The 51st European Championships, which are being played in Dublin, started last week, and at the time of writing England are doing brilliantly in all three classes: Open, Ladies and Seniors. Very sadly, Alexander Allfrey and his partner, the incomparable Andrew Robson, one of our pairs in the Open, had to pull out and reserves Tom Townsend and David Bakhshi stepped in.
One of the first times I played against Tom was at rubber bridge, where I found myself sitting against him on today’s hand. I lost a lot of money when Tom, technically one of the greatest players I have ever met, brought home this grand slam, but in terms of learning it was invaluable.
Tom ruffed my lead of the ♥A and cashed two rounds of trumps. He then put his cards down and thought for a long, long time.
Let’s look at it from declarer’s point of view: the only way to avoid a Diamond loser is to discard a Diamond from dummy on the fourth Club, and ruff a Diamond in dummy.
Since I (West) have a trump left, I must follow to four rounds of Clubs.
The options are therefore to play me for ♣J10xx(x) or East for J10 doubleton (or singleton honour). The odds heavily favour playing me for J10xx and, having worked all this out, Tom stoically played a Club and finessed dummy’s 9…
That was it! Grand slam made, vulnerable and all.
Good luck to all England’s teams. We at home, watching on BBO, are proud of you.
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