Editorial

There were mixed feelings over my first Bulletin. I hope the majority liked it. Before you read any of this one, I would like to say that the Bulletin is for ALL SCBA members. If you don't like what you see then please let me know - or even better, write it, or get your Club rep. to contact me with details. Tettenhall Bridge Club wrote to the SCBA expressing dissatis­faction that their Club was not mentioned. A strange complaint really, con­sidering that they did not send in any contribution. All Clubs please note -don't blame the editor for your own apathy!

However, there is a lot of good news in this issue. In the Club player of the year final Ray Stubbs and Monique Swale, representing Staffordshire, finished second. Congratulations to them both, and an article appears in "Tournament Scene". In "Club Scene", Ian Pendlebury, explains how to get more Local points at your Club for no extra cost. And ace writers, Richard Trounce and Jim Riley, have contributed Bridge features.

Next Bulletin will be in February. John Hudson has asked for increased coverage of Dawes League matches, and I hope to do this in the Feb. Bulletin. Closing date for articles is Jan. 15th. And, watch cut for a new series from my Northern Roving Reporter called "Adventures of Muggins and the Imprecision Club". It's hilarious!

Les Kendall

NEWS ... NEWS ... NEWS ...

Many will be sorry to hear that the partnership of Geoff Davies and Dave Downs is now over. It was a mutual decision, "' Long overdue", and both are still the best of friends. Geoff and Dave have won everything in the County, and their result in national competitions have proved them to be one of the greatest pairs that Staffordshire have ever produced. I am sure that everyone will miss getting 'bottoms' off them. The new partnerships to look for are Davies-Bloxham and Downs-Sartain.

Britain's first-ever televised Bridge tournament "Grand Slam" appeared on our screens on October 10th. The match, Great Britain v U.S.A. can be seen for thirteen Sundays on BBC2 around 9.30 p.m. If you like it, don't forget to write to the Beeb and let them know how popular Bridge is.

The World Championships in America recently, resulted in disappointment for our Men (not reaching the semi-finals) but triumph for the Ladies beating America in the final, 160-117 imps. It was disappointing that the only television coverage of the event concerned the banning of Terence Reese as non- playing Captain. (Reese was banned, by the way, not for the Buenos-Aries affair (as the media stated) but rather for his criticisms of the World Bridge Federation in recent years, and his controversial novel "Trick 13").

EVENTS

Please note: the Newcastle Open Pairs League is on the second Friday of each month, not the last Friday as stated in the last Bulletin.

Oncoming County Events

TOURNAMENT SCENE

In a charity pairs event at West Midlands Bridge Club, the first prize of £50 went to Staffordshire players Jim Riley and Les Kendall.

CLUB PLAYER OF THE YEAR FINAL... Oxford, October 1981

This event comprised 26 pairs, each pair having been invited to represent their respective County Associations by the EBU who very generously paid the participants' hotel and travelling expenses. By way of having submitted more Local Points than anyone else of County Master rank or below, I was fortunate enough to be Staffordshire's representative and Monique Swale and I sallied forth to join battle. We made a slow start, being 14th at the end of the first session but we had some triumphs such as Board 2 where we were defending against 3NT by West.

I made the lead of the ♠6 (the unbid suit) to partner's King and declarer played low on the spade return and perforce had to win the third spade in hand. He now tried a low club won by my 10 and I returned ♥J to his Queen and we could now see that he was cut off from the diamonds and we eventually took 3 spades, a heart and 3 clubs for plus 150.

We had an excellent second session, moving up to 5th and on board 25 were the only pair playing in the optimum contract of 6 clubs, the other Norths presumably preferring to jump rebid the hearts rather than introducing the anaemic club suit.

The final session was only 21 boards and despite a very good start, we had a sticky patch in the middle which gave us no chance of catching the winners who had 80 points more than us at the start of the session. We did, however, reduce the winning margin to 44 and were thrilled to finish second overall. This was board 13.

I opened a Multi 2D, East passed, South relayed with 2H and West came in with a peculiar 3C. There was no alert so I passed to await developments. East bid 3NT and partner led the H10 to my Queen which held! I returned the lead and we came to the obvious 7 tricks for plus 300.

Ray Stubbs

CLUB SCENE

Tettenhall Bridge Club

At the Club's Annual General Meeting it was decided to keep the joining fee at £1 and the annual subscription at £1. The Chairman, Jo Wernick, was re-elected, along with all other members of the committee. One member, Colin Draper, resigned and two new members elected to the committee were Mrs Maya Twine and Les Burdett. Jean and Brian Standish were thanked for donating the Stockwell Shield (non-handicapped), which was presented to Mrs Gill Barrow, and the Danescourt Shield (handicapped) which was won by Ken Slyde.

Just a reminder to those who might like to visit the Club. Their Club headquarters is at the Wolverhampton Cricket Club, Danescourt Road, Tettenhall, and bridge is played every Tuesday and Thursday evening (7.15 pm. start) and on Wednesday afternoons (1.45). Master points are awarded at each session. There is always a member on duty (except during the afternoon session) to play with anyone who comes along as a single.

LOCAL POINTS IN CLUB DUPLICATES

Have you ever thought that you do not win enough local points?

Yes? Well, you would be right. Consider a twelve table club duplicate run with the usual Mitchell movement. The winning North-South pair receive 24 local points each with second, third and fourth pairs gaining 18, 12 and 6 local points respectively. East-West pairs collect similar amounts. A total of 240 local points are awarded to sixteen players (eight pairs).

However if one round of the duplicate is arrow-switched (*see note), then the two separate N/S and E/W result lists will be replaced by one overall result list. The winning pair will receive 48 local points with second to eighth pairs gaining 42, 36, 30, 24, 18, 12 and 6 local points respectively. A total of 432 local points will be awarded to sixteen players. Thus a simple change in the operations of a typical club duplicate increases the availability of local points by 80 percent.

*(Note - Arrow switching is a very simple process which does not effect the normal movement of boards or pairs in the room. One round, normally the last, is chosen for the arrow switch and on this round the East-West pairs play the North-South hands with appropriate scoring)

The above argument is fairly conclusive; however a number of possible queries might arise. Some of these are covered in the following question and answer session.

Ian Pendlebury

[This anomaly was eventually spotted by the EBU and the points awarded for the two ranking lists movement increased. The comparison then became 200 to 216 local points - a small difference not worth bothering with - but it was a clever 'spot' by Ian]

DECISIONS, DECISIONS! Richard Trounce

The editor has asked me to contribute a couple of hands illustrating the different approaches to bidding and play in pairs and teams events. The following are from the 1980 and 1981 Summer Pairs League and caused me considerable thought at the time (and to no avail I must add). The Pairs League is scored by the Butler method which is in effect the same as imp scoring at teams, when making the contract is the main goal and 10 or 20 point, either way is of no vital importance as it is in a match-pointed pairs event. First a total disaster:

As a result of bidding based on a combination of optimism and necessity (we needed a good score), we reached 6H, which on the lead of the Ace of spades followed by another spade went one off. Afterwards, it occurred to me that had it been a match-pointed event we would have probably ended up in 3NT played by West. On the likely spade lead, there will be a variety of possible outcomes, depending whether you cash all your hearts and the other top tricks (hoping that the diamond finesse is wrong and that others in the same contract have finessed and probably gone one off) or take the diamond finesse according to the odds. In a team event, scored by imps there is no justification for looking for the extra bonus that may come from playing in Notrumps since 460 or 450 would be a flat board, and safety of the contract is top priority. As a final footnote to the above hand, the Queen of diamonds was right and six diamonds would have been makeable, even on a club lead (Ace of clubs, followed by King of diamonds, heart to the Ace, diamond finesse, cash Ace of diamonds, play of hearts discarding two clubs from West, then lead a spade towards the King).

The second hand was another example, this time in play, of how teams scoring (by imp or even aggregate scoring) requires, sometimes, a quite striking different technique. Teams scoring. Game all Dealer West

After a fairly normal auction, I received a spade lead, taking it with the Queen. Five top tricks and the prospect of quite a few club tricks assuming no disastrous breaks and reasonable care. With the above club combination, in a match-pointed pairs event, you play the 4 and if South plays the 8, 9 or 10 you can either finesse or play off the A and K depending on what day of the week it is. One could duck altogether, which gains when South holds Q1098, but this would get you a bad score if a finesse or play of AK would have led to seven club tricks. This time when I led the 4, South played the Q. Now South was the kind of player who would false card with a singleton so I thought I had better duck this trick as South may have Q1098, and if I played the 2 from dummy, I could regain the lead and pick up the rest of the club suit. Since the extra trick at this form of scoring is irrelevant, I ducked altogether only to find South's Q was singleton, and most other pairs had made an extra trick. Safety plays, like raffle tickets it seems, only work for other people!

PLAY THESE HANDS WITH ME Jim Riley

P.S. Partner please play some of the difficult hands and leave me the easy ones.

Jim Riley

Don't forget your article for the next Bulletin. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year until next time.

Editor: LES KENDALL, Bromfield Crescent, Wednesbury, West Midlands