Manchester Bridge Club
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Road Works on Palatine RoadRoad works are taking place to re-surface Palatine Road for 4 weeks from Monday 10th October.  At the moment there is only one way traffic allowed along Palatine Road from the Lapwing Lane end to the junction with Wilmslow Road.  Palatine Road is currently closed at the Wilmslow Road/Palatine Road junction with no traffic allowed to travel down Palatine Road from this junction towards Lapwing Lane.....so currently you have to turn left when you leave the club!

 
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SUSAN TARR
SUSAN TARR

It is with great sadness that I must inform members of the untimely death of Susan Tarr who lost her battle with cancer on October 23rd.

Details of arrangements will be posted when known.

Jeff Morris

North Wales Swiss Pairs

Congratulations to Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield who won at Shotton on Sunday 9th October, John Holland and Tony Coley were third.
Full results are here.

Northern League Final Round - Manchester win A and B Divisions

The final round of Northern league matches took place on Saturday 8th October.
In the A division at Bolton, Manchester, fielding their Tollemache team, won on the day and increased their overall lead to finish nine VPs ahead of Yorkshire 2.  The team was Alan Mould/Ollie Burgess, Alec Smalley/Tom Slater, John Holland/Gary Hyett, Michael Byrne/Michael Newman.  Tom and Alec were our best pair on the cross IMPs.  The A2 team of Kath & Alan Nelson, Royce Alexander/John Currie, Sylvia Massey/Herbert Potts, Raymond Semp/Peter Jones finished fifth on the day and sixth overall.  Peter and Raymond were the best of our A2 pairs.

The B division was played at Bradford where our team of Pete Foster/John Roberts, Gillian McMullan/Neil Thomas, Eve Lighthill/Ken Hassell, Robert & Joyce Jones had an excellent day, winning the day's event and overtaking Cumbria to take the division title.  Special congratulations to Neil and Gillian who were the best pair in the division on the cross IMPs with 1.5 IMPs per board and to Eve and Ken who were second with 1.07 IMPs per board.

The C division was played at Manchester where our team of Irene Davies/Karen Reissmann, Ann Thornton/Paul Murray, Joan Lewis/Roy Higginbottom, Liz and Stephen Halstead finished seventh on the day and overall.  Irene and Karen were our best pair on cross IMPs.

Detailed results
are here

Current Competitions

2016 Cheadle Royal Cup

This Monday Evening Pairs Contest runs from

Monday 5th September to Monday 19th December

Your best 8 results count.

 

2016 Merton Cantor Cup

This Thursday Evening Individual Contest runs from

Thursday 6th October to Thursday 22nd December

Your best 7 results count.

Good Luck!

The Manchester Congress
Jan 7- 8th 2017
at The Victoria and Albert Hotel, Water Street M3 4JQ

Pairs Saturday, Teams Sunday

and non-expert events on both days.
Click here for more details and entry form
Click here for travel and car parking information
Click here for non-expert events and entry form

MBC Members excel in the EBU Player of the Year Competition

Jason Hackett      3rd

Justin Hackett     =4th

John Holland       15th

.......Brilliant!

Mossop team wins Crockfords Cup

The team of David Mossop, Alex Hydes (London), Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett (both Staffs & Shrops), David Price (Suffolk) & Colin Simpson (Berks & Bucks) have won the 2015-16 Crockfords Cup. All the team have won this competition three times or more, with Alex retaining the trophy he won last year with different teammates; the other five all won the 2013-14 competition together.

Tollemache Qualifying

The MCBA (county) selection committee has chosen the following team to represent Manchester in the qualifying round of the inter county teams of eight on 19-20th November.
 

Michael Newman & Michael Byrne
John Holland & Gary Hyett
Alec Smalley & Tom Slater
Alan Mould & Ollie Burgess

npc Rhona Goldenfield

...recognise any MBC member names in this list?!!

MCBA EXPERT PLAYER OF THE YEAR
MCBA EXPERT PLAYER OF THE YEAR

We are proud to announce that

MICHAEL NEWMAN

has won the

2016 EXPERT PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD

......his second win in this MCBA competition

having previously won in 2011!

CONGRATULATIONS!

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS
TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

***NEW MONTH.....

CHECK OUT MICHAEL NEWMAN'S NEW TIPS FROM HANDS PLAYED IN SEPTEMBER...........

(See the yellow tab above top left)

Every month Michael Newman selects three hands played at the Club during that month and comments on the bidding and play offering invaluable hints and tips on how they should have been played!

You can check out not only the current month but also the archive of all previous editions.

He's done it again.....again!!
He's done it again.....again!!

John Holland tops National Master Point list for the fifth time!

Congratulations to John Holland, who has topped the annual Master Points list for the fifth time (the last four years in succession!) and has claimed the Sunday Telegraph Salver.

John Holland's good year has seen him reclaim the top spot in the Gold Point rankings. He moved marginally ahead of the 2014 leader, David Gold, holding 98.92 to David's 98.02. Andrew Robson, Tony Forrester and Alexander Allfrey complete the top five.

John, who also won this award in 2009, 2012 and 2013 & 2014 gained a total of 29,397 points in 2015.

AMAZING!

(Full details are on the EBU website www.ebu.co.uk )

About Manchester Bridge Club
About Manchester Bridge Club

Welcome to

Manchester Bridge Club. 

We are at 30 Palatine Road, Didsbury, M20 3JJ.

Ring us on 0161 445 3712

or email jeff@manchesterbridge.co.uk

For directions on how to find

us please click on the 

yellow 'Club Information' tab

top left of this page.

FUNCTION ROOMS FOR HIRE
FUNCTION ROOMS FOR HIRE

MANCHESTER BRIDGE CLUB

has a number of rooms

which can be hired

 for celebrations and functions. 

Suitable for special occasions such as

BIRTHDAY PARTIES,  RECEPTIONS,

CHRISTENINGS and BARMITZVAHS.

Please ring Jeff or David on

0161 445 3712

or email jeff@manchesterbridge.co.uk

DO YOU RECEIVE OUR E-MAIL NEWSLETTER?
DO YOU RECEIVE OUR E-MAIL NEWSLETTER?

Are you receiving the Bridge Club Newsletter?

If not - please let Jeff know so he can make sure you are included.

Tel: 0161 445 3712 or jeff@manchesterbridge.co.uk

Thankyou.

 
Tips for August 2013
Tips for Improvers from August 2013 Duplicates by Michael Newman

 

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

 

 

 

Points of interest from the August 2013 duplicates

 

 

 

1       Lead a Heart but which Heart?

 

 

 

Board 11 Thursday 8 August – Vulnerability White – Dealer South

 

 

 

North

East

South

West

1 Heart

2NT

Pass

Pass

1NT

3NT

Pass

 

 

 

 

Qx

Q762

AKJ

AQxx

 

A10x

K10953

xxx

xx

 

J98xx

A4

Q10xx

xx

 

Kxx

J8

xxx

KJ10xx

 

 

 

 

North South reach 3NT after an uncontested auction.  Even though Hearts have been bid by North from West’s point of view the Heart suit still represents the best chance of defeating the contract.  However which Heart should West start with?  If Hearts had not been bid then the correct card to choose would be the 10 of Hearts – the top of an interior sequence.  However given that North has advertised a minimum of four cards in Hearts it is wrong to lead the 10 because this will lessen the chance of the defence establishing long cards in the Heart suit.  Therefore West should open with the 5 of Hearts his fourth highest card.  East wins with the Ace and returns the 4 of Hearts.  West can win with the King and now because he remains with the 1093 he can continue with the 10 of Hearts to drive out the Queen in the Dummy.  Note that if the 10 were the opening lead then West could not continue with the suit because dummy would have Q7 over West’s 953.   Declarer will now go one down if he plays on Spades and two down if he takes the Diamond finesse.

 

 

 

 

A932

 

QJ1074

 

865

 

K

 

 

 

 

In the above example if West was on lead after a similar auction he would start off with the 7 of Hearts to establish three tricks.  The Queen of Hearts would not be a success.

 

2       Using Jacoby 2NT to bid a Slam

 

 

 

Board 8 Thursday 22 August – Vulnerability White – Dealer West

 

 

 

North

East

South

West

 

Pass

Pass

 

2NT

4 Spades

 

Pass

Pass

1 Heart

4 Diamonds

6 Hearts

 

 

 

xx

K987x

AKxxx

A

 

AQxx

AQ10x

Jx

xxx

 

 

 

West opens 1 Heart and East should employ the Jacoby 2NT response.  This is only in response to an opening one of a major suit and shows at least 12 points with four card support for opener’s major and is the best way to suggest the possibility of getting to a slam and allows a jump to four of the major by responder to show a more distributional hand with fewer points.

 

 

 

The mainstream way of opener responding to Jacoby is to jump to four of the major with a bad hand which is basically telling the Jacoby bidder to forget all about a slam.  With a singleton West bids the singleton except that if West has a strong 5-5 with two of the top three honours in his second suit he should jump to the four level in his second suit.  If West has a better than minimum hand but with no singleton he simply rebids his suit as the three level.  On the above hand it is clearly more descriptive for West to jump to 4 Diamonds rather than show a singleton Club by bidding 3 Clubs.  East cuebids the Ace of Spades (since he is worried that there might be two Club losers) and West goes to slam in Hearts.

 

 

 

What are the approximate odds of this contract making?  Assuming that Diamonds do not break worse than 4-2 (84 per cent) the contract will make whenever the Spade finesse is working (A).  When the Spade finesse is wrong then it probably needs either a 2-2 trump break or singleton Jack of Hearts if the Diamonds are 4-2 (B) or Diamonds are 3-3 (C).

 

 

 

A         Spade finesse working and Diamonds no worse than 4-2

 

0.84 x 50% = 42%

 

 

 

B         Spade finesse not working but trumps favourable and Diamonds 4-2

 

0.48 x 50% x 52% (40% 2-2 break + 12% singleton Jack) = 12%

 

 

 

C         Spade finesse not working but Diamonds 3-3

 

            0.36 x 50% = 18%

 

 

 

Thus the approximate probability of the contract making is the sum of A + B + C ie 72% which is very good odds for a small slam whether at Teams or Pairs.

 

3       How do I make an overtrick on a trump lead ?

 

 

 

Board 9 Thursday 29 August – Vulnerability East West – Dealer North

 

 

 

North

East

South

West

Pass

1NT

4 Spades

Pass

Pass

1 Spade

3 Clubs

Pass

Pass

 

 

 

 

A10x

QJ10x

108x

10xx

 

9xx

xxx

AQxxx

Ax

 

xx

K9xx

Jxx

xxxx

 

KQJxx

Ax

Kx

KQJx

 

 

 

 

North South reach a routine 4 Spades after South makes a game forcing jump to 3 Clubs over 1NT to show a minimum of 18 points and a 5-4 shape in the black suits.  I was intrigued to see that Deep Finesse stated that 11 tricks could always be made by South in 4 Spades even on a Spade lead.  Some Wests made the opening lead in Hearts leading the middle card from three small.  This made it easy for Declarer to score an overtrick because even if East correctly ducked the Queen of Hearts from the Dummy at trick one Declarer would be able to continue with the Ace of Hearts at trick two, followed by the King of Spades and a low Spade to the 10 at tricks three and four.  Then the Jack of Hearts would be played at trick five covered by the King and ruffed.  At trick six the last trump would be drawn with the Ace of trumps and the 10 of Hearts enjoyed discarding one of Declarer’s Diamonds losing just to the minor suit Aces.  However a much better lead would be a trump.  How can Declarer still make 11 tricks now?

 

 

 

The answer is very elegant.  The trump lead is won in the Dummy with the 10 of Spades and the Queen of Hearts run from the Dummy.  Obviously East does not cover the Queen as this would make it too easy for Declarer to enjoy three Heart tricks.  At trick three the continuation is a low Heart to the Ace followed by the King of Spades and a low Spade to the Ace at tricks four and five.  Now at trick six the Jack of Hearts is played which East has to cover and Declarer trumps.  At trick 7 the King of Clubs is played to which West has no answer.  If he wins the Ace then the 10 of Clubs is an entry to the established 10 of Hearts while if he ducks then a second Club is played at trick eight.  West wins but having only Diamonds left has to play the suit establishing the King as the overtrick for South.  Unfortunately no West’s found the best lead of a trump and so no Declarer was tested in this way.