Bridge | 12 March 2022

The Lederer Memorial Trophy was carried off this year by my lovely friend Jonathan Harris, albeit with a little help from his friends. Jonathan played with Steve Root but to sharpen his team, he shipped over Sweden’s new young World Champions Mikael and Ola Rimstedt. The boys are twins and I for one have never known which was which – but all you really need to know is that they are both terrific bridge players.

The auction was identical at both tables, and so was the opening lead: a top Heart.

At our table Mikael (or was it Ola?) was sitting South and West switched to a middle Club. M/O won in dummy and ran the Jack of Spades and, when that held, played another Spade. East took his Ace and forced dummy to ruff a Heart. M/O read this as a sign that East was holding four trumps, so he took three rounds of Diamonds – confirming the shape of the hand when West couldn’t ruff.

He then decided that West had no particular reason to switch to a Club away from the Queen, so he took the ♣K and when East dropped the Queen, the path was clear for an unlikely overtrick – possibly crucial at this form of scoring; a hybrid of IMPs and BAM. He ran good Diamonds from dummy and East had no answer, whether he ruffed now or later his trumps would be picked up for +450 to N/S.

At the other table, Jonathan was sitting West. When his partner, Steve Root, played the ♥10 under the Ace, Jonathan smacked down the King, forcing dummy to ruff. When Steve took the second trump, he was therefore a step ahead, and could simply force declarer for one down.