Bridge | 6 July 2024

I’ve just come back from Herning in Denmark, where the European championships are taking place. I was playing with my friend Catherine Draper (herself a former gold medallist) in a side event, the European women’s pairs – brilliantly organised, and open to anyone. We qualified for the A-final, but finished a disappointing tenth. I can’t pretend the fatigue of playing eight hours a day didn’t lead to a couple of moments of madness.

The most bizarre was when we bid to 3♠ against a Danish pair. I put dummy down, and Catherine exclaimed: ‘We’ve both got the ace of spades!’ We all laughed, and called for the director: he told us to move on to the next board. Ten minutes later, he returned. ‘OK, we know what happened: South [me!] took out the South cards from the previous round’s board, put them on the table, then picked up the correct board and took out the correct cards, but went on to put each hand back in the wrong board.’

I vaguely remembered picking up the wrong board and putting it away but – surely not all that?! ‘It’s on camera’, he continued, ‘so East-West get 60 per cent.’ My shame was complete. Luckily, Catherine made up for it on the next deal.

North led the ◆K. Catherine (West) won with the ◆A and immediately played the ◆6. North won. What would you do? Which ace was declarer missing? North switched to the ♥Q. Catherine won in hand, crossed to the ♠Q, ruffed a diamond, drew trumps and pitched two clubs on the ◆J8.