HOUSE OF COMMONS VERSUS HOUSE OF LORDS

Sally Brock

One of the perks of being a bridge journalist is that every year I get invited to the annual match between the Houses of Lords and Commons for the Jack Perry Trophy. Sponsored by the London Export Company, it is held at Crockford’s Club on Curzon Street. Play begins at 10.30 and coffee is served. After a couple of hours or so of play there is a pause for a glass of champagne followed by an excellent lunch. Then play continues for another hour or so before winding up at four o’clock or thereabouts.

The bridge may not always be of the highest standard but the hands, selected and written up in a small leaflet by Paul Bowyer, are always interesting.

John Marek and Baroness Henig, with the EBU scorer Ian Mitchell (photo Peter Hasenson)

An early deal saw East go unpunished for a truly dreadful bid!

Dealer: North. N/S Game       K Q J 9 5   A 3   K 8 6   7 6 3   4 J 9 8 2 7 5 3 2 Q J 10 8 10 8 7 3 2 K 10 7 6 4 9 5 4     A 6   Q 5 4   A Q J 10 9   A K 2

West	North	East	South
	1	Pass	3
Pass	3	Pass	4NT
Pass	5	Pass	5NT
Pass	6	Pass	7
Pass	Pass	Dbl	End

After North opened the bidding and rebid his spades, South quite reasonably asked for aces and kings and on hearing first about the K-Q and A, and then about the K, plumped for 7. East should have been quite content with proceedings, but instead decided to go for the extra 100 points! Either North or South might have run to 7NT (generally right in this type of situation) but in the event they stayed where they were and 7 had to go one down.

Superficially it looks as if there are only twelve tricks in 7NT, but look what happens provided declarer is careful. Say West leads the Q. Declarer wins with the ace and cashes his minor-suit winners. East has to find four discards. He can throw one club and two hearts, but then has to choose between unguarding spades or hearts. In practice I imagine he would unguard hearts and hope that his partner held the queen. Declarer then plays a heart to the ace. When the king falls he crosses back to the A and cashes the Q before taking the last three tricks with dummy’s top spades.

Before this year’s event the series stood at 16 wins apiece, but this year the Lords won by the substantial aggregate margin of 4,820. The Tony Berry Trophy for the best played hand was won by Lord Caithness.

Lord Skelmersdale, captain of the Lords team, with the trophy (photo Peter Hasenson)