Bridge Hands to Make You Laugh . . and Cry
by David Bird and Nikos Sarantakos

Batsford, £13.20 inc p&p from the Mr Bridge Mail Order Service
Tel: 01672 519219 (code BK25)

Most bridge hands make me cry these days and few make me laugh, so it was a pleasure to do the latter vicariously and with unbridled schadenfreude, courtesy of this new book by David Bird and Nikos Sarantakos. The idea is simple enough: collect and catalogue famous hands from around the world where at least one of the protagonists has ended either with a smile or egg on his face. As the authors point out, it would make pitiful copy if the perpetrators of some of the exploits in this book were rank amateurs; it is so much better if some of the best-known names in the bridge world can be seen performing in a manner worthy of great-aunt Edie. It gives hope to us all, you see, to realise that even Homer nods.

The book consists of thirty-one chapters, some much longer than others, in which the same type of outrage has been perpetrated. Thus we might be looking at deals where a brilliant play is found at one table only to discover the perpetrator still losing a bucket load of points - virtue being its own reward, so to speak - or we might be examining a collection of truly appalling defences which seemed right at the time.

This was one of my favourite deals but not, I imagine, of the partnership sitting East-West:

Game All. Dealer West.     8 7 6 5   A J 6 2   8 3   7 3 2     A J 9 3 2   Q 7 5 4   K 2   8 5   Q 4   8 3   A J 10 9 7 6 5 4   9     K 10   K 10 9   Q   A K Q J 10 6 4

West	North	East	South
Pass	Pass	3	3NT
End

South's diamond stopper was doubtful and he must have been worried after West led the K. But then something strange happened. East placed declarer with Q-2 and partner with the singleton king, so he followed with the 9 as a McKenney signal in spades. From West's point of view, de-clarer had to have Q-J-x and had false-carded at trick one, and anyway East's play to the first trick was reverse attitude. So . . . he switched to a low spade, a suit his partner at first thought he wanted but by now knew he didn't!

This book is great fun, though perhaps not desperately useful as a guide in how to improve your bridge - but there are zillions of those about already. No, this is for fun, pure and simple, and a better cure than anything I can imagine after a particularly horrendous session at the club where you have played your usual immaculate game but have still ended up with 45%.

Dave Huggett

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