Friday 19 July saw Young Chelsea’s last duplicate at the old premises in Barkston Gardens. And what a swell party it was! Sold out with two weeks to go, 30 pairs took part in a quiz, the famous Friday night IMPs duplicate, and a midnight speedball. Everyone who is anyone has played at YC on
Tor Helness, the Norwegian-born superstar who now plays for Monaco, partnering his wife Gunn in the European Mixed Teams, had a total meltdown and stormed out when she let through 3NT. As you would. When he stormed back in she informed him that he would be playing the rest of the tournament with their (female)
What a week! Ostend by the sea was host to this year’s European Championships which kicked off with two mixed events (pairs and teams). I arrived on Friday and went straight to the playing area. Who was the first person I ran into? My favourite column buddy, Susanna! For the next week we hung out
Last week I was glued to BBO, watching the US trials to select the two teams who will represent America in the Bermuda Bowl in Bali later this year. All the best players were competing and it was fascinating to see the extraordinary events unfold. USA 1, and outright winners, is the relatively unknown Kranyak
Another long weekend, another bridge tournament. This time in Bournemouth where the groupetto and I decided to go for the Monday teams event. We all piled excitedly into the car, buckets and spades at the ready, and hurtled down the M3 full of optimism and bonhomie. Needless to say that didn’t last long. The arguments
If you are a regular reader of this column — do I have a regular reader who did not actually give birth to me? — you may remember that a couple of weeks ago no one could have felt sorrier for themselves than moi. We had been knocked out of every competition you could think
Bridge. What a heartbreaker. Just when you think all is well with the world you come spectacularly unstuck. OK, maybe a tad dramatic, but it doesn’t feel like it. First we played the Crockford’s semi-final — and lost. Then we played round 3 of the Gold Cup — and lost again. Since then nothing has
How do you stand on reunions? I always thought nothing on earth would get me to one but you live and learn. School reunions were the biggest no-no — who wants to see what they’d look like if they hadn’t spent a freaking fortune on themselves and deprived themselves of food most of their life?
Where did you spend Easter? Skiing in some magical snowy wonderland, sipping schnapps and ladling down the fondue? On a gourmet tour somewhere, sampling the local delicacies and washing them down with copious amounts of plonk? Me? I was at the Royal National Hotel in Russell Square playing the Easter Guardian along with hundreds of
The London Metropolitan Bridge Association’s annual Swiss Teams’ Tournament, which attracted 35 teams, was won in style by Roger O’Shea, ably assisted by most of the Hackett family. There are a number of situations in bridge where we can’t afford to hesitate, or we’d give the game away. The only thing to rely on in
Terry Hewett’s annual charity bonanza, Night of the Stars, has become THE charity event of the year and has made Terry the true star. This year she auctioned off 43 bridge stars, raising well over £40,000 for four charities, and gave us all a fabulous evening to boot! This year’s tournament was won by Jeremy
Professional bridge players should not need motivating, but the fact is that sometimes it would appear they are sleepwalking and need a veritable kick up the backside. Our latest Gold Cup match against my friend Jon Vos was a case in point. Jon had been less than compulsive/obsessive about informing his team of the arrangements
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
It took more than total white-out and Heathrow closing its doors to deter 200 avid bridge players from making their way to Hinckley for the National Swiss Teams, probably the most popular event in the EBU calendar. The format is two days playing 13 matches and the best team usually wins. This year the best
Here is my eagerly awaited New Year’s List of the most infuriating things partner can do: 1. Bid ridiculously to game, get doubled, go for a telephone number and say: ‘Sorry, partner, I could have made that.’ 2. Double the opps into game, and when it makes, as it ALWAYS does, say ‘Sorry, partner, I
Up to Solihull again (I might as well move there) to play the Gold Cup finals. We sailed through the semis against Ken Ford’s team to meet Allfrey in the final. They had been 52 down with 16 boards to play in their semi-final match and had won! The writing was on the wall. The
A few years ago I used to play Rubber Bridge from time to time with an elderly gentleman called Leo Halpern. Leo was unfailingly polite, good-humoured and kind. He was also very, very slow. One day, when he was playing a laydown 3NT he thought for ages and one of the other players finally said:
Since the beginning of September I don’t think there has been a single weekend when my team was not away playing in one or another tournament, so when I received an email asking everyone from the first division of the Premier League if they would like to play the Champions Cup in Israel I decided
OK, Guv. It’s a fair cop. I admit it. I’ve been feeling a squidgen smug of late. I’ve been playing rather well — even though I say so myself. My team has been successful. We have prospered. I smiled sympathetically when others told me their tales of woe, thinking, ‘That used to be me.’ I
Somerset Maugham famously called Monte Carlo ‘a sunny place for shady people’. Today über sponsor Pierre Zimmermann has rather unexpectedly turned it into the bridge capital of the world. Last week he achieved another huge win for the principality by moving the world’s biggest money tournament, The Cavendish, from Las Vegas to Monaco for a
