MindZine - Bridge

The first edition of this book was published in 1982, when Amanda Hawthorn's co-author was the renowned bridge teacher Rhoda Lederer. A revised edition by Hawthorn in 1993 is now followed by an updated and further revised edition, written jointly with Mark Horton and aimed at "all students and players of bridge who, past the initial learning stage, want to improve every aspect of their game".

It is a well-oiled formula and the two hundred pages give the authors scope to pan their way through "every aspect" of bidding, declarer-play and defence, or enough to satisfy the objectives of the book. The balance for improvers is just about right, with one hundred and six pages devoted to bidding as against seventy pages to declarer-play and defence. There is also a section on Laws and Ethics plus appendices on scoring and standard leads.

Certain aspects of play are difficult for relative newcomers to the game, as on the following deal from the More About No-Trump Play section:

South is in 3NT, against which West leads a low spade to the Ace with East who returns the Ten. An inexperienced player's impulse is to cover immediately, whereas the winning play is to duck, or 'hold up' as it is called. Similarly, if South covers the Ten, then it is West's turn to have to duck in order to defeat the contract.

Q 8 6

Q J 10 9

K Q 8 5 3

K 9 8 6 3

	N
W		E
	S

A 10 2

9 7 2

10 4 3

6 5 2

A 8 3

9 6

J 10 7 2

Q J 7 4

A K J 5

7 4

A 4

The 'Rule of Seven' is given as a method of calculating the hold-up requirements when you are declarer in no-trumps: "Add together the number of cards you hold between your own hand and dummy in the suit in which you have been attacked and take that number from seven. The answer is the number of times you need to hold up." On the above deal the clear answer is two.

We will let the authors have the last word, because in the introduction to this edition they point out that, despite the many changes, they "have endeavoured not to lose the elegant simplicity and charm of the original".

Peter Littlewood