: playing monks of the St Titus monastery. This book, by contrast, is a serious and Average number ground breaking work solely about Beats of opening leads. This is a subject that is contract defensive tricks generally avoided by most bridge authors, other than at a very basic level. ♠A 37.6% 4.10 The reason is that it is far easier to write 6/2 21.2% 3.41 about the latest bidding systems and ♦5 19.6% 3.32 gadgets or about clever declarer play ♣8 17.9% 3.30 and defensive signals. Opening leads can tend to be a hit or miss affair and it A diamond lead is almost half as is often hard to say in advance which is likely to defeat the contract as a leading the “best” opening lead. Until now. ♠A. Even a heart lead is likely to be more Bird and Anthias both have I.T.