Today's guest is rather special. Sandy started playing Bridge at a time when western democracy was under threat, and he was helping to defend it. Think about the freedom and wealth that we usually take for granted, here at the close of the twentieth century, and you quickly realise how much the rest of us owe to Sandy and his generation.

Sandy describes how he was introduced to the game: "It started when I was crossing the Atlantic in 1941, in the Duchess of York, which was operating as a troop ship. Tired of playing Poker and Solo-whist, I started on Auction Bridge. I was converted to Contract Bridge in 1943, when an established four lost one member, and no other experienced player was available."

After 20 years as an officer in the Royal Air Force, Sandy became a Surveyor (Land and Buildings). This second career lasted for 25 years.

Sandy clearly enjoys his Bridge, and he plays regularly in the County team. The hand he has chosen illustrates the importance of reading your opponents. It also shows that, when you play a game for over 50 years, you learn some things that they don't teach you in books!

Over to Sandy......

"As West you open 2 Clubs - Benjaminised Acol - and are rapidly propelled into 6 Clubs by an enthusiastic East, with North and South remaining silent."

"North leads a non-descript Heart, which you take in hand and lead a Club to the Ace, North and South contributing the 2 and the 5. You return to hand with a Spade and lead the Club 10. North plays the Club 3 like a man without a care in the world. After some consideration - almost 20 seconds - you decide that he probably has not got the Queen, so your only hope is that South started with Q 5. The King from dummy confirms this, and you claim 12 tricks."

"The hand was played recently in the Hubert Phillips competition. Experts on the Theory of Probability, and other stray theoretical mathematicians, will be aghast that one played a hunch against the odds. I enjoyed writing down +1370."

(Editor's note: In the Hubert Phillips, teams matches are played with aggregate scoring. Therefore gaining 1370 instead of losing 100 makes a big difference!)