Bridge - The Scotsman 26/03/13

THE Scottish Men’s Pairs were won by Roy Bennett and David Liggat, 5% ahead of Horst Kopleck/ Ricky Finlayson and Bob Hunter/ Ron Moodie.

The Women’s event went to Sheila Macdonald and Maida Grant by a 7 per cent margin from Catherine Gerrard/ Joyce Benson, and Pat Wilson /Anne Ritchie.

This deal from the Men’s event illustrates modern slam bidding. Splinters (an unnecessary jump in a new suit) are very useful in locating a fit: if declarer has Axxx or xxxx opposite a known shortage he can mentally ruff his losers in dummy. The bid need not show extras, so East signed off – he might cuebid a different singleton, but a cuebid of partner’s suit shows a high card rather than a shortage. West, worth another go, used Kickback, a version of Roman Keycard Blackwood where the suit above the agreed trump suit is the control ask. The responses are in the same steps as Roman Keycard, but the convention creates extra room: no normal response takes you past the five-level. When East showed one ace West used the next step to ask about the queen of trump. A club lead forces declarer to guess whether to finesse, or to rely on diamonds to provide three club discards. Nice to have no losing option!