Bridge

Published on Monday 29 June 2009 19:28

YESTERDAY I wrote about Thank you, Partner", Seamus Dowling's history of Bridge in Ireland , written to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland.

The Scottish Bridge Union was founded the following year, in 1933, and I have produced a different type of book to mark the occasion. If you have an interest in Scottish Bridge, or simply enjoy reading anecdotes about its characters past and present, you must find a copy of The Scottish Bridge Union, 1933-2008.

It is not a typical bridge book, in that it contains very few hands, but here is Barnet Shenkin on his way to winning the first of two Sunday Times invitational Pairs.

The hand was played against the Israeli pair Frydrich and Shaufel, who would have won the event but for a neat piece of deception by Barnet on this deal.

North used Stayman to find out whether partner had four spades, and raised him to game when he gave a positive response.

Barnet led the two of spades, which ran round to the five in declarer's hand. At trick two he played the ace of hearts – and Barnet dropped the king! This marked East with J9752, and it seemed to declarer that there was no future in hearts. So he messed about in the minors, and eventually settled for eight tricks.

All the other declarers played on hearts to establish the extra tricks they needed for their contract.