Bridge

As 2019 draws to a close, it is time to review the year’s achievements and disappointments. My team’s highest achievement was winning the English Premier League, and the less said about the disappointments the better! Looking at the National Grading Scheme (the ranking for British players), I was slightly surprised to see that Mike Bell

Nothing is ever routine or boring when Alex Hydes is at the table. One of England’s best players, he’s a master at bluffing and pressurising opponents. His bidding may sometimes seem enjoyably eccentric, but in fact it’s the result of perfect logic and judgment. And he combines all this with wonderful humour and an eye

Well, it has taken 12 years, two relegations, one second place and endless ‘nowheres’ playing the Premier League and we have finally won. After three weekends, a triple round robin and 336 boards, the result was decided on the last board, when my partner Artur Mali was put to the test in a delicate 3NT

Congratulations to Janet de B and her team, who had an excellent week last week — as I know to my cost. First, we met in an early round of the Hubert Phillips Bowl, which my team actually won two years ago. This time, Janet’s team trounced us so badly that we conceded with ten

Erikas Vainikonis and his father Vytas are terrific bridge players and have supported the game very generously. Their brilliant new website, BridgeScanner, gives us all a fuss-free location to get the information we need on tournaments around the world, including live running scores. Their other gift is a five-day mini festival, starting with the Grand

Peter Fredin may not be the best bridge player in the world, but he gets my vote for the most exciting. I first became fascinated by the Swedish star years ago when he duped me with an outlandish bluff during a European championship. I quickly learned that the field was littered with his victims. Now

A couple of weeks ago two of the most prestigious events in the bridge nutter’s diary took place on the same weekend. The first was the mini-festival in Vilnius, impeccably and generously sponsored and organised by Erikas Vainikonis and his father, Vytas, in which my team played; the second was the Gold Cup semi-final and

I’m just back from Beijing, where I’ve been playing in the Hua Yuan Cup, an invitational tournament for the eight top-ranked women’s teams in the world. It’s a wonderful event, with generous prize money, and I got lucky: a member of the England team, Gillian Fawcett, couldn’t come, so I subbed.   To say it

After all the excitement of England making the playoffs in all four events at the World Championships in China, only the Seniors reached the final. They played against Denmark and lost but came home silver medallists. Congratulations to David Kenrick and Trevor Ward, John Holland and Alan Mould and David Muller and Malcolm Pryor. Well

The world bridge championships are finally over — and I don’t remember another where the England players gave us such an exhilarating two weeks. All four teams — Open, Women’s, Seniors and Mixed — performed superbly. Particular congratulations to the Seniors, who won silver, and the Women, who won bronze.   But perhaps the biggest

The World Championships, held in Wuhan, China, came to the end of a gruelling eight days of qualification (eight teams out of 24 go through to the knockout stage) and England made it in all four events: Open, Seniors, Women and Mixed. The Open team was not clear until the very last match when a

The bridge world championships are underway in Wuhan in China, and I’m obsessively following the action online. Fortunately it’s taking place in a different time zone, which means play is over by midday UK time, and I can emerge from my bunker. What makes it even more compelling is knowing all the England players —

Not many male bridge players over a certain age (ten) would call themselves feminists. I won’t repeat what the partner of one female European gold medallist said of her (and all women bridge players) at the table, but it wasn’t pretty.   At a recent mixed pairs tournament a married couple — let’s call them

Benjaminised Acol, better known as ‘Benji Acol’ — and its variant ‘Reverse Benji’ — is one of the most commonly played bidding systems in Britain. So popular, indeed, that it’s easy to forget that ‘Benji’ was a real person — the Scottish international Albert Benjamin, who died nearly 15 years ago at the age of

When did ‘literally’ become, literally, the most annoying word in the English language? Fairly recently I would guess, because ‘like’ as in ‘I was like… seriously?’ or ‘that’s like, so unfair’ was easily winning the title for many years. ‘Like’ has become a filler, taking the place of um and er, and generally making the

Terence Reese’s concentration at the bridge table was legendary. Most people know the story of how Boris Schapiro once wagered £50 that Reese wouldn’t notice if a naked woman entered the room and walked around while he was playing. Somehow, he found a willing woman — and won his bet.   I’d always assumed the