Playing away

A few days ago I had the good fortune to play bridge at the Brisbane Waters Bridge Club in Woy Woy. We were up there on holiday, and I needed my bridge fix. So I contacted the club and asked if there was anyone there who could partner me for a game. Got a positive response within an hour and the afternoon’s bridge was arranged. The lovely lady who replied said: “Competition will be tough because a lot of Open players play on a Saturday. I am a novice too, but we will do our best!”. Sounded perfect. Bring it on. 

The bridge club was based at the local Community Centre and I arrived early to talk to partner about conventions. We agreed what we would play, and I learned in the discussion that actually she was the club President, and she had been playing for 10 years. Hardly a novice! So I had better bring my best game to not let her down and help us hold our own. 

The first 2 hands didn’t go so well… partner was in 2 part score contracts and went down by 1 in each. But she wasn’t frowning at me (yet!) and was mumbling that she perhaps hadn’t played them well (it turned out that both contracts were makable). 

But the next round proved interesting… my partner told me we were up against strong players. I was playing N, had 14 points and long clubs. The bidding got to 4H by E, and they were vul and we weren’t. So I thought: gotta be worth a punt to stop them getting a vul game… 5C. East looked at me sideways and tapped the table [I am hoping he was thinking… who is this guy??? 😂😂🫣]. He thinks for a while and bids 5H. Pass, pass, to me. Oh well, gotta double now. X. He looks at me again… “you’re a little bridge terrorist, aren’t you?”. Partner is looking a little rattled. I was smiling: “we’ll see”. 

Turns out everyone had at least a 7 card suit. E had an 8 card H suit, I had a 7 card C suit. But crucially there were no voids. So partner leads me a C, I make my A, and play the AS praying he didn’t have a void. He didn’t. And I have the KQ of H so we get them one off. Top board. Phew. At the end of the board he turns to me: “Well played sir! You *are* a little terrorist!” I think he was joking but I am not sure. 

We ended up over the afternoon about middle diddle… I call that holding your own: we did OK. And the Director said to me as we played our boards: you’re good at this, how long have you played? Head swells, and I promptly play a couple of bad boards. Cunning! Putting me off by compliments. I must try that. 

Playing away

A few days ago I had the good fortune to play bridge at the Brisbane Waters Bridge Club in Woy Woy. ..........

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An extra line with icons is presented under each "News" item and any member can click on one of these icons to view previous comments. To leave a comment or reply to other comments made, you must log in. If you try to add a comment, a log-in pop-up box will get you started. ..........