GOREN BRIDGE Brilliancy in the gloaming
Neither vulnerable, North deals
ur thanks for today’s deal goes to Chris Dixon, from London. The deal is from a latenight rubber bridge game in London. East had enjoyed a few too many adult beverages and he was annoying the other players. Most evenings, they would not allow East to play in his current condition, but there was no other fourth available at
Othis hour and they would rather play with him than go home. NorthSouth were playing the weak no trump, very popular in England, so North’s raise to two no trump showed 1517 points. Through his selfinduced haze, East saw his partner’s seven of hearts lead. Declarer played low from dummy and East cleverly applied the “Rule of Eleven”. He knew that he could win the trick by playing his jack of hearts, but what then? Partner could not have much more than the king of hearts and it seemed that defeating this contract was a hopeless task.
East came up with a brilliant plan. In one
Across 1
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Shows articles needing revision (8)
Bows found in war chest (6)
Guiding bovine in German (8)
T-bone? Quite the opposite; it’s a rice dish (6)
Then I get how playing vuvuzela perhaps is epic (4,4,3,4)
Diana Ross’s colleague is kind of chicken (7)
Hide from ultimately hideous family (4) This kind of jazz makes you leap back (4) Great syrups for VIPs (7)
Bizarrely, some cheer tabloid
(a number) (4,5,3,3)
Taking heads – extremely impatiently – ghastly husband, this Henry? (6)
Remove somewhat obese para, temporarily (8)
Drank heavily, like an ornamental fish? (6)
Easiest trips taking in Italy, in my view (2,1,3,2)
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24 25 26 27 Down 1
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Quit – and enlist once again? (6)
Charlie rests, then does housework (6) Deliberately lose boxing match – no longer bold – waste (5,3)
Thinking ahead, men trim logs ornately (4-7)
Red Queen’s absorbing a bookworm? (6)
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European capital’s underworld’s dark, they say (8)
Deputies’ reputations not good (5-3)
Samples including Everyman’s – I’m disgusted – pointless diversions (4-7)
Ethicist squirming, most uncomfortable (8)
Model and monarch in Iberian kingdom: bit of a dish? (8)
The quickest learners hurl foodstuffs at senior teachers (8)
Finally finishes plastic surgery with the sharpened tool (6)
Who speaks for author who’s pegged it in largish car(6)
Consume food – not seriously, you say? (6)