I’m not saying that I want ‘She played bridge for England’ on my tombstone — but then again…
Last weekend, due to the freakish weather at the beginning of March, my team was selected to play the second weekend of the Camrose Trophy in Dublin, as the Allfrey team, who won the place to represent England against the other home countries, couldn’t make the rearranged date. The Hinden team, who played first, had left us in the lead and as my first teacher, David Parry, said in his meltingly sweet email to me, ‘Don’t screw up. Nobody remembers who came second.’ We all played our hearts out under the wonderful captaincy of Alan Mould, and won the Trophy back for England! More exciting than that I haven’t experienced.
Glyn Liggins, an old hand at International bridge level, earned us a big swing with his play of this hand against Wales:
West led ♠K which Glyn took with dummy’s Ace. He drew trump (1-1) and cashed the Ace and King of hearts, eliminating that suit. Feeling rather pleased with the way things were going he confidently advanced the ♦8 (check out the pips) and… ouch! But as every boy scout knows giving up is not an option. East took his Jack — but was caught in the famous double endplay: he exited a heart (best) but declarer ruffed in dummy and discarded ♦3 in hand. Now the stage was set — he advanced the ♦10 which East won with his Queen (see the importance of discarding the ♦3 now??) but was endplayed again. He had the uncomfortable choice of giving another ruff and discard or establishing dummy’s ♦King. Contract made. Well done everyone.