My husband is a writer (John Preston), whose recent books were better received than he had ever dared hope. When our 15-year-old son came home from school recently, he told John excitedly that his English teacher turns out to be a fan: ‘He says he loves your books, and how well written they are, and asked whether you’d come and give a talk at the school.’ He then turned to me and said sweetly: ‘I did tell him my mother’s a bridge player.’ I lit up. ‘Really? And what did he say?’ I asked. ‘He said you’d get on well with his grandmother.’
I’m sure I would; but I did feel the urge to tell him that bridge is also very much a young person’s game. In fact, the mix of ages is one of the wonderful things about it: go to any tournament and you’ll see teenagers and pensioners so united in their passion that they barely notice an age gap. I recently met a young Danish player called Christian Larman. He was still at school when lockdown began; two months ago, at 19, he was playing on the Danish Open Team at the European Championships.
Here’s a simple but neat defence he found against a vulnerable game (see diagram).
1♥ was a transfer to spades; 1♠ was take-out of spades. Christian led the ◆A. When dummy comes down with a singleton, it’s usual to give a suit-preference signal, so West played the ◆3, encouraging a club switch. Had Christian cashed the ♣A first, the contract would have made. Instead, he played a low club to his partner’s king, won the club return with his ♣A, and duly played another for his partner to ruff. His grandmother is probably telling a fellow bridge enthusiast right now that they should meet her grandson…
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