Those of you who have heard of the game of cricket will immediately recognise the surname of our contributor for it is identical with that of an outstanding Indian spin bowler. It came as no surprise to us to discover that both of them were born in the same state. However, we were intrigued to learn that our storyteller was born in the same town as the Indian chess-playing superstar 'Vishy' (guess what that is short for) Anand and that they all used to play cricket together!

It isn't often the pleasure (or agony!) of the tournament director to watch a full deal at the table. Having had to do duty as a time monitor at one table in the Vivendi Rosenblum Teams Championship on day two of the Round Robin I learned something fascinating about courtesy. The names of the two players and the teams will remain anonymous.

Dealer East. EW Game ª 9 6 3 © J 8 7 6 ¨ K Q 5 § K 10 3 ª J 8 7 5 2 ª Q © A K 9 2 © Q 10 5 3 ¨ 9 6 3 ¨ J 7 4 § J § 8 7 6 4 2 ª A K 10 4 © 4 ¨ A 10 8 2 § A Q 9 5 West North East South Pass 1§ Pass 1© Pass 1ª Pass 2§ Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass

A spade was led to the queen and king. Either minor suit breaking or the jack of either coming down early sees the declarer home. However our declarer wanted to 'steal' an early trick or wanted to be courteous to the opponents saying 'Apres vous' (you take your tricks first and then I shall take mine) and he played back a small spade.

West went up with the jack and after considerable thought (in retrospect I feel he was considering leading anything but a heart to be equally courteous!), finally tabled the ©2. When dummy played the six it was East's turn to show his courtesy. He simply followed suit with his ©3. South was quite ashen-faced when dummy's ©6 won. When the smoke cleared he had 12 tricks. The moral of this story: It pays to say 'Apres vous' while you are in France.