STRANGE BIDDING

Across

1 What is an (6)

7 Name one’s (8)

8 What is a turret on the roof of a medieval building (6) 9 What is the angular distance north or south from the equator (8)

10 To erase, is to do what (6) 11 Name a large S American snake of the boa family (8) 14 What is a Spanish bullfighter called (8)

18 To be of greater length than breadth, is to be what (6)

19 Which male horse is kept hypnotic female condition offspring for breeding (8)

21 Which custard like food is prepared from curdled milk (6)

22 What is fervent and patriotism (8)

23 To have transgressed, is to have done what (6) a broadcast one’s excessive

Down

1 What

TV (8)

2 Name someone who is new to the circumstances (6) 3 What, formerly, was the Dutch name of part of the western coast of Australia (4,4)

4 What is is by mother’s sister known as (4)

5 Name a quarter in a city in which any minority group lives (6)

6 To have given attention to, is to have done what (6) 12 What are words formed from the initial letters of other words (8)

13 To have dismounted, is to have done what (8)

15 To acquire, is to do what (6)

16 What is a speech, in praise of a person (6)

17 Name a large wine (6)

20 Who is regarded as the goddess of the rainbow (4) bottle for North-south vulnerable. East deals. Opening lead: Three of

East-west were using a convention that has a serious following on other shores, but is seldom seen in the USA. West had no idea as to which of East’s major suits was longer or stronger, so he corrected to his own better major.

The opening heart lead was ducked in dummy and East won with the king. A heart continuation did not appeal to East, as the suit would be blocked after knocking out dummy’s ace. The best possible heart holding for West was three to the queen, and that wouldn’t be good enough to use the suit because East had no further entry.

It appeared that West had three hearts, which must mean that he held three spades that were stronger or he wouldn’t have bid two spades in the auction. East shifted to a low spade at trick two and declarer played low from his hand. Would West rise to the occasion? Yes! He brilliantly inserted his 10 of spades, losing to dummy’s jack. South needed a diamond trick to make his contract, so he crossed to his hand with a club and led the sneaky queen of diamonds. West grabbed his ace and continued with the ace of spades, felling South’s king, and led the four of spades through dummy’s remaining nine-six. East took two spade tricks to defeat the contract. South did nothing unreasonable in the auction, and we expect that the same contract would have been reached with no bidding by Eastwest. The defense, however, would probably not have been as accurate.