The sad truth is, the length of time you’ve been playing bridge is no indication of how good you are. When I had my first lesson, aged 27, I’d already been playing with friends every week for five or six years. I quickly found out that almost everything we were doing was wrong. I was worse than a beginner: I came with a set of habits that had to be un-taught.
I was reminded of this when I came across an article by the novelist Alexander McCall Smith in an American newspaper. He and his wife are bridge addicts. A few years ago they went on a cruise which offered bridge classes. His wife, a ‘much stronger’ player than him, chose the intermediate class — but soon realised she was out of her depth; she belonged with the ‘novices’.
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