Muggitorial.

While I played in and enjoyed (without any success) the Cannock and Shrewsbury Congresses, I do not have any results. So if some kind person will send them to me they will be published. As we approach the end of the season the results of the Club Championships will be available and the County Reps may send those too.

The Men's Pairs Championship has never been a well supported event, but this year's entry was very poor. We must find some way of making it more attractive or it should be dropped from our calendar.

The County Annual General Meeting takes place on Friday May 8th, 7:00 p.m. start. In the absence of any other indication, please take this as formal notification.

I make no apology for what has been politely termed the 'Northern Bias' of the Bulletin; but even I am getting bored with Muggins and his tedious prose. And yes, since you ask, I am still desperate.

RWM

THE COHOLDER PLAYS A BLINDER

The Midlands Team Championship was held at the Leicester Bridge Centre on Sunday 23rd November. 23 teams were present to play 6 eight board matches on the Swiss format.

I gave Declarer an easy time by playing 2 rounds of hearts. On the other table my hand overcalled in clubs and caught a raise, and so led a club against 4H. This ultimately leads to defeat and the 12 imp swing gave them the match by 2 imps.

Match 2. I forgot (?) to overcall is with l0xxxx; xx; KQx; xxx and our opponents bid very aggressively to 6NT. They didn't forget on the other table and reaped their reward when our partners.(quite reasonably) stopped in 3NT. 12 tricks rolled in.

Match 3.

QJ of spades are onside, diamonds are 3-3 and the KQ of hearts are doubleton...... minus 6 imps.

Matches 4 and 5. Were both wins as I managed to hold my errors(?) to a minimum. We sacrificed in 6S against 6H, which cost 900; Headmaster had a two-way guess for the diamond queen and his 6H contract. He was not playing with me so he unerringly finessed the right way to win us 11 imps - a wrong guess and we lose 11 imps. Not that H. considers these things a guess, rather the application of the fundamental principles of green beige psychological warfare.

Match 6. Nicely summed up my day. I sacrificed in 4C over the oppositions 4S (spades were an unbid suit at the time and only I knew they had a spade fit), this cost a mere 100. Our partners get to the good 4S and lose the first 5 tricks on a cross-ruff ...........

I double 2S for penalties and find my A and K of clubs are facing Declarer's void, Dummy has three trumps and an outside singleton and our combined 23 count is only good enough to stop the second overtrick. These two hands cost 21 imps and we lose the match by 7 imps.

The guy on the other table who sits with my cards and never seems to make any mistakes ought to have a technical name., We have Opener, Overcaller., Responder and Advancer for our table so how about Coholder for our personal enemy.

Or, better yet, ......... Bighead.

E.B.U.T.A by R. Martin

Prior to about 1985 the English Bridge Union's Teacher's Association was run by Rhoda Lederer. Admittance to EBUTA was obtained by taking a written examination; the successful candidates then undergoing an informal oral examination to ensure they could impart what they knew to others.

From 1985 Mrs. Pat Husband took over as manager of the Association and, as with .many a new broom, changes were made. Admittance to EBUTA is now via a formal examination of teaching skills; the candidate usually giving a lecture to a real beginners class.

While bridge knowledge is not examined formally in any depth, the assessors do require a candidate to be seen to be well informed concerning the game in general and Acol in particular. Usually the rank of 'Master' is sufficient for this purpose, but even those below this rank can still become full members provided they can show that their knowledge is adequate.

The accent is now firmly on practical teaching skills and full membership is only give to those who can demonstrate sufficient ability in this area. A new type of membership has been created for those interested in teaching but who are not yet ready, or are waiting, to be assessed for full membership.

Other innovations include a variety of Workshops and Courses intended to help teachers and associates to improve their knowledge and teaching skills; the up dating of the Acol System using the findings of an Acol Quiz devised and analysed by Eric Crowhurst; the appointment of County Liaison Officers to forge stronger links with the County Associations.

As the CLO for Staffordshire I have been sent a list of the full members and associates who fall within our jurisdiction. My task is to:

1. Advise EBUTA of those members who are not available to teach,
2. Assist in the recruitment of teachers.
3. Give information to interested parties concerning the teachers and bridge classes available in their geographical vicinity.
4. Inform EBUTA of any ideas which might help in the development of bridge in Staffordshire.

To do those effectively I need information on what is currently happening, not only from those on the list, but also from those who do some, teaching although they have no interest in EBUTA. Consequently I welcome any contact with anyone, who has an interest - information, suggestions or general discourse.

I would also like to publish my list, those who are on it know who they are, but the information may be useful to many others and the Bulletin would be an ideal publication in which to advertise. Anyone got strong views either way on this?

NATIONAL PAIRS QUALIFYING HEAT

Was held at Newcastle Bridge Club on Sunday, 14th December, 1986
You should all be aware by now that Muggins' lack of skill and judgement is offset by his incredible luck.........

Let's see if you can better his and C.T.'s skilful showing on the following hands:

1. At love all you pick up:

Answers.

1. (a) On a diamond lead Declarer will lose trump control, despite his 6 card suit, and you get him 3 or 4 off for a top. Anything else gets him one off and a bottom with all the other scores on the sheet being 3NT tick. I found a spade....... (b) It doesn't matter, for this contract is cold for 11 tricks.
2. Partner has the heart ace and diamond king. Declarer can get out for 2 down by ducking the diamond lead twice. All other Declarers are in 4H + 2. C.T. lead the SQ .......and 12 tricks are easy.
3. It requires careful play but no lead will beat this contract. Everyone else is in 3NT + 2.

We score a grand total of zero matchpoints out of 24 on these boards. We also failed to qualify for the Regional Final by 2 matchpoints.

'STOP PRESS' By CENTAUR

Heavy traffic on Longton Road, coupled with latent deafness, was blamed as the cause of a major incident in a Potteries men's cardroom just after Christmas.

A FAVOURITE HAND By H. GOODWIN

The Editor has made a plea for material for the Bulletin. Now everyone has a few favourite hands so why not send him details of yours. Possibly, like me, you prefer to forget most of your contracts, but surely you can find just one? Anyway, how's this for starters. The scene is Alsager Bridge Club: 12th January 1981.

THE BRUCE MUGS Sunday, lst February 1987

There comes periods when I get nothing right. O.K. Muggins rarely does even when at his best, but January was a real 'downer'. How would February be? Headmaster, in the car on the way to Stafford , mentioned how he fancied our chances in the forth­coming contest. 'My luck must change soon', I thought, 'Perhaps today is the day'. Turned out to be Day's day.

Speaking of whom, we started against John and Fred with 2 flat boards, a phantom sacrifice and this.

This was one of the better hands I held during the evening:

Rubbing salt into my wounds the same player, vul vs not, bid up to 3S across from a partner who passed throughout. He tabled a Dummy containing 3 spades and 10 points, including 2 aces. I eventually had to give Declarer a ruff and discard just to stop the overtrick. All to no avail, minus 140 giving the normal 'round' score to which I was rapidly becoming accustomed. The Gods relented on the final board; an 11 point take-out double by the 'Culprit' led to 1HX -1 for our only good result of the day.

The next two hands illustrate that when you are down expect to get kicked;

Finally a hand that shows me at my best .. . . and worst.

Neil Morley and his computer produced a rapid result which showed our partnerships last bottom of the evening. But even the computer had taken pity on us by reporting that we had amassed 40% ; this is wrong; it couldn't be any higher than 20% and I should know for I was there. It was an evening to forget. Why I should torture myself by remembering it and immortalizing it in print is a mystery that, like bridge, is well beyond my powers to fathom.

Result:

1. J. Day F. Dumbleton Ncl
2. G. Davies D. Downs Sta
3. P. Leese A. Moss Nc

A CHALLENGE TO BID

Most bridge journals have a bidding challenge in which pairs, usually in a one to one contest, bid a set number of hands under 'at the table' conditions. The auctions are reported with explanations where appropriate, and a score given for each contract reached.

I would like to try a similar idea. If I supply 3 hands, duplicating East and West bidding sheets, and send them to Club Representatives could they (or someone at the Club) conduct a few 'Challenges' . The more pairs that take part the better. The auctions can then be sent to me for 'analysis' and possible publication.

I promise not to show auctions which may prove to be embarrassing.

The conductors and pairs would have to be prepared to spend a little time for the bidding, recording of bids and explanations of system bids that are conventional or, by partnership agreement different from the norm.

Eventually some form of on-going contest could develop pair versus pair being the traditional way, but how about Club versus Club?

You should forgive your partner's occasional lapses in bidding, Declarer play and defence................... but not before he is hanged.

THE HALLETT-BAILEY CUP

The Women's Pairs Championship took place on. Sunday, 22nd February 1987.

Result: ?

THE McFARLAND TROPHY

Was played on Sunday 2nd November and is Derbyshire's equivalent of our Coronation Cup. It is a round robin of multiple teams consisting of teams from neighbouring Counties along with a few home teams.

With 10 teams present we were to play 9 four board matches, Imp's converted to V.P.'s on a 12 - 0 scale. The 5 matches played before tea saw us in good form, winning 4 of them and leading the field with a near 70% set.

Sitting with:

This hand appeared in the one match, we lost.

At the tea interval I was scoffing the sandwiches as fast as I could, but my teammates still beat me to the cakes - there were only 2 plain cakes left, the greedy so and so's. Thus depleted of vital nourishment it was predictable that the second half would be a disaster - my teammates having overindulged on the cakes that I usually eat for them. A 40% set should have dropped us to about fourth, so we were reasonably pleased to hear the final result.

# A Jump Shift with only 13 points! Yes, and quite right too. If you bid 1D partner is sure to bid 1S and your next bid is......interesting. A rebid to 3C or a jump rebid are not forcing; you can try 2H, the fourth suit, but you are entering into murky waters - this is a hand you wish to show as opposed to finding out about partner's hand. Eric Crowhurst explains it a lot better in his excellent book 'Precision Bidding in Acol'; his example hand is

CORONATION CUP

Sunday December 7th, 1986. The first half of this 13 team Round Robin contest could be summed up, as far as Muggins' team was concerned, as follows:

• Bidding judgement - Pathetic
• Opening leads - Worse than pathetic
• Guessing Q10 combinations - 100% failure rate.
• Skill and judgement of coholder - Magnificent

Our only success occurred when Headmaster and Blue Stocking manoeuvred themselves into 3NT with a combined 34 count - 11 tricks being the maximum on the hand. The only pleasing aspect of lying in last place is the knowledge that it can't get any worse. 37 V.P. out of 120 was followed by 76 from the remaining 120; a 100% improvement lifted our spirits a little and our overall ranking place a lot.

Derbyshire eventually emerged as the winners, followed by our own Dave Beavon, Paul Cutler and the Topley's.

Overheard at Newcastle Bridge Club recently - the players shall remain anonymous. The bidding was 1 Diamond by South followed by three No Bids. The contract went two down but East/West have a cold 3NT. East said to West who passed with 17 points. "Why didn't you bid, partner?" The reply was: "We were vulnerable - take my pictures away and there's not much left"

Editor: Roy Martin 1, Baron St. , Fenton, ST4 3PH. SOT 310495 (before 5.30 pm.)

BULLETIN No. 9 APRIL 1987, Number 45 in Roy's numbering sequence 

Muggitorial.

While I played in and enjoyed (without any success) the Cannock and Shrewsbury Congresses, I do not have any results. So if some kind person will send them to me they will be published. As we approach the end of the season the results of the Club Championships will be available and the County Reps may send those too.

The Men's Pairs Championship has never been a well supported event, but this year's entry was very poor. We must find some way of making it more attractive or it should be dropped from our calendar.

The County Annual General Meeting takes place on Friday May 8th, 7:00 p.m. start. In the absence of any other indication, please take this as formal notification.

I make no apology for what has been politely termed the 'Northern Bias' of the Bulletin; but even I am getting bored with Muggins and his tedious prose. And yes, since you ask, I am still desperate.

RWM

THE COHOLDER PLAYS A BLINDER

The Midlands Team Championship was held at the Leicester Bridge Centre on Sunday 23rd November. 23 teams were present to play 6 eight board matches on the Swiss format.

I gave Declarer an easy time by playing 2 rounds of hearts. On the other table my hand overcalled in clubs and caught a raise, and so led a club against 4H. This ultimately leads to defeat and the 12 imp swing gave them the match by 2 imps.

Match 2. I forgot (?) to overcall is with l0xxxx; xx; KQx; xxx and our opponents bid very aggressively to 6NT. They didn't forget on the other table and reaped their reward when our partners.(quite reasonably) stopped in 3NT. 12 tricks rolled in.

Match 3.

QJ of spades are onside, diamonds are 3-3 and the KQ of hearts are doubleton...... minus 6 imps.

Matches 4 and 5. Were both wins as I managed to hold my errors(?) to a minimum. We sacrificed in 6S against 6H, which cost 900; Headmaster had a two-way guess for the diamond queen and his 6H contract. He was not playing with me so he unerringly finessed the right way to win us 11 imps - a wrong guess and we lose 11 imps. Not that H. considers these things a guess, rather the application of the fundamental principles of green beige psychological warfare.

Match 6. Nicely summed up my day. I sacrificed in 4C over the oppositions 4S (spades were an unbid suit at the time and only I knew they had a spade fit), this cost a mere 100. Our partners get to the good 4S and lose the first 5 tricks on a cross-ruff ...........

I double 2S for penalties and find my A and K of clubs are facing Declarer's void, Dummy has three trumps and an outside singleton and our combined 23 count is only good enough to stop the second overtrick. These two hands cost 21 imps and we lose the match by 7 imps.

The guy on the other table who sits with my cards and never seems to make any mistakes ought to have a technical name., We have Opener, Overcaller., Responder and Advancer for our table so how about Coholder for our personal enemy.

Or, better yet, ......... Bighead.

E.B.U.T.A by R. Martin

Prior to about 1985 the English Bridge Union's Teacher's Association was run by Rhoda Lederer. Admittance to EBUTA was obtained by taking a written examination; the successful candidates then undergoing an informal oral examination to ensure they could impart what they knew to others.

From 1985 Mrs. Pat Husband took over as manager of the Association and, as with .many a new broom, changes were made. Admittance to EBUTA is now via a formal examination of teaching skills; the candidate usually giving a lecture to a real beginners class.

While bridge knowledge is not examined formally in any depth, the assessors do require a candidate to be seen to be well informed concerning the game in general and Acol in particular. Usually the rank of 'Master' is sufficient for this purpose, but even those below this rank can still become full members provided they can show that their knowledge is adequate.

The accent is now firmly on practical teaching skills and full membership is only give to those who can demonstrate sufficient ability in this area. A new type of membership has been created for those interested in teaching but who are not yet ready, or are waiting, to be assessed for full membership.

Other innovations include a variety of Workshops and Courses intended to help teachers and associates to improve their knowledge and teaching skills; the up dating of the Acol System using the findings of an Acol Quiz devised and analysed by Eric Crowhurst; the appointment of County Liaison Officers to forge stronger links with the County Associations.

As the CLO for Staffordshire I have been sent a list of the full members and associates who fall within our jurisdiction. My task is to:

1. Advise EBUTA of those members who are not available to teach,
2. Assist in the recruitment of teachers.
3. Give information to interested parties concerning the teachers and bridge classes available in their geographical vicinity.
4. Inform EBUTA of any ideas which might help in the development of bridge in Staffordshire.

To do those effectively I need information on what is currently happening, not only from those on the list, but also from those who do some, teaching although they have no interest in EBUTA. Consequently I welcome any contact with anyone, who has an interest - information, suggestions or general discourse.

I would also like to publish my list, those who are on it know who they are, but the information may be useful to many others and the Bulletin would be an ideal publication in which to advertise. Anyone got strong views either way on this?

NATIONAL PAIRS QUALIFYING HEAT

Was held at Newcastle Bridge Club on Sunday, 14th December, 1986
You should all be aware by now that Muggins' lack of skill and judgement is offset by his incredible luck.........

Let's see if you can better his and C.T.'s skilful showing on the following hands:

1. At love all you pick up:

Answers.

1. (a) On a diamond lead Declarer will lose trump control, despite his 6 card suit, and you get him 3 or 4 off for a top. Anything else gets him one off and a bottom with all the other scores on the sheet being 3NT tick. I found a spade....... (b) It doesn't matter, for this contract is cold for 11 tricks.
2. Partner has the heart ace and diamond king. Declarer can get out for 2 down by ducking the diamond lead twice. All other Declarers are in 4H + 2. C.T. lead the SQ .......and 12 tricks are easy.
3. It requires careful play but no lead will beat this contract. Everyone else is in 3NT + 2.

We score a grand total of zero matchpoints out of 24 on these boards. We also failed to qualify for the Regional Final by 2 matchpoints.

'STOP PRESS' By CENTAUR

Heavy traffic on Longton Road, coupled with latent deafness, was blamed as the cause of a major incident in a Potteries men's cardroom just after Christmas.

A FAVOURITE HAND By H. GOODWIN

The Editor has made a plea for material for the Bulletin. Now everyone has a few favourite hands so why not send him details of yours. Possibly, like me, you prefer to forget most of your contracts, but surely you can find just one? Anyway, how's this for starters. The scene is Alsager Bridge Club: 12th January 1981.

THE BRUCE MUGS Sunday, lst February 1987

There comes periods when I get nothing right. O.K. Muggins rarely does even when at his best, but January was a real 'downer'. How would February be? Headmaster, in the car on the way to Stafford , mentioned how he fancied our chances in the forth­coming contest. 'My luck must change soon', I thought, 'Perhaps today is the day'. Turned out to be Day's day.

Speaking of whom, we started against John and Fred with 2 flat boards, a phantom sacrifice and this.

This was one of the better hands I held during the evening:

Rubbing salt into my wounds the same player, vul vs not, bid up to 3S across from a partner who passed throughout. He tabled a Dummy containing 3 spades and 10 points, including 2 aces. I eventually had to give Declarer a ruff and discard just to stop the overtrick. All to no avail, minus 140 giving the normal 'round' score to which I was rapidly becoming accustomed. The Gods relented on the final board; an 11 point take-out double by the 'Culprit' led to 1HX -1 for our only good result of the day.

The next two hands illustrate that when you are down expect to get kicked;

Finally a hand that shows me at my best .. . . and worst.

Neil Morley and his computer produced a rapid result which showed our partnerships last bottom of the evening. But even the computer had taken pity on us by reporting that we had amassed 40% ; this is wrong; it couldn't be any higher than 20% and I should know for I was there. It was an evening to forget. Why I should torture myself by remembering it and immortalizing it in print is a mystery that, like bridge, is well beyond my powers to fathom.

Result:

1. J. Day F. Dumbleton Ncl
2. G. Davies D. Downs Sta
3. P. Leese A. Moss Nc

A CHALLENGE TO BID

Most bridge journals have a bidding challenge in which pairs, usually in a one to one contest, bid a set number of hands under 'at the table' conditions. The auctions are reported with explanations where appropriate, and a score given for each contract reached.

I would like to try a similar idea. If I supply 3 hands, duplicating East and West bidding sheets, and send them to Club Representatives could they (or someone at the Club) conduct a few 'Challenges' . The more pairs that take part the better. The auctions can then be sent to me for 'analysis' and possible publication.

I promise not to show auctions which may prove to be embarrassing.

The conductors and pairs would have to be prepared to spend a little time for the bidding, recording of bids and explanations of system bids that are conventional or, by partnership agreement different from the norm.

Eventually some form of on-going contest could develop pair versus pair being the traditional way, but how about Club versus Club?

You should forgive your partner's occasional lapses in bidding, Declarer play and defence................... but not before he is hanged.

THE HALLETT-BAILEY CUP

The Women's Pairs Championship took place on. Sunday, 22nd February 1987.

Result: ?

THE McFARLAND TROPHY

Was played on Sunday 2nd November and is Derbyshire's equivalent of our Coronation Cup. It is a round robin of multiple teams consisting of teams from neighbouring Counties along with a few home teams.

With 10 teams present we were to play 9 four board matches, Imp's converted to V.P.'s on a 12 - 0 scale. The 5 matches played before tea saw us in good form, winning 4 of them and leading the field with a near 70% set.

Sitting with:

This hand appeared in the one match, we lost.

At the tea interval I was scoffing the sandwiches as fast as I could, but my teammates still beat me to the cakes - there were only 2 plain cakes left, the greedy so and so's. Thus depleted of vital nourishment it was predictable that the second half would be a disaster - my teammates having overindulged on the cakes that I usually eat for them. A 40% set should have dropped us to about fourth, so we were reasonably pleased to hear the final result.

# A Jump Shift with only 13 points! Yes, and quite right too. If you bid 1D partner is sure to bid 1S and your next bid is......interesting. A rebid to 3C or a jump rebid are not forcing; you can try 2H, the fourth suit, but you are entering into murky waters - this is a hand you wish to show as opposed to finding out about partner's hand. Eric Crowhurst explains it a lot better in his excellent book 'Precision Bidding in Acol'; his example hand is

CORONATION CUP

Sunday December 7th, 1986. The first half of this 13 team Round Robin contest could be summed up, as far as Muggins' team was concerned, as follows:

• Bidding judgement - Pathetic
• Opening leads - Worse than pathetic
• Guessing Q10 combinations - 100% failure rate.
• Skill and judgement of coholder - Magnificent

Our only success occurred when Headmaster and Blue Stocking manoeuvred themselves into 3NT with a combined 34 count - 11 tricks being the maximum on the hand. The only pleasing aspect of lying in last place is the knowledge that it can't get any worse. 37 V.P. out of 120 was followed by 76 from the remaining 120; a 100% improvement lifted our spirits a little and our overall ranking place a lot.

Derbyshire eventually emerged as the winners, followed by our own Dave Beavon, Paul Cutler and the Topley's.

Overheard at Newcastle Bridge Club recently - the players shall remain anonymous. The bidding was 1 Diamond by South followed by three No Bids. The contract went two down but East/West have a cold 3NT. East said to West who passed with 17 points. "Why didn't you bid, partner?" The reply was: "We were vulnerable - take my pictures away and there's not much left"

Editor: Roy Martin 1, Baron St. , Fenton, ST4 3PH. SOT 310495 (before 5.30 pm.)

BULLETIN No. 9 APRIL 1987, Number 45 in Roy's numbering sequence