2018 ended on a very sweet note for my team. We played the London Year End one-day teams tournament — and won! Highly enjoyable and highly satisfying. The perfect warm-up for the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy in Mold, North Wales, where I got my second England cap playing against the home countries. We played five 32-board matches and ended in second place, which is a reasonable position for the second weekend in March.
I played with my regular partner, Artur Malinowski, who never fails to dazzle at least once a session with his astonishing card-reading skills. Take a look at this slam.
My 3♠ bid showed both minors and hey presto, we were in slam.
West led a club and it looks like declarer needs ♠A or ♥K with East. But Artur didn’t become the player he is by taking a losing finesse. This was his thought process:
A natural lead would have been a spade — unless West held ♠Ace.
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