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 December 2014

TIPS FOR IMPROVERS

 

Points of interest from the December 2014 duplicates

 

1       Textbook elimination not recognised

 

Board 10 Thursday 18 December – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer East

 

 

10

Jxx

KQJ10xx

10xx

 

AKJxx

xxx

x

AJxx

 

Qxxxx

AQ9

A

KQxx

 

xx

K10xx

xxxxx

xx

 

 

North

East

South

West

 

 

Pass

Pass

Pass

 

1 Spade

4NT

6 Spades

 

Pass

Pass

Pass

4 Diamonds

5 Diamonds

Pass

 

Only 3 pairs out of 8 managed to bid to 6 Spades and those that did failed to appreciate that the presence of the 9 of Hearts in the East hand made the contract 100% once nobody had trumped the opening Club or Diamond lead.

 

Normally when responder makes a splinter bid the opener would sign off if he also held a singleton in the splintered suit.  However as East has 17 points he is strong enough to use RKCB because in the unlikely event of West only having one keycard if he has say AJxxx KJx x ♣J10xx you can still stop safely at the 5 level.  Here when West bids 5 Diamonds it is clearly 3 keycards rather than zero and so bidding a slam is marked.

 

Assuming a neutral ie non-Heart lead then trumps are drawn, Diamonds and Clubs are eliminated from the two hands ending in the Dummy.  This just leaves trumps in both hands and the Heart suit of xxx in the Dummy opposite AQ9.  At this point Declarer can lay down his cards and claim the contract.  Why is this?  The answer is that the 9 of Hearts makes it impossible for the Defence to make two tricks in Hearts provided that when a small Heart is played from the Dummy East simply covers the card that North plays.  Assuming that North plays low then East plays the 9 of Hearts losing to South’s 10.  At this point South can either return a Heart from the King into East’s Ace Queen or he can conceded a ruff and discard with the same result of 1430 to East West.  Alternatively if North plays second hand high with the Jack then East plays the Queen and South on winning with the King is now endplayed from 10x into Declarer’s A9.  Note that it is correct defence for North to rise with the Jack of Hearts on the first round.  This is because if East’s Hearts were only AQ8 (giving South K109) then this would prevent East from ducking the first round cheaply to South and would defeat the contract.

 

 

2       Asking for third round control

 

Board 13 Thursday 18 December – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer North

 

 

Q109xx

xx

Qxx

KQJ

 

AK

KQJxxx

K109x

A

 

xx

Axxx

AJx

10xxx

 

Jxxx

x

xxx

xxxxx

 

 

North

East

South

West

 

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

 

Pass

2 Diamonds

3 Hearts

4 Diamonds

5 Hearts

6 Hearts

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

 

2 Clubs

2 Hearts

3 Spades

4NT

6 Diamonds

 

 

West has a routine 2 Club opener because even though he only has 20 points he can almost guarantee game in his own hand.  East could bid 2NT as a positive response but the modern style is to start off with a waiting bid of 2 Diamonds on all hands without a strong 5 card suit even if you do have an Ace and a King.

 

West now introduces his Heart suit and East sets Hearts as trumps.  West cue-bids 3 Spades and East cue-bids 4 Diamonds which following the Italian style of cue-bidding denies holding either the Ace or King of Clubs.  West bids RKCB and on hearing of 2 Keycards opposite in now only interested in whether East has third round control of Diamonds.  The way to find out this information is by bidding 6 Diamonds.  This asks East to jump to the grand slam if he has either the Queen of Diamonds or a doubleton Ace.  East does not have either of these two holdings so he signs off in the small slam.  Please also refer to March 2014 Tip No 2 for another example of asking for third round control.

 

In the play after drawing trumps declarer has a pure guess as to which defender has the Queen of Diamonds in order to see whether he makes an overtrick.

 

 

3       Delayed co-operation

 

Board 3 Tuesday 30 December – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South

 

 

KQx

None

AK10x

AK108xx

 

109x

AJxx

Qx

Q9xx

 

Jxxx

109xxx

xxx

x

 

Axx

KQxx

Jxxx

Jx

 

 

North

East

South

West

 

1 Club

3 Hearts

4 Hearts

6 Diamonds

 

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

1 Diamond

3NT

4 Spades

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

 

When North makes a splinter bid of 3 Hearts this agrees Diamonds and shows a singleton or void in Hearts with a possible interest in slam.  At this point if North is showing a singleton in Hearts then South’s hand is not very suitable for slam because the King Queen of Hearts is not a good holding for slam purposes opposite a singleton and South’s Heart stop is reasonable to play in no trumps.  In addition as South has such poor Diamonds he cannot envisage a slam at this stage.

 

However when North bids 4 Hearts over South’s sign off of 3NT this now confirms that the splinter bid was a void rather than a singleton and South now has to reconsider.  As he has already discouraged by bidding 3NT he must now co-operate in North’s slam ventures by cue-bidding 4 Spades.  As North holds the King of Spades he knows that South is cue-bidding the Ace.  This is all the encouragement which North needs to jump to slam in Diamonds.  North should not investigate the possibility of a grand slam because he knows that South’s Diamonds are probably quite weak.