Bridge's Strangest Hands
by Andrew Ward

Robson Books, £10.25 inc p&p from the Mr Bridge Mail Order Service
Tel: 01672 519219 (CODE BK24)

The first thing to be said about this book is that it is excellent value. Costing just £8.99 and 265 pages in length, it is attractively printed and the pages open easily for reading. Some one hundred and twenty strange hands are described, each under a separate chapter heading. They are arranged in chronological order, starting with the Mississippi Heart Hand and the Duke of Cumberland's Hand (both from the 19th century) and ending with deals from 2002. When I inserted my thumb in the middle of the book, I found a 7NT contract from 1963, so the deals are well spread throughout the game's history.

The author relates this interesting tale from a 1956 Hubert Phillips match:

Dealer: South. E/W Vul.     K 7 6 4   10 8 3   A J 2   A Q 3     Q 10 5 2   5 4   -   K J 8 7 6 4 2   J 9   J 6 2   10 9 8 5 3   10 9 5     A 8 3   A K Q 9 7   K Q 7 6 4   -

West led a spade against South's grand slam in hearts and declarer won with the king. All seemed to depend on picking up the trump suit. Declarer played the ace and king of trumps, both defenders following, and then claimed the contract. East still held a trump and disputed the claim. 'I'm playing another round of trumps, naturally,' spluttered the declarer, somewhat too late. In those days the Laws were stricter than they are now. A director was contacted and stated that South could not draw the outstanding trump. She played five rounds of diamonds instead, ruffing the fifth round in dummy. She then discarded her spade loser on the A and returned to hand with the A. With only trumps left, she was permitted to draw East's outstanding trump and the slam was made. Had East not adopted such a 'Secretary Bird' attitude, allowing declarer to draw the last trump, the slam would have gone down. (No black-suit squeeze on West would be possible because declarer had won the spade lead in the wrong hand.)

The author's choice of deals is similar to that used by Nikos Sarantakos in Bridge Plus (20-point passes, 5-point grand slams, vastly different results at two tables). Indeed, some of the deals are attributed to Nikos's writing. I felt that the writer might have chosen fewer deals with thirteen-card suits, or freak deals where both sides could make thirteen tricks on top. These do not necessarily make interesting reading.

All in all, I found the book to be very entertaining - a good one to dip into before turning out the bedside light. If you have studied the history of the game, you will recognise quite a few deals but there will be plenty of others to interest you. £8.99 for 265 pages? How can you go wrong?

David Bird

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