2008 results here

A hand from last year’s competition.  The best contract on this hand is undoubtedly 2 Spades by South, a contract that should make on the nose. The problem is in bidding it. What do you rebid on that North hand after opening 1 heart and hearing a 1 spade response? Well, let’s see. 2 hearts is horrible – South would Pass that (what else, for heaven’s sake?) and North would toil in a distinctly unpromising contract. 2 clubs then? MUCH better than 2 hearts as it offers South a choice of contracts – with poor Clubs South could always give preference to 2 hearts. However, on this deal South would have to give preference by Passing 2 clubs. Another grim contract. How about 2 spades? Well, that’s the best practical shot on a minimum opening bid. True, on some deals you might play in a weak 4-3 fit but it works out best on far more deals than it loses on.
(written by Paul Bowyer, 2007)
The National Newcomers Pairs is an event for less experienced bridge players, and is a great chance for those just starting out to win a national trophy. Since 2004, this event has been run on a Sim Pairs basis, with heats played simultaneously in numerous venues throughout the country, organised by the relevant county associations. It is scored across the field by internet using the Ecats system.
Local-based heats will to be held on Sunday 16^th March 2008
This event is played as one session, ideally with a tea break.  As this is an event for new players we would expect that players have no more than five years playing experience.
New master point categories were introduced this year, so master points and category mementoes will be awarded to the leading pairs, both members of which are:
            A          Club Master and below (less than 500 points) 
            B          Area Master (less than1000 points) 
            C          District Master (less than 2,500 points) 
            D          County Master (less than 5,000 points)
It is open to non-members of the EBU, or to past and current members below the rank of Master (5,000 local points) on 1st January 2008. We also encourage bridge students who have been learning for at least a year through the Bridge For All scheme or other teaching programmes.
As soon as we are informed of heats and venues we will add a link to this page.
Level 2 systems are permitted. These include Standard English, Acol or Benji Acol.  Weak 2’s, transfers and strong club are all permitted.  Any defence to NTs should have a single defined meaning.  Multi 2s are not allowed

National winners of the 2007 Student MiniBridge Simultaneous Pairs were Alistair and Anne Press.  ECats (Anna Gudge and Mark Newton) donated the plaques they are being presented with in this picture. (Click here to find out more about Ecats)   Alistair and Anne are members of the Partner/Teacher Club run by John Cox. This club has been running since September 2007 and has 32 regular members. At the end of the course it will transform itself into the Broadstairs Bridge Club and will of course affiliate to the EBU. The club uses Duplimate dealing and already runs a website publishing weekly details of hands played. To have a look go to  http://www.bridgewebs.com/broadstairs/

MiniBridge this week.  So much to think about
Because NS had 24 of the 40 available points between them, they are the declaring side, and North has more points than South so is the declarer and South is the dummy.
Should we play in no-trumps or a suit?  To make a suit trumps I need at least 8 of them.   I sat and looked at the dummy hand for a moment, now I only have 4 spades so that’s no use.  But I do have 8 cards in the heart suit so that’s a possibility and we’ve got 8 diamonds as well.  Six clubs are not enough.   I don’t think this is a no-trump hand, and I’ve got hearts and diamonds but hearts are a major so will score more points than diamonds which are only a minor!
Hmmm, game or part-score?  I can see one spade, three hearts tricks for sure maybe four or five, diamonds I don’t know but surely just because I have more of them than the opposition I might make a trick in them, and last of all 3 club tricks.   That’s seven definite tricks and maybe nine.  I think I shall play safe and go for part-score.  Besides, I seem to remember someone talking about needing at least 25 – 26 points to make a game.
I declare part-score in hearts and wait for East to lead a card.  It’s the Spade 4.  I have to play the 6 in dummy and West plays the King and I play the Ace.   Our teacher has left some notes on the board.  “When playing a trump contract, it’s usually best to draw trumps first”.  Right, Heart 2 and Ace from dummy.  East and West both follow. Heart King and every one plays a heart.  Count how many hearts have gone, 8 and I have 4 left so that’s 12, take 12 from 13 and that leaves one!  My queen of hearts is the next highest heart so it must be smaller.  I play my 4 and West discards a Spade.  East dutifully plays the Jack under my Queen.  All the trumps have been taken from the opposition and I have four tricks.  I need 3 more which should be easy as I have the Ace, King and Queen of Clubs.  I eventually made 9 tricks but the table next to us made 10.  I wonder if I could have made more?
Our teacher says it’s really important to try and count how many trumps have gone while playing and keep a picture in your mind of the opposition's hands.  

I must remember one new instruction each week.  This week it’s about the order in which I should play the cards.  If I am declarer and my partner is dummy and I have for example Q 9 2 of clubs and dummy has A K 8 5 4 3, I must take the first trick with the Queen which is in the SHORT HAND and win the 2^nd trick with the Ace (which is in the long hand) and the 3^rd trick with the King because when hold touching honours between the hands you must play high cards from the shorter holding first!  That way I will make tricks with the 5, 4 & 3 as well.

I heard so much about this game of bridge that I thought I would give it a go.  I was a little worried because I didn’t have a partner to go with, but in the end this didn’t matter as neither did a lot of the others.  Most people had played some type of card game previously but that did not mean that they were aware that a pack of cards was 52 in number with 4 suits of 13 cards ranging from Ace (high) down to the 2.  Honour cards were certainly not a new concept, although I’ve never associated a value with them before.  4, 3, 2, 1 – Ace King Queen Jack.  What was new was the idea of Major suits and Minor suits.  Now let me see, the heart is a 'major' organ and hearts are a 'major'!  Just have to tie spades to hearts somhow.  Remembering the order of the suits is a doddle, they’re alphabetical.  So starting with Clubs (the lowest suit), Diamonds, Hearts and finally Spades (the highest suit).  Clubs and Diamonds are the minor suits and Hearts and Spades are the major suits.  I don’t know why bridge is thought to be difficult, this is easy!
I was South at our table, and my partner North, Diane hadn’t played any card games before.
Now our teacher explained about tricks.  Each player at the table plays a card.  These four cards are called a trick.  You have to follow suit if you can and the highest card in the suit lead wins the trick.  Now we tried to make tricks.  We already had a pack of cards on the table.  To keep things simple we just used the spade suit without the 2 and dealt 3 cards to each player.  North lead the 6 and we each followed. 

My partner Diane (North) confidently started with the Ace of Spades and won the trick.  The person who wins the trick is the first person the lead to the next trick.  She looked bemused for a long moment before played the 8 of Spades.  I happily played my King (winning the trick) and continued with my Ace of Hearts followed by my King of Hearts.  I couldn’t remember if the Queen of Hearts had gone so played my Jack of Hearts to the fifth trick.  East won and played the only card left in his hand, the 10 of Hearts and won the last trick.  So our side, north/south had made 4 tricks and our opponents (east /west) had made only 2 tricks.  We were really pleased, but when we looked at the cards afterwards we thought we could have made all 6 tricks.

Our teacher told us that bridge is a partnership game and it’s only by co-operating with each other that we can achieve our full potential.  Heavy stuff!

I wonder what we will do next week.

(There is a 'bridge thesaurus' at the very bottom of the home page)