Satisfaction
Susanna Gross
LEAFING through my bridge club's recent newsletter, I was struck by a large announcement at the top of a page: 'Action on Addiction'. My first thought was that this was a charity set up to help bridge addicts like myself come to terms with their problem. I read on: 'Afternoon at Clar- idges. Duplicate or Rubber bridge. £70 for two.' That's strange, I thought, putting temptation our way like this — it's rather like Alcoholics Anonymous organising a sponsored pub crawl.
Then, of course, the penny dropped: this was a charity set up to help people with other, more serious, addictions than bridge. Which is just as well, because I don't want to get over my problem just yet. I've had a few satisfying fixes recently — and shown a small profit in the process. It helps to have an imaginative partner, like the novelist Simon Shaw. Simon takes full credit for defeating the opponents on this hand: Dealer South Neither Side Vulnerable Simon led the If Q, which declarer won in dummy, and did some speedy thinking. Declarer must have a superb spade suit as well as all four aces. The best hope to defeat the contract, then, was to place me with the 4K, and to cut declarer off from dummy so he couldn't take the club finesse. With the ►K as dummy's only entry, declarer must be persuaded to spend it by repeating the spade finesse. So when South played a trump to the 4Q, Simon smoothly ducked! South then crossed to the ►K, and finessed again. Simon won,. and declarer eventually had to concede a club as well.
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