By Mark Horton

The world of sport is littered with outstanding moments. Here is the scenario:

It is the last session of the European Mixed Pairs Championship. You are in the hunt for a medal and find yourself facing another pair that is in contention. Your left-hand opponent and screen mate is the dealer and opens One Diamond. When the tray is returned your partner has passed and right hand opponent has bid One Spade. You pass and now the next player thinks for a considerable period of time. To your surprise this is followed by a pass and the tray has almost completed it’s journey under the screen, (the bids are clearly visible on the other side), when your screen mate realises what he has done.

According to the Laws it is now too late for any change to be made and many players would call the Director. Not this one!.

She gets the tray back and allows you to change your bid.

A different result on this board would have given you a medal and cost your opponents a golden one.

Take a bow Jovi Smederevac, a true sportswoman.

Strip Squeze Artist

By Peter Lund

Board 10. Dealer East. All Vul.
	ª Q 3 2 © 9 8 7 6 4 ¨ 8 7 5 § 9 4
ª A K 10 8 © 10 2 ¨ 10 9 6 § Q J 8 3		ª 6 © A J 3 ¨ A K Q J 4 3 2 § A 10
	ª J 9 7 5 4 © K Q 5 ¨ - § K 7 6 5 2

West	North	East	South
		1¨	Pass
1ª	Pass	3¨	Pass
3NT	Pass	4NT	Pass
6NT	All Pass

Here is a neat declarer play from the mixed pairs by the Great Dane, Niels Krojgaard (some of you will know why this term is appropriate). As West he was in 6NT on the lead of ©9. Played by East the contract is always a make, whereas the heart lead by North seems to doom the slam.

There is a heart-club squeeze against South, but the squeeze is broken when South returns a spade after declarer ducks the lead in order to rectify the count.

Niels read the layout perfectly however. After the lead he placed the king and queen of hearts with South, so he rose with the ace at trick one and then played seven rounds of diamonds. From his hand he pitched the QJ8 of clubs and the ª8. Note the unblock of the club honours.

Declarer now cashed the spade AK and paid careful attention to South’s discards. Here is the three card ending (South still has to make her last discard):

	ª Q © - ¨ - § 9 4
ª 10 © 10 ¨ - § 3		ª - © J ¨ - § A 10
	ª - © K Q ¨ - § K 7

South was caught in an endplay-squeeze. She actually decided to bare the king of clubs, and Niels Krojgaard read it nicely when he played a club to the ace, thus dropping the now singleton king.

A well deserved top for the Danes.

Getting fooled by a Swedish girl

Jenny Ryman

You’re playing mixed pairs and new opponents are taking their seats to meet you. On Board five nothing interesting happens but on Board six the fun begins.
You are in last position, vulnerable, and you get this hand:

2© A very good Pre-empt.
2NT Asking
3§ Minimum with a bad six-card suit.

West leads the three of spades and your partner has the following hand.

You take the ace of spades and play three rounds of diamonds throwing one of the spades. Then you play the last diamond that isn’t high. West follows with the jack and you throw your last spade. Now East is about to play a card, takes a look at all the cards and then she ruffs!

You look at the girl and ask her if she wants to ruff her partner’s high card. The girl looks back at you with her big blue eyes and says very slowly and quietly, oops, but she doesn’t look confused. She returns a spade that you can ruff in your hand and now the situation is like this

You play the queen from hand and East follows with the other small heart. Now only the king of heart s is left, so what do you play from the table?

You call for the ace of hearts hoping to se the king appear from West. But oops again, the girl with the lollipop in her mouth had ruffed from ©K76 because it was the only way to fool you into not taking the finesse.
The full deal:

Dealer East. E/W Vul.
	ª A 9 8 © Q 10 9 8 5 3 ¨ K 8 § J 6
ª K J 10 2 © - ¨ J 10 6 4 § K 9 5 4 3		ª Q 5 3 © K 7 6 ¨ 9 5 3 § A Q 7 2
	ª 7 6 4 © A J 4 2 ¨ A Q 7 2 § 10 8

The shocked declarer from Croatia just looked at the girl and told her partner, ‘She could not have done that on purpose because it went to fast!’ My partner Gunnar Hallberg answered some thing like, ‘Well, then you don’t know my partner; she knew what she was doing!’

So next time you meet an innocent girl, beware!

Thank You

By Iain Sime

As some will know, I misguessed a two-way finesse with the traffic on Thursday morning. I was struck by a motor cycle (it could have been worse) and sustained a shoulder injury and shock.

I foolishly refused a trip to hospital to take part in the Mixed Pairs B final some twenty minutes later. I would like to thank the doctor, directors, etc. and opponents (especially my Scottish friends Liz McGowan and Ken Baxter) who helped me through a painful day.

Most of all I was glad to have the ideal partner in Fiona McQuaker. Nothing was too much trouble for Fiona to make me as comfortable as possible. Thank you again Fiona.

On our fifty-second and last board of the day I had to negotiate another two-way finesse.

Dealer West. Non Vul
	ª 9 8 5 4 2 © Q 6 4 3 ¨ 9 § Q 10 6
ª A K 3 © K 8 7 2 ¨ Q 3 2 § A J 7		ª 8 © A J 10 9 ¨ A K 10 8 7 4 § 4 3
	ª Q J 10 7 © 5 ¨ J 6 5 § K 9 8 5 2

West	North	East	South
Sime		McQuaker
1©	Pass	3¨	Pass
3NT*	Pass	4©	Pass
4NT*	Pass	5©*	Pass
5NT*	Pass	6¨	Pass
6NT	All Pass

3NT 15-19
5NT Bid seven or show kings up the line

This time, when it mattered less, I guessed right. Plus 1020 put us on the right side of 50%, which was a small triumph in the circumstances.