[blml] Close Encounter of the Third Kind [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[richard.hills at immi.gov.au]

{Typo corrected in attached three-card ending}

New Zealand blmler Wayne Burrows regularly plays in
the Aussie Summer Festival of Bridge.  The feature
event is the National Open Teams, 200-odd teams
playing a week-long Swiss of 14 20-board matches,
from which only 16 teams qualify for the knockout
rounds.  Wayne's team and my team luckily had a
close encounter, despite playing in different
qualifying venues, since we met in the Round of 16.

The World Chess Champion Emmanuel Lasker said:
"Lies and hypocrisy do not survive on the
chessboard."  The same could be said of a knockout
match, where the reasoning and analytical skills of
Wayne and his team-mates proved superior to those
of me and my team-mates, knocking my team out while
Wayne is now playing in the Round of 12.  Keep up
the good work, Wayne.

But since our match was played in the best of spirit,
there are no incidents worth reporting to blml.

Unfortunately the same could not be said of my last
round Swiss match against a different sponsored team.
In a contract of 2S, this was the three card ending,
with the declaring sponsor needing one more trick to
make 2S.

                       Me
                       AK
                       K
                       ---
                       ---
Dummy                                   Sponsor
Q9                                      J65
Q                                       ---
---                                     ---
---                                     ---
                       Pard
                       72
                       ---
                       3
                       ---

The lead was in dummy, and the sponsor claimed.  If
the claim had been, "ruffing a heart high", then I
would have moved on to the next board.  Instead the
sponsor merely stated, "giving you two spades", so I
summoned the director since it seemed to me that the
sponsor might carelessly allow pard's spade seven to
score an over-ruff.

When the director arrived, the facts were determined
after some argy-bargy.  Because the issue was a
judgement ruling of "careless" versus "irrational",
the director correctly announced that he would not
give an immediate ruling, but would first consult
with the rest of the directing staff.

After the director left, the sponsor remarked to me,
"I make tricks through skill, not stealth".  Since I
interpreted the word "stealth" as a derogatory remark
on my ethics, I immediately summoned the harried
director back again.

The director stated that the sponsor's remark was
"inappropriate", but the sponsor disagreed.  Dummy, a
decent and fine expert, supported the sponsor on the
grounds that the claim was valid (not realising that
the issue that I was complaining about was rudeness).

There was good news and bad news.  The bad news was
that the sponsor never apologised, but the good news
was that we thrashed his team 103 imps to 56 imps.


Best wishes

Richard James Hills, mentor
National Training Branch
(02) 6225 6285

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