Clive, a leading light of Abingdon Bridge Club for many years, has achieved notable successes in National competitions. He is always calm and kindly at the Bridge table - but rarely generous (in terms of results) to his opponents!

Clive spent over 30 years as a research scientist at Harwell Laboratory, and he has recently retired. He started playing Bridge in his first year at Harwell, to give his work colleagues a game at lunchtime.

Here Clive describes a hand from the 1999 Oxfordshire County Pairs final, where he partnered Harry Freeman:

"Board 2 was my favourite board of the event - presumably because both Harry and I were awake as it was only board 2!

The bidding goes -

You are East. Partner leads the 6§ , dummy goes down and you see -

Declarer plays low at trick 1, you put in the 10 and declarer wins with the
Queen. The §3 is now led, partner shows out (!) and the Jack of Clubs goes
to your King. What now?

Partner has discarded the ©3 on the club, which suggests a heart switch. The ©9 looks menacing in dummy so, remembering a 'Bols' tip from several years ago I played the ©2, declarer the ©Q, partner the ©K and dummy won with the Ace. It's now worth looking at all four hands (Clive is East and Harry is West):

Presumably Harry had been put off the majors by the bidding, so he spurned his
4th best from his longest and strongest (grotty) and tried to find my suit! South now cashed the Ace of Clubs, followed by two top diamonds and the boss club and then exited with a diamond to Harry's Queen. Now comes the crunch! Harry underled his ©J to my ©10 (he must have believed my ©2 !). I cashed the §7, and played a spade to Harry's Ace for him to cash ©J for two down and a 95% score. It's always pleasing to get a good result from defending well - being the most difficult part of the game!"

Clive's second hand, this time partnering Malcolm Simpson:

The bidding is:

* 1¨ is Precision (11-15 points, at least 2 diamonds).

This is the OBA Simultaneous Pairs, and Clive is directing as well as playing.

You know how it feels when you're defending a hand, and everything you do is wrong? Of course you do - so you'll be able to sympathise with Clive on this one:

"I kick off with the Ace of Diamonds and observe Partner's 2. We are playing 'attitude' at trick one, so I lazily and without thinking where partner's 9+ points are (its the strain of Directing you know!) switch to the 10 of Clubs at trick 2 (!). Away go 2 hearts from Declarer's hand and trumps are drawn in three rounds. Partner is quietly seething by now! How can I make things worse think I? On the fourth round of trumps I jettison the 10 of diamonds as a suit preference for Hearts(!!!). A startled Declarer now proceeds to make eleven tricks for, I assume, a county 'TOP'. Simpson is beside himself. I drown my sorrows with a gulp of diet coke. At the end of the round our opponent leaves with a smile and a quiet 'thank you'. Partner is still speechless as I leave for the bar to get him a drink. How's that for the worst defended hand in the Competition?"