By Anthony Campbell

TABLE up! Sometimes an extraordinary hand turns up, where a Grand Slam can be made, even though you hold less than 10 points between you

Such a hand turned up on Christmas Eve at the Carte Blanche club - Anything Goes.

Wild Willy as East opened the bidding with 2S, based on the Lucas 2 system, showing at least 5 spades and a minor suit. Fragile Florence as West had forgotten Lucas, but was happy to pass with 5 spades in her hand.

‘Was that Lucas, Florence,’ Dr Knowitall asked, with a hand of 31 points, the most he had ever had?

He glared at Willy, who was nodding vigorously. ‘You should have alerted that, Florence’, Dr Knowlitall continued. ‘Sorry,’ replied Florence, ‘I can never remember what Lucas is.’ In any event, Dr Knowitall as North doubled, for take out.

So, Wild Willy decided, why not show his minor, and bid 3C. Unlucky Lucy, as South, wasn’t sure what to do, but reckoned that her partner expected her to bid. So, with 5 hearts, she bid 3H. Fragile Florence, frightened that her partner might bid clubs again, bid 3S.

Dr Knowitall then jumped to 6 hearts, working out that his partner must be short in spades, after both East and West had bid them. Wild Willy, with a void, decided to sacrifice in 7C. South then decided to risk bidding 7H, which makes comfortably, since West is on lead.

In fact, this requires a reverse dummy play to trump North’s three losing spades, as long as South doesn't use diamonds to reenter dummy.

Florence then decided to sacrifice and bid 7S, which was doubled firmly by Dr Knowitall.

When the hand went down Wild Willy was disappointed he hadn’t redoubled, because the contract was cold. Lucy lead the 9 of hearts, which Willy trumped in hand. He then ruffed a club in dummy, finessed the 10 of spades back in his hand, and followed this with another club ruff. Willy then finessed with the Q of spades and drew the last trump, the King, with the ace.

Ruffing another club established the rest of the clubs in his hand. ‘Quite a hand’, remarked the Professor, who was Kibitzing. ‘It reminds me of a hand used by James Bond to catch out Sir Hugo Drax, in Moonraker, whom Bond had realised was a nasty piece of work and a card cheat.

This time, Bond had fixed the deck to mimic a famous hand in the 19th century which cost the son of King George III £20,000 on a wager!’ ‘Lucky you didn't bet on this one Doctor!’

Results at Penarth Bridge Club from last week.

Tuesday 10th Dec 2019 1st Nalini and Tim Barbsy (69.4%); 2nd Anne Williams and Avril Collins (56.9%) ; 3rd Cyrus and Carmel Hughes (54.9%); 1st on handicap Nalini and Tim Barbsy. Friday 13th Dec 2019 1st N/S Joy Secular & Mike Downey (62.1); 2nd Rod Hudson & Carol Cochlin (55%); 3rd Avril Collins & Vivian Liles (47.9%); 1st E/W Tony Campbell & Trish Tracey (53.8%); 2nd equal Pat Sullivan & Hugh Simmonds (57.9%) and Peter Millar and Mike Best. Penarth Bridge Club is a warm and friendly club that meets every Tuesday and Friday at Trinity Church Hall, Woodland Place, CF64 3EN.

There is plenty of parking. We ask players to be in their seats by 6.45 pm so that we can set the movement for a prompt start at 7 pm. A machine deals the boards, so you can have a printout of all the hands at the end of the play. You can see each hand, compared with the results, on the web site https://www.bridgewebs.com/penarth/.

There is also an improvers’ session every Thursday morning starting at 10 am. We have several social events during the year, linked to bridge. Contact campbellak@cf.ac.uk or via contacts on the web site for further information. A very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year to you all. Professor Tony Campbell