The Young Chelsea Bridge Club is moving — literally and figuratively. They are relocating to the Salvation Army building in Hammersmith, which will give them a sensational new space when Covid releases us. Under the auspices of the lovely new manager, Ollie Burgess, the first ever Under-26 online duplicate took place and was a thundering success. Run by juniors for juniors, nearly 40 pairs logged on to RealBridge (after first registering on the YC website) and hopefully as many U26s as possible will make Friday evenings a diary date.
Today’s hand is a junior’s dream. Lots of shape, light on points and an exciting auction. Of course bidding the slam is one thing — making it is quite another.
A word of warning if you are trying to figure out the best way home: it pays to take precautions against suspected bad breaks. Dull stuff, but on occasion quite beautiful.
West led the Ace of Diamonds, ruffed in dummy. Declarer studied the hand for a couple of minutes, then embarked on an excellent plan to cope with the probable bad break in Clubs; he ruffed a heart in hand, ruffed his last Diamond in dummy and ruffed a second Heart. Next came a trump to dummy and a third Heart ruff in hand. It was time to try the Clubs with the deuce to dummy’s eight… and East was endplayed! He had the unenviable choice of giving a ruff & sluff or playing Clubs away from his J10x, allowing declarer to pick up the suit.
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