THE mighty Oram/Bennett/Cuthbert team was soundly beaten in the final of the Humble Cup by comparatively inexperienced opponents - Paul Littlewood, Bob Turnham, Roy Button and Karima Basse.

Paul, the winning captain who lives in St Albans and plays at Welwyn Garden City, said: "This was a brilliant achievement against one of the strongest teams in Hertfordshire...the equivalent of Bolton beating Man Utd 4-0 in the FA Cup.

"All four players enjoy their bridge and the result was a just reward for years of practice and dedication."

In Sunday's final, his opponents conceded 71 match points down with ten of the 40 boards still to play.

In the first set of ten boards, Paul's team shot to a lead of 37, partly thanks to Karima and Roy playing in a making four hearts on a 4-3 Moysian fit, while the Orams went off in an inferior five diamonds.

The pairs switched opponents for the second set, but the underdogs'
success continued with an even larger net gain of 42 match points.

On the following hand the Orams were unlucky when their Precision system allowed Roy to make a slightly unusual but very successful opening lead.
 

All Non Vulnerable

Dealer East
 

                        North
                        ªAK9
                        ©43
                        ¨KQJ
                        §86543
West                                        East
ªQ8                                         ªJ4
©A10965                                 ©KJ8
¨9653                                      ¨A1082
§AK                                        §QJ102
                        South
                        ª1076532
                        ©Q72
                        ¨74
                        §97

            Roy           Celia       Karima      Derek
            North        East         South        West
                              1¨           Pass           1©
            Pass           1NT         Pass           3©
            Pass            4©          All  Pass


Paul said: "Roy decided to lead the king of diamonds rather than the ace of spades (which I am sure most of us would have chosen).

"This was to have an interesting effect because Celia now realised that if she won the ace of diamonds, cashed ace of hearts, ace-king of clubs, king of hearts she could play the last two clubs and throw the two losing spades from dummy and so just lose a heart and two diamonds.
"Unlucky, because South ruffed the third club and the defence than cashed a spade and two diamonds to defeat the contract."


In the other room the bidding went N E S W

            North        East         South        West
                              1NT         Pass           2¨¹
            Pass           2©            Pass           3NT
            Pass           4©            All  Pass

¹ Transfer in hearts

Paul explained: "The five of spades was led and North won with the king to switch to the king of diamonds.

"I now had more information than Celia and rather than risk the third club being ruffed I reasoned that North was unlikely to hold the queen of hearts having already shown up with ace-king of spades and king-queen diamonds.

"Therefore at trick two I ran the jack of hearts. When this held I could draw another round of trumps, cash ace-king of clubs and then come back to hand with the king of hearts to cash the other clubs....losing just one spade and two diamonds to make the contract."

In the third session the Oram team clawed back eight match points, losing out on the chance of a big gain on this board:

East/West Vulnerable.
Dealer

                        North
                        ªQ72
                        ©J64
                        ¨J862
                        §Q109
West                                        East
ªKJ4                                       ª9
©AK1082                                ©Q75
¨7                                            ¨K953
§AK73                                    §J8542
                        South
                        ªA108653
                        ©93
                        ¨AQ104
                        §6

                              Roy                           Karima
            North        East         South        West
            Pass           Pass         2ª¹            Double
            3ª             Pass         Pass            Double
            Pass           4§           All Pass

¹10-14 with 6 Spades

Missing the cold four hearts


In the other room with the Orams East/West the bidding went:

            North        East         South        West
            Pass           Pass         1ª             Double
            2ª             Double¹   3ª             3NT

¹ Denies 4H and shows values in the minors

Three no trumps was one off on a spade lead, so Paul's team gained six match points when they could have lost ten.