Review 181, Back Through The Pack, Simon Cochemé

Reviews

Back Through The Pack
by Julian Pottage

Vivisphere, £9.99 plus p&p from The Bridge Shop. Tel: 020 7486 8222

There are 52 chapters in Back Through The Pack, each narrated by a different card. Sounds familiar? There is a classic book called Right Through the Pack, by Robert Darvas and Norman De Villiers Hart, where each of the cards has a deal to relate. It was first published in 1947 (with an introduction by Ely Culbertson, no less) and features regularly in the top ten bridge books of all time, including Richard Fleet's list for Bridge Plus (see July 2006). In an acknowledged homage to the original, Julian Pottage has re-used the structure, although this time each card has two stories to tell.

Here is one of the deals recounted by the Three of Spades. I will show you all four hands, although in the book you are first asked to consider the board as a single-dummy problem.

	6 5 4 3 A 9 3 A K 7 3 Q 7
10 K J 8 6 5 4 Q 10 8 2 A 5		8 7 2 7 2 9 6 K J 9 6 3 2
	A K Q J 9 Q 10 J 5 4 10 8 4

West	North	East	South
			1
2	3	Pass	3
Pass	4	End

You reach 4 after West has overcalled in hearts. West leads the A, plays the 5 to East's king and ruffs the third round of clubs with the 10. Which card do you play from dummy, and what is your plan to make the rest of the tricks?

West is almost certain to hold the outstanding high cards for his two-level overcall so, if he doesn't have a second spade to play back, he has been endplayed into opening up a red suit. Now when you run all your trumps he will be squeezed. So why is the Three of Spades telling the story? Well, he has to volunteer to sacrifice himself by underruffing the 10 at trick three, otherwise you will have to throw a threat card from dummy and the squeeze won't work. An underruff, an endplay and a squeeze all on the same deal - not bad!

The deals vary from the good to the excellent and, with one hundred and four of them in total, the book runs to two hundred and sixty-four pages - so you certainly get your money's worth. Readers familiar with Julian Pottage's style won't be surprised that the explanations are clear and the analysis is thorough.

Where I was less happy was with the narrative and the dialogue that surround the deals. Right Through the Pack contained some wonderful stories; with Back Through The Pack I found myself skipping through the anthropomorphic aspects ('my cousin the five of clubs') and the courtly whimsy ('your majesty', 'my lady') to get to the bridge. The human characters who play the hands are uneven and under-developed; some are Mollo-esque (Martin the Magician and Tuxedo Tim), others are perhaps meant to be recognisable (is Michaela Brown, the teacher, related to Michelle Brunner?). Overall I would have liked a lighter touch and a bit more humour.

Simon Cochemé