By Oswald Jacoby and Alan Sontag
Oswald: F.M. Hargreave has a regular article in “International Popular Bridge” about the “Frenzied Four” who play hilariously bad bridge at a British Golf Club. Here they are at their best.
ALAN: You can’t fault South’s opening 6NT. He had read that 33 high-card points were enough for a slam, and he held 33 points.
OSWALD: Hargreave describes how South cashed four spades to start proceedings and continued with the ace and king of diamonds. He didn’t really count, but he did notice that East had shown out on the second diamond, so he stopped to cash the ace and king of clubs, and ace of hearts. He noted that the queen of clubs had not fallen, so he led a red 10.
ALAN: South had led the 10 of diamonds by mistake. West played his jack and
South asked:
Dont you have have any heart?
East replied…I don’t have to answer that question…
and eventually South saw what he had done.
OSWALD: Strangely enough, the slam was now cold. West had to lead a diamond to South, queen and poor East had to throw the queen of clubs or unguard the queen of hearts.
ALAN: However, South still went down. East threw his queen of clubs but South had forgotten that the jack of clubs had been played from dummy, so he tried unsuccessfully to cash two more heart tricks.