Wednesday 19 October 2016

School Teams Match

My Secondary School bridge club has about eight keen first and second year pupils (aged 11-13), so the last two lunch times I've arranged a mini teams-match, where each table plays four boards. That might not sound like very much, but in just 45 minutes with children eating lunch it's quite an achievement

During the matches I've started doing the scoring live on a big whiteboard, without waiting until both tables have played each board. This means that if, for example, they can see that the other table made 1NT+3 they can hen go for 3NT themselves. This is of course slightly unfair, but I did this as I wanted them to really think about the effect of the game bonus, and was fed up of overhearing people say that they had "beaten" another pair because they got a positive score against them, like 2♥+2.

The board below was an exciting one. I substituted as South, and after a lively auction supported Spades so North ended up declaring 4♠. East said: "I think I've pushed them too high" and lead a Club (it may be makeable on a Heart lead).

Declarer ended up making just six trump tricks and the Ace of Clubs, for 4♠-3. The reason he only made six trump tricks is because he tried to ruff a club back to hand, which East over-ruffed. This was indeed a good result for East-West, as surprisingly they can't make a game.

Below is a photo from one table. It was non-uniform day, though someone always forgets...