When my talented friend Paula Leslie and I decided to put a team together for the Hubert Philips Bowl (England’s mixed teams championship), it was really just an excuse to see more of each other. Six undefeated matches later, and our team has won the cup! We’re all elated: we beat Sandra Penfold’s team by a small margin, but to beat them at all is a feather in anyone’s cap. Team Penfold, featuring the mighty Brian and Nevena Senior, are a force to be reckoned with. Indeed, just the previous day, they had won a Crockfords match in style.
Funnily enough, it’s a hand from that match, rather than my own, that I want to relate. Brian Senior showed it to me, and it demonstrates dramatically how careless talk costs tricks. Brian was South, Sandra North, and they reached a superb grand slam:
East’s 2♦ was the sort of obstructive bid players make at favourable vulnerability.
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