Bridge | 26 February 2022

My friend Nick Sandqvist says that coaching the England juniors is a joy; so great when someone enthusiastic and creative is found to train the next generation. Shame the same can’t be said about the choice of Convention Card monitor, a gentleman who seems to think that a meticulously filled out CC is the most important thing for the survival of bridge.

Today’s hand is from the recent OCBL Swiss on BBO. Two Junior teams played each other:

At the first table, South played in 2NT. He had won the Heart lead and played a Club to the Jack and Queen. East shifted to a small Spade and a simple defence led to one down.

At our featured table, the stakes were higher. West led the ♥J and East showed out. It would be normal to take this trick; East is void and West can’t play them again without costing a trick, but the young declarer from Germany’s junior team pulled out the very rare ‘Junior Bath Coup’ — and ducked the first trick!

Nothing happened for a while, and then, after a minute, nothing continued to happen. West couldn’t figure out why he’d been given a trick he had no right to — but he didn’t want to give it straight back. His unfortunate switch was the ♣10, playing out the whole suit for declarer. She cashed four of them and then played Ace and another Diamond to West. He still didn’t want to give away that Heart trick, so this time he tried the ♠Queen. South won with the Ace and fired back the Jack, setting up her ninth trick with the ♠10. Chalk up another 12 IMPs for the JBC.