A New Number

By Marc Lee

I get great satisfaction when scoring up with teammates from presenting them with unusual scores. In recent years I have smugly announced scores such as +2230 (for 6§ redoubled plus one) and +2360 (the little known 1NT redoubled plus four). Redoubles are good for generating new scores. Less memorably, we managed to flatten a board recently after teammates had proudly announced +1080 for 4© redoubled. Alas, we had had a mix-up over the meaning of a double – I thought it was for take-out, partner knew it was for penalties – and two hearts doubled plus two cost us -1070.

We were due for something special when this came up in a recent league match.

	ª 9 2 © A 9 7 ¨ A K 8 6 4 § A 9 8
ª K 4 3 © J 8 2 ¨ Q J 3 2 § J 6 2		ª Q 8 7 6 5 © 4 ¨ 10 5 § Q 10 5 4 3
	ª A J 10 © K Q 10 6 5 3 ¨ 9 7 § K 7

West	North	East	South
	1¨	1ª(i)	2©
2ª	4©	4ª(ii)	6©(iii)
Pass	Pass	6ª(iv)	Dble
All Pass

(i) This easily makes my list of all-time Most Revolting Overcalls.

(ii) I'm not sure whether my RHO actually made this bid a fraction of a second before partner's 4© – certainly you would need very sensitive timing equipment to measure any delay at all, never mind the 10-second pause the stop-card requires.

(iii) I had no idea if I could make 6©. I could, as events at the other table proved, but I suspected that I wasn't about to be put to the test.

(iv) After a much longer delay – a good two or three seconds.

I was beginning to regret not having bid 7© at my second turn as I was fairly sure that RHO would have bid 7ª. However, I had to find the killing lead against 6© doubled. The books tell you to lead a trump against these auctions but I didn't fancy doing so from this holding and anyway I hadn't read any books for a while. Declarer ruffed the second heart, played a spade to the king and a spade back, allowing me to draw a third round of trumps then make her ruff another heart. (I'm not convinced that this was the best line but there are times when you take one look at the dummy and rather lose the will to live.) Now there were no more tricks to be had and nine off meant +2300 to us.

'Sorry partner,' said East, adding for the benefit of anyone watching who was not aware of the intricacies of the scoring system, 'too many'. Was this one of those madcap juniors you hear so much about? No, she was the grandmother of a junior player!

The English Bridge Union publishes a regular magazine about youth bridge. This article is taken from the most recent issue. Your editor also takes a certain pleasure in teaching people (preferably opponents) new numbers. On a recent visit to Thailand one of the Thai youth team here in Paris was shown how to achieve -1580 (6¨ redoubled plus one nonvulnerable). He has since had a certain degree of revenge.