sportmanship

Glen Holman of the South African Bermuda Bowl team came in to tell us about a piece of great sportsmanship from USA1’s Howard Weinstein in the last set of their semi-final match.

Board 84. Dealer West. All Vul.
	♠ K J 6 ♥ A K 10 7 6 ♦ A K ♣ A 10 3
♠ ♥ 9 4 3 2 ♦ J 9 7 6 5 4 ♣ Q 9 6		♠ Q 10 9 7 5 3 ♥ Q J 5 ♦ 10 ♣ J 5 2
	♠ A 8 4 2 ♥ 8 ♦ Q 8 3 2 ♣ K 8 7 4

West	North	East	South
Holman	Garner	Cope	Weinstein
Pass	2♣	Pass	2♠
Pass	3♥	Pass	3NT
Pass	4NT	Pass	5NT
All Pass

Steve Garner’s 2♣ opening was strong and artificial, and Howard Weinstein’s 2♠ showed three controls. The auction was now forcing to 4NT and three natural bids reached that level, over which Weinstein’s 5NT was explained as pick-a-slam. Garner guessed to pass, leaving his partner in a tricky contract, but one which could be made.

Holman led his fourth-best diamond to dummy’s ace. Weinstein thought for some considerable time, then played a spade to his ace, getting the bad news as Holman threw a diamond. Weinstein thought for a long time before leading the eight of hearts and, when Holman played low, put in the ten, losing to the jack. Tim Cope returned the ♥Q to dummy’s ace and, after some minutes more thought, Weinstein cashed the ♥K.

Play to this point had taken a very long time, and Cope lost concentration to the extent that he dropped the five of spades on this trick. When he noticed, he corrected his play to the five of hearts. Declarer could have made his contract now by using the penalty card, leading the jack of spades from dummy and requiring East to follow with the five, but Weinstein, who appreciated that he had played at what was a long way from a normal tempo throughout the deal, showed the highest sportsmanship by telling Cope he could pick up the low spade with no penalty.

Weinstein went one down in his contract. The match was still very much alive at this point and could have been decided in South Africa’s favour by Weinstein’s generosity. How many of us would be willing to risk a world championship for our sporting principles?