Muggitorial

Welcome to two newly affiliated clubs, Crewe and Stone. They bring the total to 13 which is surely a record for the County.

This is the Bulletin which contains the County A.G.M. notification to members. O.K. so it is a bit early; the alternatives are to receive it after the A.G.M. is over (via the E.B.U. Magazine), or on time (but at great expense) by post.

R.W.M.

CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS - Harold Goodwin

A strange County Staffordshire. A record entry of 35 pairs for the Mixed Pairs held in October - excellent. So why only 8 pairs for the first round of the Winter Pairs? This is held on the fourth Wednesday of every month and deserves better support. Is there something about the format (Butler scoring) that you do not like? If so, let your Committee know about it. Success at this event will brim you to the notice of the County Captain when he is considering teams for Dawes matches. (Note 1.)

March 24th draws nearer - Staffordshire's first One Day Green Point Event - Arthur and Basil will need help so don't be shy at coming forward.

As well as the prestige of staging this event there should be a healthy boost to the County's finances. These are satisfactory at the moment thanks to the prompt collection of subscriptions by the new Subs. Sec. (Ian P.), who is doing a grand job.

Congratulations also to the new Bulletin Editor. He goes under various aliases - The Welsh Pedlar, Muggins, Roy Martin etc. (Note 2.). Comments on his refreshing, and amusing approach to Bulletin No. 1. have been very favourable. Personally I thought it was a disaster! Well when you play 35 boards quite brilliantly and have a slight misunderstanding on the 36th, why is that the one that gets recorded in the Bulletin for all to see? (Note 3.).

At a Committee meeting held in September a welcome visitor was John Hudson, the previous County Sec. over from sunny Spain for a minor operation. This was rather fortuitous as I had brought 'The Hudson Trophy' for the Committee to see and approve. The Midlands Congress had asked Staffordshire to present a trophy for use at the Congress, and in recognition of John and Renee's services to bridge it bears their name. If you are holidaying in the Alicante area of Spain, near to Benidorm, and want a game of bridge, John will be only too pleased to arrange this for you. His address is:

La Casa Vieja, CA-LL l4, Lucca, Javea, Alicante, Spain.

JETTISON - what muggins' partners would like to do to him.

TOLLEMACHE CUP (Qualifying round) - Arthur Bloxham.
The event is played in three sessions, six boards in each session against each team. At the finish it is scored as 16 board matches and the IMP's converted to Victory Points. Each of eight (12 player allowed) plays as two separate teams of four, whose IMP's are aggregated.
We played in the same formation throughout:

Both foursomes ended the weekend sharing the positive IMP score almost equally. Final positions in the qualifying round:

Finalists from the other qualifying rounds were: North West, Derbyshire, Hertfordshire, Dorset & Wilts

Try your declarer play on this hand. You are in four spades with, on the lie of the cards, three outside losers and you get the three of spades lead. Your trump holding are:

You play low in dummy, RHO plays the 10 taken with the King. What now?

Staffordshire were seeded (as a consequence of reaching the final last year) and received a reasonable draw. After the first session we were lying second on 56 (average being 50) behind Devon, due mainly to a 40 IMP lead over Gloucestershire. In the second we continued with another steady performance and were leading with 59 V.P. but three other Counties were above 50. The third session on Sunday started badly losing ground in the matches against Sussex and Somerset ; we had lost the initiative and victory prospects appeared poor. However, the experience and team spirit which remained high came to our aid, and the whole team responded in a very professional manner. Two good wins against Norfolk and Gloucestershire brought us back into contention and we were level with Sussex on 49 V.P. with one match to finish. Sussex went into their last match against Gloucestershire 3 IMP's down while we were 12 MP's down to Devon. We had a fine match, gaining 33 IMP's to win 15-5 and had to wait for Sussex's result - they now needed a 30 IMP swing to overtake us. In fact they lost IMP's and we had made the final for the third year out of four. We were the only seed to reach the final with the other groups all having surprising results.

The strong North West team won through very easily with London, winners of the last two finals, making no challenge at all. Derbyshire had a magnificent weekend, white washing their group which included the strong Hants & I.O.W. and Warwickshire teams. Hertfordshire just edged out the very powerful Middlesex team and Dorset & Wilts won their group beating the seeds and strong group favourites Yorkshire.

How did you play the trumps? I'm sure you did as the Sussex declarer and crossed to dummy to take the marked finesse, which loses to the Queen...... A Geoff Davies Coup.

GOLD CUP - ROUND TWO by Bob Beech

With sixteen of the forty-eight boards to go you are comfortably leading by 50 imps when you pick up, at game all, the following hand: AQ9xx; AKx; x, AKJx

Playing Acol you open 2S and over partner's 3S positive response, you wheel out, the "Old Black". The 5H response to the 4NT inquiry promises, 2 of the 5 key cards (trump King and the four Aces) so without more ado you finish the auction with a jump to 6S.
Whilst awaiting the opening lead you begin to regret your impetuosity as realisation dawns that you may have missed a stone cold Grand Slam. However, on the lead of the heart jack (Roman style) you discover that partner has nothing in reserve and you have judged the final contract nicely.

The club Ace and King are followed by a low club ruffed small in dummy. All right so far, but the Queen did not appear and so a second club ruff is required. There are two routes back to hand: (a) via the heart King or (b) via diamond Ace, diamond ruff and thought must be given to the order as you will need to return to hand after the second club ruff. It must be correct to come back with heart first because: (i) East will be ruffing a loser if he ruffs in front of you (West holding 6 hearts) (ii) It will also prevent West discarding his second heart (West holding Jx in hearts and 3 clubs) when you lead the club Jack to ruff in Dummy... You therefore lead a heart to your King and note the fall of East's 3 and West's Queen. West's QUEEN!! Now that's a bonus you had not included in your calculations.
Safety first now. No more club ruffs as you only need spades to break or a singleton Jack. A spade to the King followed by the ace and queen draws trumps and, as no squeeze develops, a club is conceded at trick 13.

Unfortunately, as earlier mentioned, the opposition being 50 imps down had bid and made 7S after a club away from the queen, (West does have a difficult opening lead), so 13 imps away. Annoyingly the other declarer did not even find out about the doubleton heart QJ until after he had discarded a heart from dummy on the top club. Never mind, virtue is its own reward and thoughtful play isn't always forgotten on a losing board. For the record I was dummy on this hand and despite the setback we did win the match.

DAWES vs NOTTINGHAMSHIRE - Away match played on Sunday, 25th November

LOSER ON LOSER - Muggins' articles
RECTIFYING THE COUNT - Muggins actually did this once, he was in a Grand Slam at the time.

Affiliated Clubs
Alsager (ALS); Basford (BAS); Crewe (CRW); Chasetown (CHA); Newcastle (NCL); Newport (NPT); Oswestry (OSW); Sandbach (SAN); Shrewsbury (SHR); Stafford (STA); Stone (STN); Tettenhall (TET); Wolverhampton (WOL).

HOW THE TWO OF SPADES CAUSED A NASTY ACCIDENT

MIXED PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP
Played on Sunday, 14th October, 17½ Tables
Tournament Director: Martyn Harris

Editorial Note: I accepted a hefty bribe to include fourth. (Actually it was a hefty threat, but bribe sounds less cowardly).

SYSTEMS, CONVENTIONS, TREATMENTS AND THINGS

Traditionally this rebid shows a reasonably balanced 15 or 16 points and is not forcing. In practice the rigid 2NT is only passed when responder is absolutely minimum for his two level response; not a frequent occurrence.

The modern tendency is to use the 2NT rebid as forcing to game. The reason for this is it allows efficient exploration for the best contract when holding strong balanced hands. As a consequence you can avoid having to bid at the three level in a second four card suit and it removes the obligation to make the stifling lurch to 3NT on a balanced 17 to 19 points. It also puts certain constraints on both partners in the following ways:

ONLY IF YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY BORED WILL YOU BOTHER WITH THIS

COUP EN PASSANT - dirty trick perpetrated on Muggins by the peasants he plays against.
HISTORY LESSON - A Muggitorial Account

Millions of years ago, before the advent of humanity destroyed the enchanted ether that permeated the universe, only magical creatures (and a few dinosaurs) existed. At the time of which I wish to write there were six major races, (Goblins, Dwarves, Trolls, Ogres, Fairies and Elves), and a number of 'Uniques' - so called because there were only one of each, (e.g.s Griffin, Pheonix, Dragon, Pi, Muggins).

Goblins and Dwarves were small, ugly and vaguely humanoid. They were also indistinguishable; not only could you not tell them apart, neither could they. Since they hated each other with a lunatic passion, this inability to recognise their enemy was a serious setback. A Goblin creeping up on a Dwarf and battering it about the head with a borrowed shillelagh, only to find out later it was his Mother-in-Law, was considered a terrible blunder (at least it turned out that way when his wife found out). Also being called a Dwarf when one was a Goblin (or vice versa) was an insult that could only be assuaged by a fight to the death; unfortunately if it was a Troll, for instance, that had made the error in recognition then the death to which they fought was that of the Goblin or Dwarf.

This situation obviously had to be remedied and my simple solution was rapidly adopted: all the Goblins wore tee-shirts with a big 'G' emblazoned on them; Dwarves sported a large 'D'. Trolls were large and appeared to have been sculptured from granite by a drunken artist. Their temperament and intelligence matched their looks: slow, hard and thick. Ogres were just incredibly hideous giants with appalling manners. fairies were small, pretty and fiendishly cunning. Elves were slightly bigger with a devil-may-care approach to life. Griffin is a lion's body with an eagle's head and wings, while slow to anger it makes excellent sense to scarper quick if he begins a slow boil. Everybody knows Phoenix and Dragon; the former occasionally bursts into flames and the latter flames in bursts. Pi was, and still is, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter; no longer is he corporeal but just as irrational so I am told. What does he look like you ask? Transcendental of course, what else? Me? I was a handsome dashing fellow in those days, but a couple of million years have taken their toll to leave the decrepit wreck you know so well today.

With the exception of Pi and I the creatures were always fighting one another over things of no importance (very much like nowadays come to think of it). So I introduced them to the best warfare of them all; where the vanquished can return to fight again and again, in short to the game of Bridge.

At the inaugural meeting of the Enchanted Land's League Teams of Four Association (ELLTOFA) it was decided that each race would enter a team and a Uniques foursome would bring the total to seven. Six head-to-head matches of 28 boards, imps converted to VP's. The Imps (present as observers) objected to this, but on a show of hands (or equivalent were defeated primarily because the Victory Points had shown up in large numbers - various scales were present each wishing to be chosen as the Official Conversion Scale.

Quickly appointing myself captain of the Uniques I was immediately faced with the delicate task of choosing the team. I had the choice of being torn to pieces, dropped from a great height, circumscribed or roasted depending on whom I left out. Fortunately Pi had an appointment to chase round in circles and Dragon needed a decoke, so for our first match against the Dwarves I partnered Phoenix and Griffin played with his good mate Manticore (they have a body in common).

The first hand was routine:

The next 13 boards are all played in 1NT making between 7 and 11 tricks and every one of them is flat. The Fairies are playing the Trolls and are sharing our boards; they also had a big half time lead in their match which makes me suspicious about this series of coincidences - I might report it to the Elltofa League Committee, the use of magic being against the proprieties.

The last board sees partner and I with the following hands:

Afterword
The second hand actually occurred in a Swiss Teams match and the auction was identical up to 7S. I was holding the big hand and, as you would expect, LHO doubled - spades were 3-0 and the Jack of hearts did not fall. -500 looked pretty bad, but one of our teammates on the other table found a terrible double of 6S. Fortunately this too went off and our loss on the board was mitigated slightly.

SOLUTION TO ' ONLY IF YOU ARE REALLY.........'

1. Only (c) and (d) will open 1D
2. (c) and (a) have the 2 of diamonds in both hands
3. (c) and (b) have the J of clubs in both hands
4. (d) and (a) have the 2 of diamonds in both hands
5. (c) and (e): best defence holds to 9 tricks, 2S + 1H + 3D + 3C. Defenders can take the ace of clubs and clear the spades, threatening to take 3S + 1H + 1C
6. (d) and (e): best defence and worst lie holds to 9 tricks, 2S + 3H + 3D + 1C
7. (d) and (b): on the surface you have 2S + 2H + 2D + 4C. But if you play the Q or J of spades at trick one it will hold. Defenders take the third club and clear the spades (lead through dummy - play queen and king covers, play low and king will remain to take the queen) depriving you of an entry to the clubs. Opening lead can be from 65 or K10965. But, if you play low from dummy at trick one, taking the ace in hand, the remaining QJ will force an entry to dummy giving 2S + 2H + 2D + 4C (10 tricks) however the spades are distributed

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Sir,

In regard to the recent letter concerning the probabilities, I can confirm that 'Oddity's Law' holds good i.e. "The higher your Master Point rank, the more the probabilities favour you". The corollary is: "If your opponent is two ranks or more superior, then your probabilities will be halved". It follows that if the 'two rank' situation appertains you should not bid a game or slam unless it is a 100% certainty - this gives you a 50% chance of making it.

Foolishly partner and I ignored this obvious fact on the following hands:

As you can see, provided spades are not 4-0, the contract is about 75%, i.e. a double finesse in diamonds. North leads the 8 of diamonds and as dummy is revealed you notice the National Master on your right is smiling sweetly (don't they always). The double finesse is not looking so good; he'll have both K and J for sure. The 68% 3-2 break is a consideration, (give him his king, dropping the jack later), but then he'd have KJxx and give his partner a ruff. Only a 28% normally but a 56% chance for him. Perhaps the best bet is to rise with the ace and hope trumps are 2-2 (41%). In reality, of course, the even break is at most 20%. Eventually I opt for running the diamond round to my queen and, as expected, expert takes his king and gives his partner a ruff. Incidentally, the trumps were 3-1.

A second example:

A small heart is led from AKxxx. The king of diamonds is with the expert South, so I have 2 spades, 1 heart, 5 diamonds and a club. The game is 100% and so I have a 50% chance of making it. On the lead of the queen of diamonds the NM smiles sweetly again and points out the lead is in hand. "You must lead a diamond from hand", he adds with Secretary Bird insistence. "Never mind", say partner, "perhaps you'll drop the singleton king". This is about a 6%; 3% for me - and zero % when RHO is insisting you play from hand. Losing 12 imps for playing in an icy game is about right (you can save an imp or two by playing in a partscore).

I've written to the President of the N.L.F. for the Freedom of the Odds; my letter has about a 45% chance of arriving safely.

Yours most sincerely,

Jack 'Safety Play' McGraw

COUNTY SWISS PAIRS

CORONATION CUP

14 teams from 8 Counties met to do battle on Sunday, 2nd December.
Staffordshire took 5 of the top 6 places - but not the one which counts.

1. Warwickshire
2. D. Davies, J. Wellsbury, E. Hartland, M. Ballantine
3. R. Beech, D. Beavon, B.P. Topley, A. Topley
4. A. Bloxham, G. Davies, R. Perry, D. Downs

SUCCESS

Peter Jones and David Patterson from Newcastle B.C. are the first winners of the Hudson Trophy, presented by Staffordshire for the Men's Pairs Championship at the Midland's Congress.

The Editor, having played with the Welsh Pedlar on numerous (unfortunately) occasions, gives his heartiest congratulations to David in overcoming a massive handicap to win the title. (I'm kidding Pete, honest!).

STAFFORDSHIRE CONTRACT BRIDGE ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 1985

7.00 p.m. FRIDAY, 3RD MAY 1985 AT STAFFORD B.C.

A G E N D A

1. Apologies
2. Minutes of the 1984 A.G.M,
3. Matters Arising
4. Secretary's Report
5. Treasurer's Report
6. Captain's Report
7. Chairman's Report
8. Smoking
9. Bearn (Semi-Final or NOT).
10. Presentation of Trophies and Prizes
11. Election of Officers
    • Chairman
    • Vice-Chairman
    • Secretary
    • Minuting Secretary
    • Treasurer
    • Captain
    • Bulletin Editor
    • Master Points Secretary
    • EBU Representative
    • League Secretary
    • Subscriptions Secretary
12. Any Other Business

It is anticipated that bridge will he played when the Annual General Meeting has closed.

Editor: Roy Martin. 1, Baron St., Fenton, ST4 3PH. SOT