The Bridge Regional is now just a week away and I am sure you are all deep in preparation. Chairperson Kathy Keane and her committee have been hard at work almost from when the 2016 event concluded so that no stone is left unturned in ensuring that the event delivers what it has always done in the past — a great week for all.

When the Regional comes around it always gets me thinking about the days when I was heavily immersed in the game and that always leads on to the great partners I have been fortunate to have over the years. It all started many years ago when I partnered the mad Welshman Ralph Thomas, who taught me so much about bidding and I then moved on to four other superb partners I have had in that time – Mal Martin, Ernie Owen, Colin Millington and Jean Johnson, with whom I still play regularly on BBO. One thing that all these partners had is that they were and are superb bidders, and that is 75 per cent of the game.

Ernie was a great bidding theorist and I enjoyed our system, but the most complete player in the group was undoubtedly Colin, who was just superb at getting the best results at the table.

We played a relatively simple system as we knew one thing – that the only thing that would stop us winning at the club level was by doing unusual things and giving the opposition some chance to get a good result. So we were unerringly disciplined in our bidding style and in our defence and that paid huge dividends at the club and regional level. At the International level it allowed us to hold our own against those that played this game for a living and who bid and played the hands as if they could see all 52 cards ... whenever I say that Gabriel Chagas of Brazil comes to mind as playing against him was both frightening and wonderful in that he just never ever seemed to get anything wrong!

Anyway, back to the local stuff and this hand from a Regional in the mid eighties is a supreme example of how Colin managed to get that extra result at the table.

N/S Vul – Dealer North

NORTH

S ?J742

H K1097

D A65

C A6

EAST

S Q108

H QJ865

D Q32

C 75

SOUTH

S AK9653

H A

D K4

C KQJ8

WEST

S None

H 432

D J10987

C 109432

The bidding was interesting – I was sitting North and Colin was South.

NORTH

1D

2S

5H

SOUTH

1S

4NT

7NT

We were playing a 13/15 NT so my 1 Diamond opening usually showed an 11-12 point hand ….Colin was now going to Slam, the only question being where and small or grand!

When I responded 2 Spades to his one spade response, confirming 4 spades, he was off to the races – my 5 Heart response to his RKC Blackwood showed 2 Aces but no trump queen but that did not mean much as with ten spades including the Ace-King the spade suit rated to produce six tricks and 13 tricks looked available, so Colin went for the big one and bid the No Trump Grand Slam.

Most of the field were in 6 Spades with some in 7 Spades, some in 6NT and a couple in 7NT and not one of them made more than 12 tricks as West showed out when the first spade was cashed – curtains! Colin, however, was somewhat more inventive. He also intended to play the Ace-King of spades but on winning the diamond lead in dummy he played the spade jack at trick 2 ! Do you see what happened ? With Q108 East’s reflexes kicked in and he covered with the queen (he did not know how many spades Colin had) and now the hand was over!

Colin won the king went back to dummy with the club, finessed the spade ten and claimed 13 tricks — a stone cold top across the field!

Notice that if East had played low Colin would have gone up with the King and would have been defeated, but his play allowed East to go wrong – and he did ! It is these small details that win events!