The Bombay Experience
by Chris Jagger
An invitation to play in the Tolani International Grand Prix
in Bombay, all expenses paid, except for flight, seemed like an
offer too good to miss. Three weeks later, two and a half grand
later (January is a bad time to fly to India), after a dozen
injections and armed to the teeth with malaria tablets, Cath,
Lamford, JY and I set off for Bombay. The first serious blow
came when JY, who was working his way through the air
hostesses, had to spend his time chatting to a drunk instead.
However, we arrived safely at 3am in 30°C in Bombay.
I ought briefly to introduce our team - Catherine Ashment
and John Young may be familiar to county members. Paul Lamford,
from London, is a backgammon champion, a full time expert on
odds, and rather good at double dummy problems. Throughout the
week he could be relied upon to fill any break in the
conversation with a new thought on such and such a hand. His
two key descriptions of a bridge action are "Impeccable" and
"Barking."
We had a full day free to see the sights, and a chauffeur
was at our disposal. This sounds great until you realise that
there are about 16 million people in Bombay, all of them on the
road, and all of them crazy! Two lane roads become six lane
ones, and in the few cases where people actually stop for
traffic lights, setting off is like the motor racing Grand
Prix, with everybody changing lanes and jostling for position.
Huddling away from the sides of the car, we were surprised to
find that minor accidents (eg a car crashing into our side),
didn't even cause our driver to stop! Seeing cars threading
their way through the traffic on the wrong side of the road,
just like a space invader game, at least made us realise that
our driver was saner than the rest!
Bad news next day when we found it was a 9.30am start. So we
made our way through the biggest dodgems ride on earth to the
5* Leila Hotel, the most fabulous hotel I've ever seen, but an
incongruous sight, with shanty towns suddenly giving way to the
magnificent gardens of the hotel.
We started with too many barking actions, and by lunch, just
like the average England cricket side, we were in some trouble.
An impeccable afternoon followed, and by the next day we were
just about to qualify for the final, when a late barking fit
left us two VPs adrift. The following hand was a missed
opportunity - initial poor play by an Indian declarer followed
by a good recovery after we misdefended.
Declarer played in 3NT on a diamond lead. He ran the nine
of hearts, which my partner ducked, and then the jack, which
was taken. East returned a diamond, which declarer won in hand.
He tried a club to the nine and king. East played the third
round of diamonds (a spade now takes it off). Declarer has nine
tricks, but cannot cash the queen of clubs and get back to
dummy. He cashed the hearts, and West was squeezed, coming down
to two clubs, a spade and a diamond. Declarer crossed to the
queen of clubs, and exited with a spade. West had to give dummy
a trick at the end. A nice example of a stepping stone squeeze,
in which declarer has the tricks but not the entries to cash
them all.
The consolation final had an interesting scoring system: 3-3
for 0-10 difference of scores, 4-2 for 20-50, 5-1 for 60-190,
and 6-0 for at least 200 difference. A combination of
point-a-board (ie pairs scoring), and imps. We finished fifth,
and then turned our attention to the final event - the
Cavendish Pairs, in which pairs are auctioned off, with the
buyer taking the prize money. Cath and Lamford paired off with
Indian experts, and JY and I played together - we suffered
heavily on this board:
| West
|
North
|
East
|
South
|
3 |
P |
P |
3NT |
| P |
4NT |
P |
5 |
| p |
6NT |
P |
P |
| P |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Indians bid badly and play well, and this hand was no
exception - why South had thought his partner might want to
know how many aces he had I don't know (the 3NT bid is very
wide-ranging, so 4NT has to be saying if you have extra values,
please bid on), and they reached a seemingly hopeless slam. I
led the J, taken in dummy, and the ten
of spades was led. Looking at the four hands it is easy to see
that East should cover, but he played low. If I had ducked, the
contract would now be cold (readers might like to investigate
the interesting ending if I take the second spade and return a
diamond). However, I took the spade and returned another club.
Declarer cashed the next club and East had problems. On the
first club he pitched a heart painlessly, but any pitch would
cost a trick on the second. He chose a diamond (playing me for
Jxx), which cost two and the contract. In fact he has to pitch
a spade, and declarer hasn't now got the entries to make the
contract.
Lamford came 5th, Cath 12th, and JY/I came home.
Lamford was still discussing this hand two days later.
4
AK1075
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