By Prof Tony Campbell

I AM sure you are all missing your regular bridge sessions at the club. I recommend trying Bridge Club Live, which enables you to Drop in and Drop out (DIDO), play in a Social Bridge room, or in an event of some 18 boards.

You have to register, and then you can join the Penarth Bridge Club group. Helpful instructions are available as a pdf on our web site. If you use an iPad, then you should access Bridge Club Live using an ap, which you can download free from the ap store.

Meanwhile, here is a hand to keep your bridge brain going from the recent International Camrose tournament in March, played brilliantly by our own John Salisbury, partnering Tim Rees, born in Penarth. The Camrose Trophy is the Bridge equivalent of the rugby Six Nations championships.

It was one of the last events to be held before the coronavirus brought a halt to all bridge events. As usual, it was played over two weekends. The teams were England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Wales team were lying 4th after the first weekend. So, an extremely important match in the second weekend was Scotland against Wales, the Scots being in 3rd place. The Welsh squad were keen to reverse this.

This hand demonstrates that, as declarer, you need to make a plan before playing a card, being prepared to amend it as the play proceeds. It required a little luck, some good card reading, and knowledge of a little-known play, made famous by the Brazilian expert Gabriel Chagas, who won a World award for what he described as the "Intrafinesse".

Chagas has won many major tournaments, including the World Team Olympiad in 1976, the Bermuda Bowl in 1989, and the World Pairs in 1990. He is one of only ten players to win the Triple Crown of Bridge. It is interesting to speculate whether he would have seen it in this hand.

With a four-four spade fit, and both with only a doubleton club, four spades has to be the preferred contract, with South, John Salisbury, as declarer. The opening lead by Scotland’s West was the 5 Diamonds, their style being to lead low from an honour, or, as here, second from smaller cards. But East couldn’t tell which it was, so played the Queen, the classic rule of eleven not helping him to decide whether West had the King or ten.

This was taken by John’s King, ensuring that he had three diamond tricks, and no loser. John next cashed the Ace of Spades, dropping the Queen from West, leaving a certain Spade loser with East. John now led a low Spade to dummy's Jack, as he now needed to play the Heart suit for one loser. John knew that West was most likely to have four Hearts, because of the 4/1 spade distribution. So, he led a small Heart from North’s hand.

If East held the King Hearts and played it, there would be just 1 heart loser, and if they were 3/3 the 4th Heart would enable a Club to be thrown from the King Jack in dummy. But East played a low heart. So, John decided West must have the King, and therefore played the 8 for the "Intrafinesse".

This was taken by West’s 10. West then led a low Club. John guessed correctly, and won the trick with the King, exiting with the Jack. In hand again, John led the Queen of hearts, which was covered by the King, dropping the Jack, thereby setting up the 9 of hearts as declarer’s third heart trick.

The same hands were played in all three matches, between the 6 teams. John Salisbury was the only declarer to make the four spade contract, ten tricks - 3 spades, 3 hearts, 3 diamonds, and one club, for a sizeable swing to Wales.

This was a very interesting hand, fit for an international. West actually has declarer’s hand counted on the bidding. If he doesn’t cover the king, then John can still make it, by an end play on West, who has to give declarer a ruff and discard or John plays a trump coup. So, in this case, South makes 4 spades, two hearts, three diamonds, and a club = ten tricks.

The outcome of this hand was a gain off 11 imps to Wales, which gave them a comfortable win against Scotland, and moved them up to 3rd in the table, ahead of Scotland. It also meant that Wales overcame a 38 point deficit from the first weekend against Scotland, to win the Patrick Jourdain Trophy, between the two countries over the two weekends, by 2 IMPS!

Many will remember Patrick, a top player, who passed away in 2016, and was also a member of Penarth Bridge Club. Uniquely he represented both Wales and Scotland in different Camrose Trophies.

Another bit of good news was that, when the computer calculated how individual pairs had performed, out of 18 pairs, top were the Welsh pair Paul Lamford and Gary Jones, Paul also being a member of Penarth Bridge. I hope to use some of their successful hands in future articles. Penarth can therefore be very proud of the Welsh Bridge team. Well played all. The go home message from this hand is - Card Play Wins Matches!

Don’t forget to join us on Bridge Club Live. Email me if you need help, and keep an eye open for more information on the club web site - https://www.bridgewebs.com/penarth/. email me at campbellak@cf.ac.uk. Keep well. Keep safe. Bon chance.