Max, my adorable son-in-law, knew early on he was not cut out for a life of academia. Nevertheless he fearlessly sat an A-level, after which, exhausted, he went on holiday.
On the day the results were due, he phoned his doting mother and asked her to open the letter when it came and tell him the good news. ‘Max,’ she said excitedly, ‘You’ve got a U! What does it mean?’ ‘U means Unbelievable, Mum,’ he told her, whereupon she almost burst with pride!
In the recent TGR’s Auction Pairs, the very academic Barry Myers came a strong third playing with Turkey’s Mustafa Cem Tokay, whom he met an hour before the tournament. Here he is producing an unbelievable defence that can best be described as a reverse surrounding play:
After North’s featherweight double, South did well to restrain himself only to bid game, although, of course, 3NT would have been a lot easier.
Barry was West and found the good lead of a trump. Declarer won in hand and drew two more rounds, East discarding the deuce of Clubs to give count in that suit.
Next, South produced the King of Clubs. Even seeing all the hands, it’s not easy to see a winning defence. Ducking is no good, as South can play Spades towards dummy and always come to ten tricks. Winning and exiting with Ace and Queen of Spades doesn’t work either, as declarer can then play Ace and another Diamond to East, who has to give dummy the rest. The only defence, which Barry found, is to win the ♣A and play the Queen of Spades. This ensures that declarer can’t get to dummy while leaving East with a Spade, and South without a reply. One down.
Unbelievable!
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