The Hubert Phillips is one of the EBU’s quirkier knockout tournaments. Firstly every team must contain (and play) at least one male and one female, changing partners after each 10 board stanza. And secondly the scoring is by total aggregate, honours counting, meaning a big swing can easily wipe out all the other results in the match.
And so it was in our match against Chris(tine) Duckworth’s team last week. They won the first two sets and we went into the last one 1,300 points down and hoping for a big swing. We got it!
This was the bidding in the closed room. My teammate Nick Sandqvist was sitting South, having bid slam in Clubs. He must have been delighted at the sight of dummy, especially when West led the ♦10. He ruffed that, and led a trump to hand, but then things slowed down.
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