Stamford Bridge Club increases 2025 events programme

Stamford Bridge Club has increased its number of events for the lesser experienced players, writes Trevor Thrower, of the club.

These events will be on every Monday morning at 9.30am and at the same time on the first and second Fridays. In addition to our bridge activities our social sub-committee has been busy organising various events for the rest of year including evening quizzes, a spring walk followed by bridge and a barbecue.

In July we will be holding our annual café bridge day where we will have 12 bridge tables at six venues in Stamford, players will play at the various venues taking lunch in one of them with the entry fees donated to the mayor's charity.

Hand of the Week

This hand was played in a recent county match. After the 2NT opener by East showing 20-22 high card points West showed their two suits and slam invitational values by transferring to spades and bidding their diamonds. East bid 4H which was a cue bid showing first or second round control of hearts and support for one of the suits. West took control of the hand by bidding 4NT with East's response showing 0 or 3 key cards (the key cards being the 4 aces and the king of trumps).

West now knows that East was supporting spades and has the two red aces and the king of spades. West now took a slight risk but felt that there should be some play for 7S. The 7S contract was bid at 4 tables all by the East hand. At three of the tables the H4 was led which gave declarer the 13th trick.

At the fourth table declarer received the lead of S10 which is safe for the defence. Declarer has 12 tricks, 6 spades and two tricks in each of the other suits. Declarer will have to draw at least three rounds of trumps, the 4-1 trump break was an inconvenience as declarer will need to find two early discards, one easy discard is the D4 but the second discard should be DJ which keep the options open in both clubs and hearts with the D9 being a potential threat in dummy. South discards two hearts on tricks two and three. South is under a lot of pressure discarding on the last spade. Declarer should be able to ruff out the queen in either clubs or hearts for the thirteenth trick.

Tip of the Week

Against a grand slam in a suit contract, the safest lead is a trump as the declaring side usually holds solid trumps.