Chelsea v Oxford
After struggling through to Round 4 of the Gold Cup, my unseeded team got the worst possible draw in the last 32, away to the number one seeds, Tony Forrester, Andrew Robson, Peter Crouch (no, not the six foot seven inch goalscorer but a regular England player all the same) and Alex Allfrey. They are the Gold Cup holders and perhaps the strongest team in Britain, so we would have to be on good form to give them a game. The match was played at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club, so it was a bit like Chelsea v Oxford at football, although we'd like to think we had a slightly better chance than the U's.
Try your hand at four of the deals which had a big impact on the outcome…
Problem 1
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♠ 4
♥ Q 10 ♦ A K 7 4 ♣ A J 8 7 3 2 |
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♠ 9 6 5 3 2
♥ K 9 8 6 ♦ Q ♣ K 10 6 |
♠ Q 8
♥ J 5 4 3 ♦ J 9 5 3 2 ♣ Q 9 |
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♠ A K J 10 7
♥ A 7 2 ♦ 10 8 6 ♣ 5 4 |
(Board 11.) The auction goes
| S | W | N | E |
| 1♠ | Pass | 2♣ | Pass |
| 2♠ | Pass | 3♦ | Pass |
| 3N | Pass | Pass | Pass |
As West, you lead ♥6 which goes to 10, J and 2. ♥3 back to 7, K, Q. ♥9, ♦pitch, 4, A. ♣5 to 6, 7, 9. ♥5, ♦pitch…
Your plan?
Andrew Robson held these cards and he is one of the most methodical players I have come across, thinking for ages about most decisions, and he judged well that this one needs a lot of thinking about, before exiting with a low spade. My eyes lit up briefly as declarer but in fact it wasn't good news at all, with East showing out on the third round of the suit. One off.
Indeed a low spade is the only return that should beat the contract at this point. On a minor suit switch, I should win in dummy and play off ♦AK, squeezing Robson in the black suits. Indeed, what else have I got to play for? So full marks to the Big Man with the Wounded Foot for finding this switch and breaking up the entries for the squeeze.
The contract and lead were the same at the other table but there was one critical difference - there, ♥6 was a "normal" 4th-highest lead. That wasn't the case at our table where &hearts6 was a "reverse attitude" lead (the lower the card, the more you like the suit). That's why I got the crucial guess wrong at trick one. I couldn't see ♥5, ♥4 or ♥3, so, from my perspective, ♥6 was not that low a card at all and he was unlikely to have the King, hence the play of the 10 from dummy. But when ♥6 is fourth highest, as at the other table, there is no problem guessing right at trick one and there is no defence after that. So the 10 IMPs out there left us feeling a shade hard done by.
As so often when you hold Qx in the weakest suit at NT, it's a lot better to have that hand as declarer, but not many of us have a good enough system to wangle this.
