Bridge | 22 August 2013

If jealousy is measured in twinges my twinge-o-meter has gone viral. On my self-imposed sabbatical, otherwise known as a holiday, I was painfully aware, day after day, that I was missing the Brighton Bridgefest. Ten days of pairs, teams and midnight speedballs while I ‘relax’. Ouch. Twingeing again.

The last event is the hugely popular Swiss Teams where the top 16 teams qualify to play the prestigious A and B finals, and everyone else plays a consolation Swiss. My regular partner, Artur Malinowski, playing with 90-year-old wunderkind Bernard Teltscher, sailed into the A final (ouch!) with Bernard’s son Mark and Tom Townsend as their teammates.

Here is Artur in action:

After a somewhat aggressive auction, Artur ended up in the touch-and-go slam, against which West led the ♦9, which ran round to declarer’s Jack.

Realising that West should hold most of the missing honours for his vulnerable overcall, Artur cashed the ♠A at trick two.