Bridge | 29 April 2023

The American multiple world champion Eric Rodwell is truly a legend of bridge. He and his former partner Jeff Meckstroth were the best pair in the world for so long that they were referred to simply as ‘Meckwell’. When he published his book The Rodwell Files: Secrets of a Bridge Champion 12 years ago, it quickly became a modern classic.

I bought it a while ago, but only got round to starting it recently, and by coincidence, a friend told me he was reading it too. ‘I came across your name,’ he added. ‘Impossible!’, I replied, laughing at the idea. But he was convinced, so as soon as I got home I flicked through the pages and – behold! – there it is: ‘North: Gross’. It all made sense when I saw ‘South: Brock’. That’s Sally Brock, of course, the women’s world champion, whom I was lucky enough to partner in the 2010 England Lady Milne trials. Rodwell uses a deal from the trials to illustrate what he calls ‘The Left Jab’ – where second hand plays high to prevent declarer from running a long suit when there are no side entries – and it was Sally, of course, who did just that:

Sally led the ♥7, South played low from dummy and I put in the ♥10. South won and played the ◆4. Sally didn’t hesitate in hopping up with the ◆Q to restrict declarer to one diamond trick. Declarer ducked, hoping to finesse or drop my ◆Kx next time around but it was no good. Sally returned another heart, declarer finessed another diamond, and the contract went two down. Rodwell points out that had South won with the ◆A and played a club, I must cover. I would have, I promise!