MADEIRA
BRIDGE
Star qualities
Andrew Robson
IF I WAS asked to name the two qualities most necessary for an expert bridge player, I would say a logical mind, and the single- mindedness to concentrate over long peri- ods. Arguably Britain's best bridge player of the modern era, Tony Forrester, has both. He has a third quality, modesty, not normally associated with top bridge play- ers, so you rarely see any of his brilliances appear in his Daily Telegraph column. To set the record straight, here is a fine defence he engineered from a recent Gold Cup match: Dealer West Both Vulnerable
The Bidding
South West North East 1+
Pass
Pass 14 Pass 24 Pass 44 Pass Pass All pass Aggressive bidding by South resulted in an optimistic game contract being reached. South would have been more prudent to pass 24 — the lack of V bidding by the opposition suggests that partner's values, limited as they are by his single raise to 2* , are where they are needed least, in • Vs. Superficially, however, the even split in trumps would appear to reward South's boldness; there appear to be just three losers in 44 — two trumps and +A. Tony For- rester, West, had other ideas. Playing part- ner for shortage, he led +A and, when East signalled encouragement with +9, con- tinued with a second +. South won +J and, seeing the danger of East trumping the third round of +s, played a V to dummy's queen and cashed VA, discarding his winning +K. To no avail: when he led 4J, West won 40 and led a third +• which East ruffed with 4K.; West's 4A was the fourth defensive trick. Forrester had found the only defence to defeat the contract.
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