Bridge

The Hackett twins, Jason and Justin, who represented Great Britain in the General European Championships this year, are well known for their aggressive bidding style. Sometimes this leads to nasty accidents, but more often it seems to pay off.

This was a typical example from Britain's match against Lithuania in their final splendid run in a narrowly failing last-ditch attempt to qualify for the Bermuda Bowl in Tunisia.

After a pass by East, the Hackett South also passed. This seemed uncharacteristic, for the twins are not noted for their reluctance to open any 11-point hand, but he made up for it later when West opened Three Diamonds and this was followed by two passes. To say "No Bid" was apparently unthinkable, so he re-opened with Three No-trumps!

All passed, and the luck of the Hacketts held. As you can see, dummy turned up with six running clubs and a useful king, the diamonds were blocked for the defenders and there was plenty of time to establish some spade tricks.

You should also notice that Three No-trumps was the last making game, for neither Four Spades nor Five Clubs offer any real play - but this sort of bid does not seem to work whenever I try it.

Game all; dealer East

North

4J 10 3

!K 9

#7 4

2A K Q J 3 2

West East

45 2 4A 7 6 4

!Q 8 4 !J 7 6 5 3 2

#A J 10 9 6 5 3 #K

24 27 5

South

4K Q 9 8

!A 10

#Q 8 2

210 9 8 6