Les Longhurst Les, a world-class player, was a prominent figure in bridge circles in Sydney. He played regularly at the Wollstonecraft Bridge Club as well as other clubs on the North Shore. He first played for New South Wales in 1936, won the Interstate Teams in 1947 and came first in the 1975 Open Trials. This earned him a place in the Australian Open Team in the 1976 Bermuda Bowl and the 1976 World Open Teams Olympiad. Les was a most popular player, both as partner and opponent, and always the consummate gentleman. He was always keen to encourage promising players and until 1989 he had competed in every teams-of-three event held at the NSW Bridge Association. And that is why the Teams of Three was given his name. In 1976 the Lancia Team, headed by Omar Sharif and including three world champions from the legendary Blue Team, Giorgio Belladonna, Pietro Forquet and Benito Garozzo, toured Australia and played a test match against the Australian Team. On the following deal, Les judged better than his counterpart, Omar Sharif. Dealer North : N-S vulnerable What would you do as North with: West North East South A104 Decide for yourself before K64 looking at the complete deal: --- 1C 3S 4H KJ85 4S ? . QJ9 A104 Sharif passed 4S and Garozzo, South, doubled. K64 The defence collected 500 via 1 spade, 1 heart, Dlr: N KJ85 Vul: N-S 1 diamond and 3 clubs. QJ9 K63 QJ9752 At the other table Les bid 5H. From the A9 72 bidding, he judged that South would have a QT762 3 singleton spade at most and that his three-card support would be more than adequate for a suit T43 K876 8 introduced at game-level. In addition North’s QJT853 minor suit holdings should be useful opposite A94 whatever values South had in the minors. So it A52 proved as South made 12 tricks for +680 and + 5 Imps to Australia. My thanks to Ron Klinger for providing this insight of Les Longhurst. .