More Crowhurst

10th April – Board 4: Game All. Dealer West.

Crowhurst is one of my favourite conventions and it would have easily dealt with the following hand.

	North: S K Q 6 5 H J 4 3 D A J 5 4 C 9 7
West: S A 10 8 3 H Q 8 7 5 D Q 10 C 8 5 2		East: S J 7 4 2 H 10 9 D 8 3 C K Q J 10 4
	South: S 9 H A K 6 2 D K 9 7 6 2 C A 6 3

West	North	East	South
No	No	No	1D
No	1S	No	1NT
No	2C	No	2H
No	2NT	No	3NT
End

Crowhurst advocated that a 1NT rebid should be wide range, specifically 12-16 points and a follow up of 2C by partner asks about the points and shape. Without that convention South would have to rebid 2D on such a threadbare suit as he can hardly reverse. In the bidding sequence above South has shown four hearts and five diamonds without reversing values and the 2NT bid following Crowhurst always shows exactly eleven points. 3NT is hardly laydown of course but even on a MUD club lead declarer just holds up until the third round. With West holding the ace of spades and with the queen of diamonds obligingly falling the contract is impregnable.

Inspired Choice

21^st March – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

Bridge can be a cruel game at times and this was demonstrated to perfection by the following hand where neither partner did anything too wrong but still ended up with the sort of result that makes you dread scoring up with your teammates.

Although East maintained a dignified silence throughout – quite correctly – South did not and I cannot blame him. I think 1♠ is a standout bid with the expectation of passing partner’s rebid of, hopefully, 2♣  or 2♦. Actually I would have rebid 1NT on that North hand because I play a wide-range 1NT rebid of 12-16 points but it’s not as if 1NT plays much better than 2♥. Anyway in standard Acol you have to rebid 2♥ which will founder by four or five tricks, although things might have been a lot worse. If East doubles 2♥ that would be for penalties because the auction is still live and because you didn’t double 1♥ in the first place. But anyway one can hardly blame East for knowing when he is on to a good thing and he certainly would not want the auction removed to 2♠. The only slight consolation for N/S is that 3NT can almost certainly be made the other way – not that anyone is going to bid it. As an aside one North decided to pass altogether. Although this was an inspired choice the logic behind it escapes me for the moment.

Impossible Switch

5th July – Board 16: East/West Vul. Dealer West.

The bridge world was sad to hear of the death of Eric Crowhurst recently, a fine player and a great theoretician. His book ‘Precision Bidding in Acol’ remains the ultimate textbook for good bidding and analyses just about every bidding sequence you are ever likely to come across. He was of course the originator of the Crowhurst convention and would have loved the hand shown below.

The idea that Crowhurst promulgated was that a rebid of 1NT showed 12-16 points, not just 15-16, and the responder to such a bid could ask for more clarification by bidding 2C, the bid that bears Eric’s name. So in the sequence shown above 1NT showed 12-16 points and 2C asked. The 2H bid showed a minimum hand with five hearts and two spades leaving East with a simple raise to game. In the play North led a diamond and needing a quick ninth trick declarer played a spade to the king and claimed nine tricks when that card held. Almost impossible, one would think, for North to rush in with the ace and switch to the ace of hearts. Some hands are just too hard.