| JUST ANOTHER HAND? - JULY 2024 - No 23 |
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 I thought that it would be nice, if having just been away on a Bridge holiday, I would bring a hand back for you to enjoy.
We all see the hands that look to be impossible to make, but are made, and we all wonder how! Could it be by an amazing play? Could it be by amazing skill? Could it be by penalty imposed by your opponents for some transgression? Or in this case, when your opponents decide to unwittingly help you.
The bidding goes as shown (the opponents are playing strong NT (15 - 17)). You have poked your nose in with a cheeky over call, which holds. After an opening lead of 9 ♠ from South, you survey the dummy & your hand, and realise that you are in trouble. You have three top tricks between the two hands, and although there are possibilities to make extra tricks, you are going to need a lot of luck to get anywhere near gaining the eight tricks, that you need for this contract. With the opening lead, you play low from dummy, and North ventures the Q ♠, on which you cover with the A. Now there is a slight glimmer of hope. You can now see that you stand a chance of converting the J ♠ into a trick, later. At trick 2, you lead a small trump towards the K ♥, which gets the A played on it. At trick 3, North plays a small ♣, on which you have to guess with Q ♣, as you need all the tricks that you can acquire. At trick 4, you now play J ♥, aiming to clear the Q out of the way. When this happens, you now reassess your possibilities. Now you can see seven tricks (the two that you have, + the two aces which you hold, and your three remaining trumps). Now, although you do not know it, North is going to help you out, when they decide to cash K ♠. South only started with two ♠ is now looking to trump a third round of ♠, but the damage has now been done. If a third round of ♠ is led to South to trump, they are now end-played as they can only play a ♦ or a ♣ to the A which are held in either dummy or declarer's hand, and the now eighth trick of J ♠, as the previous round of ♠, which was trumped, allowed declarer to play the loosing ♠ that was in dummy.
If, as really happened, another ♣ was led, this was taken by declarer with the A, the last trump was removed from South, and the eight tricks still rolled in. So, where did it all go wrong? Well, North was to blame. If they do not cash K ♠, then declarer can never win the J ♠, no matter how they try. But is that all?
If you go all the way back to the opening lead, here is the real error. Why does North play Q ♠, here? There is no point, as North can see every card above the opening lead, except the A, so they should play their small ♠ at this point. Then all that follows will not happen, and declarer can never make this contract. Even if North decides to play their ♠ winners, when they get the lead, on the fourth round either declarer rises with 10 ♥, or discards another card, allowing the 9 ♥ to take the trick or now be the top trump remaining. In addition to this, away goes the trick with J ♠.
Other people either did not get the help that I did, and went down one trick, or allowed North to play in 1NT, which actually goes down one trick also. Going down one trick with 1NT gets you 100, but 2 ♥ making scores 110 for a top. Never rule out the possibility of help from unlikely sources, miracles can happen.................
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| CLUB DIARY - TEAM PLAYING |
 Do not forget that the club does run teams events, on a reasonably regular basis. These occur predominately on a Monday evening (once a month) or sometimes on a Thursday evening (once every three months).
Please look out for these nights, which also appear on the "MENU" under "CALENDAR".
The next Monday teams night is on Monday 22nd July. Please sign up on the notice board............
We plan to put out a regular pattern of teams events in the New Year, every few weeks on a Monday, and a Thursday teams event once every 3 months.
This is due to be reviewed at the next committee meeting in August.
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| CLUB NEWS - FUTURE EBU EVENTS |
 On Thursday 25th July 2024, we will be hosting the Summer Sims Pairs charity event, Please note that taking part in this event will cost £6.30 per person (£3.20 of this goes to EBED (English Bridge Education & Development), the EBU charity which helps develop Bridge in schools etc). The cost of this event, will be added to your monthly bill that you all receive at the end of each month.
Future dates for the British (Seasonal) Sims Pairs events are (there is no guarantee that Wakefield Bridge Club will be hosting any of these) :-
- Autumn on 10th October 2024.
- Winter on 18th January 2025.
Watch this space for further details, a list will appear on the notice board in due course..................
PS. You can look on the EBU web-site to see who else has registered for this event.
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| CLUB DIARY - SWISS PAIRS EVENT |
 We are pleased to announce that the next Swiss Pairs Event is going to take place on Saturday 10th August starting at 1.00 p.m. There will be refreshments available as well, all for the cost of £5.00 per head. The event is designed to be all finished by 6.00 p.m. after the prize giving has been completed. If you wish to take part, please put you & your partners names on the notice board.........................
The payment for this event, will be taken at the same time as your monthly bill.
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| CLUB DIARY - COMMITTEE MEETING AND MORE .... |
 The next committee meeting of Wakefield Bridge Club is Friday 30th August @ 1.30 p.m. If there is anything that you think might need raising at this meeting, please ask one of the committee members to bring it up on your behalf. The names and photographs of the committee members are on one of the notice board in the big Bridge room, so that they cannot hide!
The committee members act on behalf of YOU the members, and to help keep the Club in a financially stable condition, amongst other considerations.
Is there any more we can do on other matters? Tell us please, and you never know what may happen!
Look on the Website Calendar for all future Committee meetings dates,and also the date of the 2025 AGM ...................
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| CLUB DIARY - WADDINGTON CUP |
 Please note that two teams were selected to represent Wakefield Bridge club in the prestigious Waddington Cup event on the 14th July. This is the premier teams event to take place in our county.
Our two teams finished respectively 7th & 10th out of the 18 teams present, so well done to them both. As this event is an annual event, we shall see what happens in 2025...........................
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| CLUB NEWS - (YCBA) LEAGUE MATCHES 2024 - 2025 |
The dates are out for the 2024 / 2025 season, which starts in October, running through to March - these are shown on our "CALENDAR", please look in the "MENU". Please note that all leagues are subject to the number of entries received that wish to play, which can alter from previous years.
If you require more information regarding the YCBA leagues, please look under "INFORMATION" in the "MENU", and go to "Links to Bridge Organisations". Then look under "Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association" and then find "Leagues".
If you have any wish or aspiration to take part & represent your Club in the upcoming year - please talk to Karen Lemm who is the Match Secretary, or talk to any member of the Committee. We are trying to find out exactly who is willing to commit to playing in this competition over the Winter months. We have to determine what dedication, you, our members, are willing to give, so that we can determine how many teams we decide to enter. The more of you who volunteer, the more teams we can operate.
We are starting to gain a presence again in Yorkshire & England, please help us to make it happen.
Watch out for some team training to occur.........................
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| CLUB DIARY - FUN DAY 2025 |
 The next Fun Day will probably be in early 2025, although no date has been fixed as yet.
The proceeds of these events, are there to be seen in the fabric of our Bridge Club.
We will bring you an update, when we have the details.............................
Also, keep a lookout for details or more specific sessions coming at Wakefield Bridge Club.....................
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| CLUB NEWS - IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE |
 Just a wonder - is there any traction in a Club Bridge Holiday for say 2025 or 2026 or even further down the line?
A lot of Bridge Clubs organise their own 2 - 3 day break, whether this is mid-week break or on a weekend. Looking at what other Bridge Clubs have done, when they first started, they did so by going to a venue, which was not so far away (maybe the Yorkshire coast in our case). Then they could re-assess their ideas to possibly a break abroad, if there was the demand. I would suggest that we should think about starting small, so as to discover the pitfalls & problems first. I don't suggest that this will suit everyone, but it would be nice to know what you all think about this.
It would of course have to be out of season, as this is when we could find accommodation easier to find.
Another idea which we are looking into is Cafe Bridge. This is just as simple as it seems - Bridge played in a Cafe. We are at present looking into Cafe's in the centre of Wakefield, where we could try this out. Our idea is simply to promote the game of Bridge to the inhabitants of Wakefield, some of whom may be under the misapprehension that Bridge is a game/pastime that took place in big houses (it seems to be portrayed this way on television) in the recent past. We are probably looking at a time which is not a busy time (meal times), but when they are open & have some passing trade. It may be a good idea or it may not, but other Bridge Clubs up & down the country have tried it, so why not us!
We are also looking into more ways to get out & about to promote our Bridge Club, watch this space to see what develops.....................
Please let me know what you think about any of these ideas.........................
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| CLUB NEWS - WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW! |
 You all may be aware, that not only have we been recently renewing some of the visible items in our Club, we have also been renewing / upgrading some items that you might not be aware of, and did not know where available.
You will have seen that the bidding boxes have been given a good wash, and the bidding cards have been replaced. (I am sure that you remember all the initial sliding bids!!!). But did you know that there are left handed bidding boxes available at the Club. The right handed bidding cards boxes, are all in Red or Green bidding boxes, whereas the left handed bidding cards are in Black or Yellow bidding boxes. There are a couple of the left handed bidding boxes available on the shelves next to the computer station in the Club House. There are some more of each hand of bidding boxes, these are kept in the storage room, if required. Whilst we are on the subject of bidding boxes, if you come across a bidding box with an individual (or more) card missing from it, please do NOT try and sort this out yourself. Please make the TD aware of the problem first PLEASE. We need to be aware of a problem, so that we can rectify it, for everyone's benefit. Do not just simply swap it with another spare bidding box. All the bidding boxes were recently checked, and we were disappointed to find that two of the bidding boxes had cards missing from them. They had both been placed on two separate usually unused tables. Please help us to help you all..............
Also, we have available three card holders for those of you who may struggle holding the playing cards. These are usually available in the storage room - if you would like to use one, all you have to do is ask...............
A new development is the positioning of the table numbers on the sides of the bidding boxes. These are designed to be seen from the aisle down the middle of the room, which we normally use as the main thoroughfare in the Club. We believe that this should make them instantly visible for everyone - much better than ending up underneath a bidding box (which is useless!!!). These are held onto the bidding box by magnets, so if they come adrift, they are easily put back together again.
The "PASS" cards in the main Bridge room have all been upgraded, and all those that were showing signs of wear & tear have been replaced.
Have you noticed the "Headers" on the notice boards? Have you noticed the new coat hooks? Have you noticed the library of books available? Things are happening all around!
There are other ideas that we, your committee have, to make things nicer & easier to play Bridge at Wakefield Bridge Club. Please watch this space.........
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| THE LAST THOUGHT - MK17 |
 The phrase "to give someone the benefit of the doubt" has it's origins in the law courts. First used as a defence in treason trials at the turn of the 18th century, it defines as the state of accepting that someone or something as being honest or deserving of trust, but where there may be some doubt of this.
In Bridge, this is quite a common occurrence. How often do you start off bidding a suit & repeating it only for your partner to do exactly the same in another suit. Whilst it may be clear that each of you do not like each other's suit, who should be the one to give way and give their partner "the benefit of the doubt" and trust them? In some cases this will lead to another phrase - "stop digging the hole & throw away the spade", which basically means stop competing against your partner!
You will only find out about whose hand is better suited to scoring the most tricks etc, by playing the hand. It boils down to the recognition that you both do not have a fit for each other's chosen suit, and that each of you could be as short of that suit, as to be void of any cards in that suit. One of your partnership has to trust the other, or is it the case, that one of you stops bidding, so as to avoid a complete misfit of hands & a disastrous score?
Good luck everyone in avoiding this situation, but it will occur....................
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