The new year is a daunting prospect in terms of the sheer amount of bridge taking place. Rather like buses, all the England trials seem to be coming at once: the European open, women’s and mixed, the Lady Milne, the various Olympiad trials… my head’s swimming just thinking about it. Unlike most of the hardcore
These days, young people expect to learn new skills online, for free. So how do we introduce a new generation to the joys of bridge? The most exciting initiative for a long time is the New Tricks Bridge Club, whose aim is to propel the game back into the modern age through the internet. The
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
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
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
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
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 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 —
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
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
‘Table presence’ is a funny old expression. It sounds as though it refers to a player’s magnetic appeal or domineering personality. But no, it’s more like an extraordinary presence of mind. And it’s about the highest compliment you can pay someone. The Official Encyclopaedia of Bridge has made a valiant attempt to define the term,
Bridge isn’t a game you can get good at quickly. It takes years to reach a reasonable standard — far longer if you don’t practice continually. Of course, some people get there quicker than others. Claire Robinson is one of them. I first met Claire about four years ago; she’d only been playing for two
All high-level bridge tournaments involve playing with screens placed diagonally across the table — and there are numerous rules to remember. For instance, only North or South may slide the bidding tray under the screen, only declarer or dummy may remove the tray after the bidding, only declarer or dummy may lift the screen’s flap…
I’m just back from an exhilarating week in Istanbul, where I was lucky enough to be partnering Tom Paske in the mixed teams and pairs of the European Open Championships. My plan was to stay on an extra day to sightsee, but as I was wandering into breakfast, my friend Debbie Sandford rushed up, ashen-faced.
Bridge is such a complex, multi-layered game that a single hand can be approached in myriad ways, depending on the skill of the player. In fact, peering into the mind of a world-class player is a bit like entering another dimension; there are possibilities you didn’t even know existed. At a recent pairs tournament,
I’ve recently been reading Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca to my children, and while it’s every bit as enjoyable as I remember, I’ve been bristling with embarrassment at the unflattering references to bridge in the first few chapters. The narrator is a paid companion to the grotesquely snobby Mrs van Hopper, who, we are told
The Spring Fours in Stratford-upon-Avon — perhaps the most prestigious event in the English calendar — was as enjoyable as ever this year: a combination of top-class bridge and late-night socialising. My own fun began the moment I boarded the packed train from London, when I managed to bag the last available seat, and then
‘You know what people say about you?’ Zia Mahmood told me the other day. ‘You play really well but then go berserk. Good-good-good-berserk.’ He’s absolutely right, and I love him for telling me straight, in typical Zia fashion. I’ve been struggling for a long time to overcome my sporadic lapses of concentration at the
You’re probably familiar with the old bridge adage: ‘Never put down an 8-card suit in dummy’. If you’re lucky enough to be dealt such a hand — you’d better make sure you’re the one to set trumps. Of course, it does occasionally happen that your partner won’t stop bidding his own suit, forcing you to
Each March, a roll call of bridge superstars come to compete in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, one of America’s most prestigious tournaments. When the American player and sponsor Jeff Wolfson recently asked Zia Mahmood if he could recommend a pair to join his team, Zia suggested his pal from England, Peter Crouch. Crouch then asked
