The British . Bridge World SUCCESSOR TO THE CONTRAcr BRIDGE JOURNAL: MEDIUM FOR ENGLISH BRIDGE UNION NEWS Edited by TERENCE REESE VOLUME 11 March 1961 NUMBER 3 Editorial Board BERNARD WESTALL (CHAIRMAN) GEOFFREY L. BUTLER HUBERT PHILLIPS 1TERENCE REESE KENNETH ·KONSTAM ADVERTISING AU enquiries should be addressed to the ADVERTISING MANAGER, THOMAS DE LA RUE & CO. LTD.~ 110 Bunhill Row, London, E.C.l All other correspondence, including Subscriptions, to the Publishers: Moore Batley Ltd., 35 Dover Street, London, W.l Hyde Park 3601-2 Annual Subscription 30/- The British Bridge World is published 011 the 15th of each month Publhhtd tllld prlnttd on bth~/f of the proprietors, Thomas Dt La Rue & Co. Ltd., by !lfoore Batley Lid. 35 Do1·er Street, London, JV.l. 3 March, 1961 Contents Page Editorial 5-6 London and the South, by Jeremy Flint .. : 7- 10 Camrose Conclusion-England v. Wales, by Harold Franklin 12- 15 "Joe", by Frederic Lewis ... ... 16-18 European Championship Appeal Fund ... 18 One Hundred Up: Repeat of February Problems 19 N. Ireland v. England, by Harold Franklin ... 20-24 Play Bridge with Hutchinson, by A. Hutchinson ... ... 24-26 British Universities Congress, by E. S. D. Pinter 27 You Say ... .. 30-32 One Hundred Up: March Problems ... 32-33 Directory of E.B.U. Affiliated Clubs ... 34-35 Result of February Competition ... 35 One Hundred Up: Answers to February Problems ... 37-44 E.B.U. Results 45 E.B.U. Master Points Register 47 Subscription Form 47 Diary of Events 48 4 Editorial INTERMISSION will be observed that the Gold "Everyone except the winners Cup finals have been moved to was complaining that they had the first week-end in Jun.e. played badly", I heard someone say after the Masters Pairs. A FOR DIRECTORS rare admission, but certainly true One of the principal desiderata of the partn<?rship in which I in the bridge world has long been played and or' many others. Add an up-to-date manual for tourna­ to this the unconvincing perform­ ment directors, the difficulty ances by English teams in the always being that complicated print~g for a limited market is Camrose, the frequent defe~t .s or unprofitable. The gap has been . narrow victories of l~ading teams in several competitions, and ~ne most capably filled by Frank cannot escape the conclusion that Farrington's production of a 100- the game at the top in this country PB;ge book, duplicated in pro­ is in a sick state. The older fessional style. This can be players are finding it hard to win, obtained for 25/- from the author yet there is no dynamic thrust at Thornfield, Withins Lane, from below. It is a phase that Bolton, Lanes. It is not the sort will pass, but one may as well of thing that I understand, but recognise that it is with us now. for those who do there are charts . - galore. NEW DATES The. trials for Torquay. are to SORRY, BUT ••• consist of a preliminary "Division While on the subject of books, t~o" stage, from which four pairs may I point out that the B.B.W. Will qualify for the final stage is not really organised to fulfil It is not a method that the to~ orde!s sent in by readers? We pairs like, but the French used it appreciate their interest but would ~or Turin, so one can't say that it prefer that they order through the ts · trade, as we cannot send staff . necessanly bad; the complaint Is going to be that many of the trotting round the bookshops. competing pairs are well short of PRIZE PACKAGE th;required standard. The organisers of the inter- . he dates for these trials are national pairs tournament at tn the Diary of Events, where it Vichy on May 27-28 have once 5 CORNER-BOY again most kindly offered full pension for three days to a pair An incident that I have already of British Bridge World readers. related in The Observer has added Will any coupie (in Britain) who a new word to the language. At a would like to take up this offer celebrated London club a player write in soon, please? One of the defending against a slam led an many good things about Vichy is Ace of a suit of which his partner that one goes awaY with a basket­ held a singleton, but failed to ful of presents whether one fin­ play another, so the contract was ishes "in the money" or not. made. The following dialogue then took place: . MORE DUPLICATION "But I petered! I played the 6!" A correspondent informs us that an article entitled "High­ "What do you .mean, you Speed Sorting Procedures" by petered! You had a· singleton." uFrank and Lazarus" appeared ""' .\~ -• :";*_I•• ·:.~ - ! '~Yes,. but I played it from the in the "Communications of 'hi~ corner." · Association for Computing Machinery" for lanuary, 1961. "Sorry," said the opening leader It referred to "binary expansions ironically, "I was looking at _the . of long strings of zeros." wrong corner." Ready in April HOW TO WIN AT RUBBER BRIDGE the master work by Pierre Albarran and Dr. Pierre J ais adapted for English readers by Terence Reese 18s. Published by Ba rne· & R oc' kl'iff, 2 Clement's Inn, London, W. C· 2 6 London and the South by JEREM_Y FLINT "Horses for courses" is an old West dealer racing maxim, and I firmly believe Love all that it is also true of bridge. WEST EAST Whether or not you share my +A K + Q9764 theory, this month has certainly <y> 9 4 <y> Q J afforded fresh evidence in support 0 A 72 ' 0 J43 ofit. · +A KJ·65i +Q 84 The Daily Telegraph Cup was This hand claimed some dis­ won by a Middlesex team consist­ tinguished victims who could not ing of M. Harrison-Gray (capt.), avoid the trap of Three No R. Sharples, .J: Sharples, Miss D. Trumps. As the cards lay, Four Shanahan, Mrs. H. ~ Rye, and J. Spades also failed. · Our bidding Flint-no unusual occurrence for might not receive the approval Gray and the Sharples who have of all critics, but Gray (West) and ~on this event nine times. Kent I reached Five Clubs as follows:- led the field-which .included a . WEST EAST formidable London team-for the Gray Flint first two sessions, and it was only I+ I+ on the very last board that 20 (1) 3+ Middlesex managed to push its ,3<v' (2) 3NT (3) nose in front of this very deter­ 5+ (4) mined ·Kent quintet: Mrs. A. L. (I) Taking a slight risk that this Fleming, Smart, Buckley, Bowen might be passed. However, if the and Sargeant. bidding continues, West has more The final order was: elbow room·: I. Middlesex (2) Hoping that East can rebid 2. Kent the spades. 3. Sussex (3) At first sight dangerous, but 4. London. a good partner will not expect a London, strongly represented full heart stopper and the Queen by Konstam, Schapiro, Mayer and of clubs after the mere preference Mrs. P. Forbes, suffered a series to Three Clubs. of mis~ortunes in the early boards, (4) Correctly drawing the infer­ and d1d well to finish fourth. ence explained in (3). 7 The play, also; was not without positions after the second session interest. The defence cashed two although Preston and Swimer had hearts and switched to the King opened a large gap. The final of diamonds. Gray won, played ~ result resembled one of those the Ace of clubs and the top Boat Races in which the winners spades. He then played a club to are five lengths clear at Hammer­ dummy's Queen. The trumps smith Brid~e. were 2-2, so all was well eyen I.M.P.s though the spades were 4-2. At 1. R. Preston, R. Swimer 889 first sight it appears to be . a 2. Dr. J. Butler, P. Spurway 809 simple percentage problem 3. Dr. S. Lee, S. Booker } whether declarer should play for P. Swinnerton-Dyer, 803 the spades to be 3-3 or the clubs A. Dormer 2-2. However, Gray's line has 5. Mrs. Markus, Mrs. the advantage that if the spades Gordon 797 are 3-3 and South has three clubs, 6. L. Tarlo, H. Franklin . 796 he will still succeed. An interest­ '7. A. Rose, N. Gardener 79? ing point develops if South drops 8. R. and J. Sharples 792 the 9 or the I 0 of clubs on the 9. J. T. Reese, C. Rodrigue 791 + A. My own opinion is that declarer should now finesse the Then came a big drop to the 8 of clubs. If I am wrong I have te~th pair at 765. The field con­ no doubL that the percentage sisted of 21 pairs. experts will enlighten me with This was Preston and Swimer's some alacrity. fourth and most clear-cut success The Masters Pairs in the event-a record of con­ sistency that speaks for itself. Following the trend established Above all I believe that this is a in the Masters Individual, this tribute to their sense of partner­ event was restricted to players who ship even more than their accurate had achieved National Maste~ card play. An excellent perform­ status. Although there was a ance by the runners-up, a new good gate, I sensed a feeling partnership, which clearly demon­ among~t some of the players of strated the growing strength of nostalgia for the ambiance of former years.