Kids’ cash gift to help

Ayrshire Bridge In his book, “Partnership Bidding At Bridge”, Andrew Robson gives a remarkable exposé of the concept of the Offensive/ Defensive Ratio ( ODR) which guides responder in making that difficult decision – support partner or defend against the opponents’ contract. We have already established that there are four aspects to be considered in defining the ODR – a. High Card Points ( HCP). b. Shape. c. Distribution of HCP. d. Type of Values. Firstly, HCP – in themselves they are not the most important consideration; we will see later that THE most important factor is the distribution of HCP. So, considering HCP independently, in the context of having a good fit with partner, a hand may be offensively strong with no HCP; yet, without HCP you can have no defensive strength at all. Following the bidding sequence: 1H – 1S - ? and holding: 8 9753 642 97563 We can see that, with 4- card support and a singleton, this is a reasonably offensive hand but with no defensive capability at all. Now add 10 HCP, contributing equally to offence and defence: 8

A753 A42 QT653 Offence/ Defence have changed equally but the RATIO between offensive and defensive capability has changed dramatically and the hand has significantly greater defensive capability without having much improved its offensive qualities. In general, the greater your HCP, the less significant is your ODR – but remember the distribution of those HCP might change the assessment again. Next week we continue dipping into Andrew Robson’s exposé by looking at how the Shape of the hand affects the ODR. Straiton Primary School and Carrick Round Table raised money at a carol service and donated £ 150 to South Ayrshire BeFriending project.

Elaine Walker, Senior Co- ordinator at the project, is seen here receiving the cheque from pupils at the school.