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. He followed with a heart to the Queen, played the Ace of hearts discarding a club and ruffed a heart in hand. A small diamond to dummy was followed by another heart ruff. The stage was set, and West must have known what was coming — he was thrown in with the ♠K and had to concede the rest.
Many congratulations to Nick Irens and his team who won the event, closing the Brighton Tournament for another year. Maybe now I can relax!
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