Previous Article Next Article or click in box to select date =>

Bridge is like most games and sports in that it creates its own legends. This story is about such a man. A man who knew how to play A-K-J-x opposite Q-x-x for no losers. A man who always led fourth highest of his longest and strongest suit against 3NT. A man whose pre-empts always guaranteed thirteen cards. A man called Jim Spencer.

Jim had moved into a small farming village near Melton Mowbray, in the heart of the Leicestershire countryside. There were no shops, no pubs and no ladies. Here the men were men and the sheep were nervous.
Jim was spending his last year of secondary eductaion at the local grammar school, but Jim's attention was focussed on sporting rather than academic achievement. In addition to being 50% of the most feared pair of opening bowlers in the county, he was also a fine centre-half.
Jim was also becoming a bridge player of some local stature, but despite his growing reputation he had clung on to a naive superstition. During the period where he was learning the basics, he read that the Rueful Rabbit had observed that the king of clubs frequently appeared as a singleton. It seemed to Jim that he should capitalise on this useful observation when he was declarer, and to help him remember he constructed a little rhyme.

Playing dummy? Percentage nil?
Thank you partner (with urge to kill)
Don't concede your chance is blown
the King of Clubs is all alone.

Thus was born Jim's rule, and he placed so much faith in it that he used to write it on his system card.
Next Page