MAYFIELD DUPLICATE BRIDGE
CLUB
NEWSLETTER No.
52 – JULY 2010
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The 26th Annual General Meeting of the Club was held on 20th April 2010 and 50 members were present.
The following Committee was elected: Sylvia Timberlake (Chairman), Adrian Patrick (Secretary), Peter Lee (Captain), Chris Pullan (Treasurer), Andrew Barnett, Malcolm Channing, Peter Cogliatti, Keith Jackson, Ron Maclaren, Ann Madden, and Roger Sugden.
Rosemary Rice, as outgoing Secretary, was asked to present the Club trophies.
Firstly a few points from my AGM report which it would appear that none of you read because it was too long (you said). I now have a captive audience so here goes.
You will get a rebate on your P2P tariff of 29p
if you play more than 150 times a year. In this initial year of P2P it might be
wise, if you fall into this category, to keep a record of the number of times
you play.
There are no more paper master points which are now recorded direct at the EBU. If you have a computer you will be able to view your tally on their web site using your personal code which you should have received with the June edition of the English Bridge.
The EBU have produced a document on Best Behaviour at Bridge. There is a copy on the Notice Board and for the benefit of our members and visitors we expect this to be strictly adhered to.
A father of one of the dancers vehemently protested about the bridge players going into the hall whilst the girls were in their leotards. After 10 years this seemed surprising. We had a word with Deirdre, the dancing teacher, who had no problem with this at all, but we agreed that she will make sure that she finishes promptly at 7.15pm and we will not go into the hall until 7.20pm on a Tuesday. On a Friday she does not finish until 7.30pm but this does not present us with a problem.
At the AGM Rosemary Rice (Secretary) and Roy Smith both resigned from the Committee and were thanked for their contributions to the running of the club particularly Rosemary who has been such an excellent Secretary. They were presented with gifts of appreciation. We welcomed to the Committee Adrian Patrick as the new Secretary and Peter Cogliatti.
A plea from the table money collector. Please could you make sure that you always pay? If there is no one to collect the money when you arrive I know that you dutifully go and help with the setting up of the room and possibly then forget to pay. It happens very rarely but this might be an explanation. Also if you have been abroad could you make sure that you empty your purse or pocket of foreign coins as a 20 Cent Euro looks the same as a £1 coin but the bank does not think so!
We appreciate that there may be occasions when you need to have your mobile phone switched on but could you please keep it in silent or vibrating mode so as not to disturb the room. Thank you.
We were very sad to learn that one of our earliest members had
died – namely Grace Roberts. John
Osborne introduced Grace and Raymond to the Mayfield some time before John and
I joined in 1979. They were
instrumental in us starting to play in congresses as they asked us to play with
them at Brighton. I was very nervous
and not anxious to go but as usual male chauvinism and Grace’s persuasive
Scottish tones ruled the day. I am now
very grateful to them as in playing congresses I have been to places that I
would never have otherwise visited. These include Buxton, Peebles, Llangollen
and Porthcawl in the UK and interesting places abroad like Thailand, Cyprus,
Turkey, Tunisia and Madeira.
Raymond was the first Treasurer of the Mayfield when it became a members club 26 years ago until his death. His accountancy skills helped to get the healthy bank balance which we enjoy today and, with the credit squeeze, means we can cope with any nasties that the Chancellor may impose.
They were both avid readers and their lounge had a wall to ceiling bookcase running the length of the wall and a further room full of books. During the time we went to play bridge at their home they had to add to this by building another bookcase that ran half the length of their hall also wall to ceiling. Their son estimated that they had over 4000 books and that Grace had read every one of them. One amusing incident occurred when we were at the Brighton Congress. The four of us went to a very small bookshop which Raymond was keen to look in. It was so small that it was almost impossible for us all to get in so just Raymond did so. A few moments later an assistant came running out to tell us that Raymond had had a fall. Indeed he had! He was wedged at the top of the small flight of stairs leading to the basement with his leg sticking out at an odd angle. He was not inconsiderable in size and those booklovers in the basement were trapped. It was impossible to move him so an ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital accompanied by Grace. John and I imagined that we would have to play with a substitute pair but almost on the dot of the afternoon session starting up rolls a taxi and out get our partners with Raymond heavily bandaged and walking with a stick. He was adamant that the show had to go on and we played. Bless them both.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS – to the end of the year
Committee & Liz Phillips Cups – Tuesday 27th July. The ranking determining the split between these two events will be decided on the night in order to even out the number of pairs in each. It will be either National Master plus or Premier Regional Master plus.
Pick-up Teams – Tuesday, 31st August and Tuesday, 30th November
EBU Simultaneous Pairs – Tuesday, 14th September
Surrey Simultaneous Pairs – Friday, 24th September
Pro Am – Tuesday, 19th October
No Bridge – Friday, 19th November, Friday, 24th December and Friday 31st December
Christmas Party – Tuesday 7th December – NOTE 6.30pm start for play at 7.15pm
These are all featured in your Fixture Card which goes up to the end of August 2011.
NEW MEMBERS
We would like to welcome Richard Wheen and Peter Slot to the club and hope they enjoy their bridge with us.
The Norman Cup is the Pairs Championship of the Club. It has been played with a qualifying round with a final. Originally the final was a seven-table, all-play-all, twenty-six board Howell, but in recent years the number of entries has fallen considerably. Last year the qualifying heat consisted of only ten tables and we had intended to have a final of six tables. There were a number of pairs that were unavailable for the final and we ended up with a five-table final that included the pair that finished fifteenth in the qualifying round. The Committee feel that this is not acceptable.
The Committee decided that, given its importance, they wished to continue with the two-session nature of the event but that a qualifying round and a final was not sustainable with number of entries at their current level. So they decided that in 2011 the event will consist of two sessions and the Cup will be awarded to the pair with the highest combined score over the two sessions. Each session will be open to all members and a member may play with different partners in the two sessions but obviously he (or she) will not be eligible for the Cup.
Scoring
We
aim to have the final scores, with hands, on the Web Site on the same evening
as the Tournament. This has been achieved every night over the past few months,
but there have been a few occasions where the results have had to be amended
the following day. In all cases this has been due to incorrect or inconsistent
scores on the travellers. A usual mistake is the number tricks not agreeing
with the score, for example, 2© with eight tricks made
score as 140. Other errors include scores on the wrong side, pair numbers
incorrect and even on one occasion nine results on the travellers but the board
had only been played eight times. At best the errors slow down the production
of the results, as the Scorers may have to guess what was meant, and at worse
lead to incorrect results posted on the Web Site.
The
traveller should be completed by North and checked by East. The entries that
are required are North/South number, East/West number, Contract, By, Number of
Tricks (the actual number e.g. 8 or 9 rather than +1 or –1) and the Score.
Please
take care when completing or checking the travellers as it will help the
Scorers, who are entering the scores at 11:30 at night after playing the three
hours of bridge, and hopefully it will mean that we do not have to post revised
results. One further plea – Please Write Clearly.
Pay-to-Play
Pay-to-Play
is up and running and has been surprisingly trouble free. In February we
forwarded our membership data to the EBU and this was error-free. Each of the
Tournaments has been uploaded with no problems. This has been helped by the
fact that we did not have a guest until the end of May, and he knew his EBU
number. The test will come when we have a guest that does not know his EBU
number or is attending a Bridge Club for the first time.
With
the latest EBU magazine there was a letter with your Code Number and Password
that enable you to log on to the Members area of the EBU Web Site to see
amongst other items details of sessions you have played since the beginning of
April. The Local Points earned at the Club during April and May have now been
added to your account.
CAPTAIN’S
REPORT
Teams/pairs representing the Club
Mayfield A won Division 1 of the Central section of the Affiliated League with 61/80
And went on to beat Farnham by 31 imps in the final represented by Liz Phillips, Bernard Pike, Arun Suri and Tony Scouller, Tim Cook, Sean O’Neill and I played earlier
Mayfield B were second 44/80.
Mayfield C - they won their final match but the Website has not produced the final results.
In the Wanborough Mayfield (Tim Cook, Roger Morton, Dean Morley, Adrian Patrick) were average
In the Mary Edwards Mayfield (Dean Morley, Adrian Patrick) were just over average
Performances of individual members
National
Peter Lee + 3 others were 3rd in Crockfords (despite Peter going for 1400 twice)
Liz Phillips + partner were 5th in the Portland
Malcolm Pryor + partner won Sussex Swiss Pairs
Surrey
Liz Phillips, Bob Rowlands, Peter Lee and 1 other won the Lady Rose
Peter Lee + 4 others won the County Premier League
Peter Cogliatti + partner won the Golf/Bridge
Denny Wade + partner second in Aileen Filose
Heather West + partner third in Aileen Filose
Club
Cliff Street Trophy 1st Malcolm Channing and Ron MacLaren
2nd Mary Street and Adrian Patrick
Mayfield Teams 1st Bernard Pike, Tim Cook, Arun Suri, Tony Scouller, Liz Phillips, Roger Morton
2nd Alan Bailey, Roy Smith, Julian Hemsted, Dean Morley
Mixed Pairs 1st Pam Jardine and Richard Wheen
2nd Roger Morton and Liz Phillips
Men’s Pairs 1st Arun Suri and Peter Lee
2nd John Frosztega and John Timberlake
Ladies’ Pairs 1st Ann Madden and Helen Seymour
2nd Joan Cullan and Sylvia Timberlake
Dorothy Williams 1st Maria Martin, Helen Seymour, Julian Hemsted and Dean Morley
2nd Roger Morton, Tim Cook, Arun Suri and Tony Scouller
♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣
A fascinating slam hand came up in the Mayfield Cup on March 16th 2010
from Roger Morton
Board 23 - Game all - Dealer South
North Bidding
♠ A 6 South North
♥ A K J 10 9 6 1§ 2©
♦ 4 3 3§ 4§
♣ A Q 7 5§ 6§
All Pass
South
♠ K Q 9
♥ 7
♦ K 10 8 6
♣ K J 8 6 5
I was South playing with Sean O’Neill. Sean had deduced that I most probably held a diamond control for my opening points and we reached the excellent club slam.
West led the diamond Queen to the Ace and returned the suit to my King.
Rather than rely on setting up hearts (the maths is quite complicated), I decided to ruff one diamond loser and discard the other diamond loser on the heart King
The diamond ruff passed off peacefully, so all I had to do now was to draw trumps. Then the bad news. West (Joyce Munns) showed out on the play of the club Ace!
There was still a line, I thought. I play 3 rounds of spades hoping that East would follow. I then planned to cash a couple of hearts, over ruff a heart to hand (East must ruff high to prevent me winning my §8 cheaply) , return to table with a trump to lead a final heart to ‘coup’ East’s remaining § 9 5 under my § K 8. No Cigar! East, Trevor Munns, ruffed my third spade for one off! He had a doubleton spade and three small hearts. So 6 No Trumps makes on the heart finesse. And it takes a club lead to defeat 6©. Grr! An excellent slam bit the dust.
Sean politely showed me after our game how I should have played the hand against practically any distribution of five major suit cards in Trevor’s hand. (He won’t have a diamond. From the opening lead, the remaining ¨Jack must be with Joyce.)
Play 2 hearts and a heart ruff and just 2 spades, arriving on the table in this 4 card ending
North
♠
♥ J 10 9
♦
♣ Q
East § 10 9 5 4
South
♠ K
♥
♦
♣ K J 8
A heart from North forces a high club from East. You over ruff. Now ruff the winning spade on the table with the §Q and a final heart squashes East’s § 9 5 under my §K 8.
An elegant line!
Going for large numbers in the final of Crockfords
from Peter Lee
Crockfords is the English national teams championship. After various knock-out rounds eight teams qualify for an exhausting weekend of 112 boards between 1 pm on Saturday and 5.45 pm on Sunday. My team, Frances Hinden, Graham Osborne, Jeffrey Allerton and myself, came third despite my going for 1400 twice!
On one of these I held (at game all) the fine hand of ♠7654 ♥753 ♦942 ♣854 and passed. Left hand opponent (LHO) bid 1♠ and Jeffrey doubled on ♠J10 ♥QJ86 ♦K1073 ♣AQ2. After a salivating redouble on my right, Jeffrey rescued to 1NT, then 2♣, redoubling for rescue each time it was doubled, to offer me a choice of the red suits. I selected 2♥ and the opponents played three rounds of trumps. I played diamonds hoping to bring down the Ace in two rounds, but no luck, and with the King of clubs wrong, I could only make my long trump and the Ace of clubs. Flat board! They also made the same aggressive double on Jeffrey’s hand and ended in 2♦ doubled, also going 5 off for a flat board.
On the other occasion I held ♠KQ ♥KQJ1032 ♦K965 ♣4 and opened 1♥ at game all. Jeffrey responded a spade and Janet de Botton (the captain of the winning team of paid professionals) bid 5♣. Rather too aggressively, though it could have been right in another set-up, I ventured 5♥. Artur Malinowski doubled and led his singleton club. I was greeted by the sight of almost the most useless dummy one could possibly imagine, ♠J987543 ♥85 ♦7 ♣Q62. Ouch! I ruffed the second club low (ruffing high is no better) and Artur overruffed and played Ace and another trump. I drew trumps and played a spade but Artur won and played another back. I should go for 1700 now, but Janet threw too many clubs and I was able to come to a diamond in the wash.
In the other room Frances and Graham were in 6♣, with ♠- ♥4 ♦A1083 ♣AKJ109875 opposite ♠A1062 ♥A976 ♦QJ42 ♣3. Had Frances guessed to finesse the club she would have made +1370 for -1 imp. Hardly surprisingly she did not and scored -100 for -17 imps. Had she finessed and I passed 5♣ we would have gained +13 imps and won the event!
Later in the event I wondered whether I might go for another large penalty. I held ♠873 ♥- ♦A863 ♣K98654 and the auction went 2♦ (Multi) on my left, pass from Jeffrey and 2♠ on my right. This asks partner to pass if he has a weak 2 in spades and to bid 3♥ or 4♥ with a maximum or minimum weak 2 in hearts. I passed, LHO bid 4♥ and Jeffrey now doubled. My instant reaction was that he had three trump tricks and an Ace or two, but reflection made me change my mind. First, the 2♠ bid tends to show long hearts and short spades. Second, our method was that an initial double showed a balanced 13-15 or 19+, and that with a typical take out of a weak 2 in one major, one passes first then doubles on the second round. I concluded correctly that it was a take-out double and bid 5♣, doubled on my right. After the Queen of hearts lead, Jeffrey produced his dummy of ♠KQJ3 ♥85 ♦Q95 ♣A1064 (a brave bid!). I ruffed, drew trumps, RHO having Qx and played spades (eliminating hearts en route), RHO turning up with the Ace and the suit breaking 3-3. LHO appeared to be 3-6-3-1. If he had the King of diamonds I could make simply by leading to the Queen. If RHO had it, I could make on an endplay by leading to the nine. I went for the first option, as otherwise LHO would have too little for a 4♥ bid, and RHO would have too much for a 2♠ bid. +750! Much better than -1400!