He Obviously Forgot to Draw Trumps

New to Buckinghamshire and played a bit before?
Or maybe played ages ago and want to get started again.
Or perhaps you play at another local club that plays on a different night

Whatever your reason visit our friendly club. You will be more than welcome.
We meet every Tuesday evening at 7.30pm. Town centre location. Bags of parking space.
A partner will be found, no need to pre-book - or bring your own partner.
 EBU affiliated. Instant scoring with hand records.
Our club specialises in newcomers and improvers.
Beginner's courses and improvers seminars
 
New!  Commentary of the session's hands by top international players and authors Andrew Kambites and Brian Senior (and me!) will be emailed to the players immediately after the session. By the time you get home the commentary will be in your inbox. The commentary includes suggested auction and some play and defence points on each of the deals.
 
Contact sue@aylesburyvalebridge.com - and lets see how we can get you started.
 Or just turn up!

   

Andrew Robson is a columnist for The Times newspaper. He is a top international player. He runs a great bridge club in London.
He does what we do at Aylesbury Vale. He teaches new students then provides a place to play at his club for their onward development and enjoyment.
In a series of articles in The Times, Andrew describes the problem with many bridge clubs. Some of the established players simply cannot help themselves.

Many people fresh from courses find that far from being cherished and made welcome they are the subject of rude, officious, critical and intimidating behaviour. He, like me, despair of this. Having gently nurtured and encouraged new players through sixty hours of learning, to have them disappear after a couple of club sessions to social bridge forever, not to see them again is heart breaking.

Andrew operates what he calls a zero tolerance rule. He says, no bad behaviour is allowed. Ever. That the North/South players should behave as if they are hosting a tea party. A cheery hello when the opposition arrive at the table, a thank you when they depart and a nice cheery smile at all times.

The thing is beginners will alway be a bit slow to begin with. They will fiddle with the bidding box. They will get the odd top board against you using a complete misbid or a bizarre lead.
But at our bridge club, like Andrews' bridge club, where we specialise in evolving beginner's from classroom to clubroom we rely on an especially friendly playing environment to continue our work. And, like Andrew, may find it neccesary from time to time to ask established players to move on for the sake of the bigger picture.

It was the Night of the Stars when our Nick Stubbs and Ray Heath played Zia Mahmood.
With a field that boasted at least a dozen household-name world champions our intrepid duo played in the event which raised over £50K for four charities.

Ray picks up the story ..
"After an energy-sapping evening the last two boards were against Zia!

Nick bid and declared what felt like the most nerve racking game of his life.  When he finally made it with an overtrick, he mopped his brow out of relief it was over.

Then the final board of the evening.  Zia asked "Is this the last of the evening?"  Ray said "Yes, so impress us."  Zia's partner opened the bidding 1♣ with Zia responding 1♦ . The auction continued to 1NT.
At this point a director asked if anyone had mislaid a spectacle case and Ray briefly looked up from the table.  At this precise moment Zia bid 6♦.  "Did I miss something in the bidding?" Ray exclaimed! 
Nick and Ray were suitably impressed and never happier to have received a joint bottom".
 

Our featured board was board 2.
East/West were playing 5-card majors and a strong no trump and so East had to open a short 1♣.
A nice quiet 1♦ response from Zia followed by a 1NT rebid (now 12-14) bid by East and Zia flies into action!
The contract needs both the K♠ and the K♣ right.
Zia would be fairly confident that the K♠ was right as Ray had overcalled a spade. In value terms the K♣ was probably marked with the overcaller too. He has no other finnesing position anyway so needs must!
I am assuming that Ray led the K♥. Zia will win, ruff a heart to get back to hand and play a small club to the Q♣, when the K♣ pops up with North it just remains to win any return then ruff a couple of losing clubs in dummy (before drawing trumps) take the spade finnese and claim the contract. 
It is a cheeky slam. Against the odds. But it is the last hand of the evening and Zia's partnership needed to get some imps on the board. Thats Zia.
6♦ bid and made losing just to the K♣. 

Chris Ainley and Geoff Warburton scored a magnificent 74% - not quite a club record as Jonathan and Rosalie scored 75% last year - recently playing North/South at our club.
Just to prove that it is not all luck they were the only pair on board 11 to evaluate their hands correctly. Chris opens this magnificent hand with 1♠.
I am assuming the actual auction but this is how it probably (should) have gone.
Most Souths passed but Geoff realised that the singleton club added much value to his hand and so even with only three spade cards managed to squeak 2♠.
It was a great squeak!
Chris's hand now improves with the known spade fit and the singleton diamond and has no trouble in reaching for the 4♠ card.
Winning the lead (albiet a bizarre 10♥ rather than the more natural Q♦) Chris must now optimise the dummy's singleton club and start ruffing away those club losers rather than draw the trumps. Most made eleven tricks but only Chris and Geoff bid it. Worthy winners.

Aylesbury Vale has been voted the 41st best place to live in the UK.
We have no doubt that our bridge club of the same name has contributed to this bestness.

Sue looks back at how things were when she first started at a bridge club nearly forty years ago (I know!)
Somethings never change of course. There are still 52 cards in a pack. And still the odd joker down at the club.
But the way we access our information has transformed the way we view things.
Click on the picture to read the story.

Tony Priday who died this week was one of the last of the greats. It was such a privilege to spend time with him last year .

Dinner with a national treasure is always a treat. On board ship was Tony Priday and his wife Vivian. We heard great stories of legends such as Stan Stayman and Omar, Reese and Schapiro.

Tony with his wife Vivian beat everyone in sight in the daily duplicate and even gave us all a seminar on hands played.