This conundrum was written by John Carruthers and was originally published in the book, Bridge with Another Perfect Partner - you can find out all about it further down the page.
“What rotten luck,” I moaned to Selby. “Neither clubs nor diamonds broke for me.”
“You had all the luck you needed,” he replied. “Look…” He diagrammed the deal.
Dealer East, NS vulnerable
“West made the expert lead of the king of hearts. You could not duck to retain a dummy entry in case West shifted to spades. East discarded an encouraging eight of spades. At that point, how many spades did you place with East?
“I thought he must have had at least five, perhaps more.”
“Keep that thought in mind. Next, you led a club to the ace and cashed the ace-king of diamonds, unblocking the ten-nine from the dummy. That was quite thoughtful. You led a club toward the dummy and West pitched a heart, revealing that South had a stopper in the suit, so you took the high clubs and paused for thought. What were your thought processes?
“Why did I think my thought processes would come under enemy fire?” I counted my tricks again — the total still came to eight and I still had to guess the diamond layout to make my game. I counted East for either 5-0-4-4 or 6–0–3–4. If it were the former, I had to lead a diamond to the eight; if the latter, a diamond to the queen. It was a pure guess and I guessed wrongly.
“Let me repeat my earlier question: what did you picture East’s spades to be, given that he’d discarded an encouraging eight on Trick 1?”
“Well, since West had not bid over one notrump, one supposes East had very good spades, two of the top three honors, probably three, and possibly even all four.”
“So, picture East with, say, ace-king-jack to six spades, no hearts and three-four in the minors.”
“Yes, that was one possibility,” I replied testily.
“Do you remember the bid in first chair, not vulnerable against vulnerable?”
“Of course he passed. Oh, I see…” And I did. If East had had ace-king-jack or similar to six spades in first seat, he’d have opened with a weak two-bid in spades. Therefore he was 5–0–4–4 and not 6–0–3–4. Once again, I’d been a day late and a dollar short.
Bridge with a Perfect Partner, by P. F. Saunders, was published in 1976. Many read and delighted in Saunders’ articles in Bridge Magazine (UK), and Saunders’ character Wilson, according to the flyleaf of the book, is “…an austere character, whose scholarly discourses are enlivened by frequent flashes of mordant wit.” The anonymous narrator comments, “He is very kind in explaining, when I go down in a contract, just how I could have made it and, when he goes down, just how my bidding misled him.” We’ve all played with partners like that, though few of them have had Wilson’s devastating, articulate wit.
In this sequel, John Carruthers, one of the world’s top bridge journalists,takes the reader through a brilliant series of deals, collected from tournaments all over the world. The style is highly reminiscent of Saunders’ original and will give its readers just as much pleasure.
