BRIDGE

PAUL Porteous, chief executive of the CBAI, is noted for his sense of humour — so I don’t know how serious he is when talking about suggestions for the resumption of bridge at club and national level.

Here is what he had to say: “We will need to think creatively and constructively to come up with suggestions on how we can resume live play at the table.

“Suggestions already include face masks and gloves, face shields, extensive hygiene protocols and demountable perspex table barriers. We may have to include all these in our plans to get back to table.”

Can you imagine trying to put up 120 perspex screens for the Holmes Wilson? Even the idea of playing bridge in gloves is too weird for me to take in.

To my mind we simply have to wait until this panic is over before deciding anything and make do with bridge online, which is becoming more and more available.

And on the subject of online bridge, what’s wrong with playing the game according to the rules — because it would seem to me that they are being broken at a rate of knots.

Keep a close eye on the vulnerability in a competitive auction. Here is a good example on equal vul.

Two down is acceptable when 5H makes for the opponents — and that is 300 against 420.