Plum Meredith found the plum play

Aziz Ansari, an actor, writer, producer, director and comedian, said, “Acting is a plum gig, and then animation is an even more plum gig.”

Adam Meredith was a top English player who was known for psychic onespade bids. His nickname was Plum. Can you guess why?

Plum, part of the British team that won the Bermuda Bowl in 1955, was the declarer in this deal. Against six spades doubled, West led the club king: ace, diamond jack, club six. Clearly, since East had not ruffed, he had 13 red-suit cards. Meredith drew six rounds of trumps, played a heart to dummy’s jack and cashed the heart king, West dropping the queen. How did Meredith continue from there?

Right — you need to know what declarer discarded from the dummy on the trumps. He threw four clubs and the diamond ace!

Now, at trick 10, Meredith led a diamond toward his queen. East did the best he could, winning with the king and returning a heart to give declarer a chance to err. But Meredith knew that if East held the heart 10, he would have exited with a diamond and awaited the setting trick.

Meredith rose with the heart ace and claimed when the 10 appeared.

Early in his bridge career, Meredith and three friends entered a high-level team event. They were thought to be the weakest in the event, so the team that drew them in the first round was said to have received the plum draw. After Meredith’s team won the match, Adam made a big fuss about the “plum” draw, and the name stuck.