by Jonathan Mestel
This somewhat contorted title refers to a hand from the `Two
Star Pairs' final of the EBU Autumn Congress at Bournemouth. It
illustrates the truism that every time the defenders open their
mouths information about the hand is borne to declarer. Passing
is usually less revealing, but many players (like myself) are
`born Mouths.'
There are two qualifying rounds in this event, in each of
which half the field is eliminated, with no carry over. Thus
the important thing is to save enough of your good boards for
later. Rod Oakford and I erred by doing too well in the first
session, while others saved up too many of them...
At our table the bidding was
|
West |
North |
East |
South |
1 |
X |
2NT* |
P |
| 4 |
P |
P |
P |
|
|
|
North led a 4th highest 
3, which I
won on table and led Q. When he now
threw a club, he was practically marked as 0-4-4-5 with both
missing aces. As he has to guard diamonds, he can be strip
squeezed, but the club blockage leads to some timing problems.
At trick 3 I led a club to the king and ace. Winning the second
diamond in hand, I cashed K, 
Q, J and J, throwing a heart. Coming back to hand with
A, the position was
When the last trump is led, North must bare his heart ace.
One must now throw a diamond from dummy, being prepared to look
very silly if North was originally 0-5-3-5, but that's an
unlikely take-out double, and all the carding suggested the
actual lay-out. I now led 
7 "with a
sadistic flourish" according to opponents Lee & Rowlands,
who were otherwise very complimentary considering that they
were then in the running for first place. In fact, as there was
barometer scoring, we soon found out that +450 was only 75% of
the matchpoints. Whether this was because the event was high
standard, or because A was often led,
history does not relate.
To return to the tenuous theme of the article, not everyone
would make a take-out double as North, and the winning line
would be far from apparent without it. Another case of careless
talk costing lives? Maybe, but there are great dangers in
passing with this hand also.