The Bridge Player's Companion
by Julian Pottage

Apple Press, £12.99 plus p&p from The Bridge Shop. Tel: 020 7486 8222

The more I think about this book the more confused I become in my own mind.

In many ways it is a complete joy: it is a beautifully presented, hard-back book with colour illustrations and it tells you just about everything you need to know about the game, starting with the fact that you need a partner and ending by examining the intricacies of the non-material squeeze. And yet its completeness is to my mind its chief fault because I couldn't decide the sort of bridge player it is aimed at. If you were new to the game you would be lost before you got to the half way stage and if you were what the Adult Education classes coyly call an 'improver' you wouldn't bother with the first half. It is rather like a book on mathematics, starting with 1+1=2 and ending with a dissertation on differential geometry.

The first half of the book - after the usual 'bridge engenders partnership qualities' stuff - deals with bidding, but even here the author seems so keen to please everybody that the simplest sequences are detailed with reference both to Acol players and Standard American aficionados. And if you really were new to the game, I think you could manage perfectly well without understanding the meaning of a jump cue-bid in the opponents' suit. And then there is the difficulty of explaining how rubber bridge players and duplicate players might play things differently . . .

The second half of the book deals with the play of the cards both with respect to attack and defence. I could find nothing of note which is missed out and it is all explained with clarity. Take the following deal, for example, on defensive play and in particular counting declarer's hand:

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

West	North	East	South
		1	3
Pass	4	End

You are East. West leads the 5 and your ace drops the K. Declarer ruffs your Q and plays two rounds of trumps, West showing out on the last round. How do you proceed?

Well, you know that declarer started with eight black cards, so you should be able to work out that a heart trick cannot run away if you lead a diamond. As you don't want to be thrown in again, lead the A followed by the 10 and eventually your Q will be the setting trick.

At the bottom of each page there is an 'Important Point' which gives general advice on the sort of situation covered on that page, and if the reader can only assimilate that information he will be a much better player.

I feel a little mean perhaps being over-critical about some aspects of this book and in fact I did like it a lot. It is clearly a labour of love and I can't even begin to imagine how long it must have taken to write. It certainly deserves to sell well, and knowing this author's reputation I am quite sure it will.

Dave Huggett

© Bridge Plus 1999-2007