Janet de Botton

Bridge | 17 September 2015

issue 19 September 2015

The cheating scandal rages on. The latest to be accused is the world’s number one-ranked pair, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes, who play for the mighty Monaco team. Frankly, it’s too depressing to go into and instead I am going to tell you about a local hero called Alan Woo, who has been playing bridge for longer than most of the cheats have been alive. Alan is a seriously class player who mostly partners his wife Olivia at Young Chelsea duplicates and occasionally comes up with a solution that would not occur to most of us — and, need I add, by fair means, not foul.

Look at the stunning defence he produced on this hand.

Alan was East and opened 1. After West’s pre-emptive raise, North had an impossible bidding problem and probably wished he had opened.

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