Vermont

We had a wonderful weekend in Southern Vermont, mixing a little bridge and a little hiking with just plain taking it easy.  This picture is from the top of Shrewsbury Peak (3710'), number 21 on the Vermont list, which we hiked on Friday morning (we were on the trail at 7:30am to beat the heat).  We're looking East towards Bald Mountain (3315') and thence to Ascutney (3143'), I think.  Pixie needed a ride up the steep part of the trail but otherwise was fine.

We rented a small cottage (right) down a long grassy driveway off a dirt road in a quiet part of the state (West Windsor, to be precise).  What a lovely spot!  There were barred owls nearby (heard only), yellowthroats, wood thrushes, robins and various other unidentified birds.  Out the back are trails heading up and around Hurricane Hill.  We came across an even more remote and smaller cabin.

On our way home from our first bridge session (in Rutland), we had just passed a Moose Crossing sign on a quiet road when lo and behold there was the moose (a huge ole bull, the size of a horse) in the act of crossing!  A firm application of the brakes ensured that we didn't collide.  Venison might be tasty but it would be no good if we didn't live to eat it!  On our return we heard about a fatal car/moose collision on I-95 in Maine.  Nasty.

We had some great meals, especially at a small local eatery in the middle of nowhere called Keepers.  They were serving an excellent beer called Switchback.  The dogs seemed to enjoy it all too (except the restaurant visits and bridge sessions when they were cooped up alone).  On our last day, we hiked a small portion of the Long Trail (and Appalachian Trail) down to the lovely Big Branch (see left).  Pixie seemed to really enjoy this hike.  Perhaps she's finally become a hiking dog!

Unfortunately, we were rubbish at bridge.  It's hard to switch from rustic getaway to bridge and back smoothly.  But it didn't matter one jot.  It was a wonderful place to visit.  Definitely a place we'd like to revisit.

Meanwhile, I was very happy that Spain won the World Cup.  Their skill level was considerably higher than that of any other team and while their forwards didn't always capitalize on their chances, the midfielders passed them up a seemingly endless supply of balls.  I was disappointed to see that Holland, inevitably, had to resort to a physical game and several fouls were not called.  Fortunately for those of us supporting Spain, the fairly obvious foul on Robben's scoring opportunity wasn't called either, otherwise the game would have ended in regulation time with a win for the Dutch.  All in all, a very enjoyable and well run competition.  Brazil is up next in 2014.  Guess who's going to be the favorite?

World Cup and Bridge Ups and Downs

Here we are playing Germany in the round of 16.  It's tense.  The problem is that it isn't the final, nor the semis, nor even the quarter final.  One of these teams will be going home after today.

Yet, I think the World Cup is better for all that.  The Europeans no longer dominate as they once did.  All five South American teams made it through to the round of 16 and one each from Central America (Mexico) and North America (USA).  There are two teams from Asia (South Korea and Japan)!  Only one team from Africa (they probably deserve better) and six from Europe.

It's half time and already it's the usual heartbreak for England.  An erroneous offside call in the first few minutes robbed Rooney of a chance to score and then there was the equalizing goal that was disallowed even though it was obvious from all angles that the ball went into the goalmouth.

Meanwhile, we had a great time at the bridge tournament in Sturbridge.  Some of the highlights were culinary.  A great dinner at Bocado in Worcester on Friday and then a terrific picnic at a lake cottage (no mosquitoes!).  Pixie was in her element.  Who knew that she was a party dog?  She loved it.  With 30 people, you'd think she'd have plenty opportunity to bark.  But she never did.  She let everyone pet her.

There were also some highlights (Kim/Donna won a side game simultaneously with my and my teammates winning a single-session Swiss).  On Thursday, I was part of a team that placed in an open Swiss.  But yesterday's bridge was unfortunately one of the low-lights.  I had a good time playing with my partner Peter but the bridge gods were definitely not on our side (see my bridge blog: Sometimes You're the Windshield...).

Musical Cards

Opera and bridge: two of my favorite things.  So what could be better than an opera about bridge?  Yes, the world's shortest opera (9 minutes) is Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge with libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, himself a successful opera composer, including the world's first made-for-TV opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Barber was one of America's most successful 20th century composers.  Barber's music can be sensual and emotional.  His Knoxville Summer of 1915 (based on text by James Agee) is a wonderfully evocative piece and still firmly in the repertoire.

I finally got around to listening to the recording loaned to me by my friend Walt.  The opera begins thus: 1♥ 2♣ 2♥ pass 4♥ 5♣ 5♥ all pass.  Thereupon each of the four players (two married couples) soliloquizes about some topic.  Their lack of attention to the game at hand is anathema to us bridge players!  Some of their musings are also a little, shall we say, risqué.  It is not a serious piece but the light orchestration is inventive and witty, including some good bassoon parts.

Perhaps it was composed as the antithesis of the Wagner style opera, for example Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which takes four and one half hours to perform.  I imagine that A Hand... would be impossible to stage alone.  Nobody would want to drive into New York and pay $100+ for a 9-minute opera.  But I can think of at least one opera that it could be paired with: Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades.  There may be others.  Cards also play important roles in several other operas that I can think of.  Top of the list, in terms of dramatic importance, would be La Traviata (Verdi), Carmen (Bizet) and no fewer than two Puccini operas: La Fanciulla del West and La Rondine.  There's also a ballet by Stravinsky: Jeu de Cartes.

It's also been noted many times that it is not unusual to find bridge players interested in music.  I know lots of musically inclined bridge players.  Many of us Boston-area players are acquainted with the principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Steve Ansell. Perhaps this correlation could be the subject of some fruitful research.

The Return to and from Reno

Today I'm celebrating not only our safe and uneventful return from Reno but also the return of those harbingers of spring, the phoebes.  Well, to be precise I can only be sure of one bird but the others won't be far away.  In a few days, they'll be busy refurbishing their old nests.  It's 55F right now here in Carlisle and all the birds seem to be in full throat.  The sun is peeking through the morning clouds and it's a lovely spring day.

A very brief review of our week (plus) in Reno, including some comparisons with our visit in 2004 follows.  If you'd like to know more details on my bridge success (or lack thereof), see my bridge blog.

This time we went out together and returned together.  There was no Stephen, though (we missed ya).  Rather than stay in the host hotel (a smoky, overcrowded casino with barely adequate eating facilities) we rented a nice house about 10 minutes by car from the casino.  While not as luxurious as our "Vegas house", it was nonetheless clean and comfortable with everything we needed.  There was no food mixer but the landlord gave us $10 to go and buy one.  That seemed like a pretty reasonable deal (the one we bought [$13] worked really well and is now available for future guests).

Although this year's tournament was approximately a week earlier than that of 2004, we were slightly surprised by how much colder it was (and how much more snow there was on the mountains).  Actually, it was lovely weather this time (2004 was during a spring heat wave).  Even the casino was slightly less smoky than before, which is to say that the slot machines near the registration desk were in a non-smoking zone.  Otherwise, the air inside was as unpleasant as ever, with the exception of the playing areas which were of course smoke-free.

We barely made it out the day we left.  Around the time we were departing Manchester, NH, the New York airports were being closed.  There followed a storm which dumped huge quantities of water in the area with winds gusting to 20mph and 1.4" of rain just through midnight.  The following day 5.0" (!) more fell, then 1.3" on the Monday.  This caused flooding all through the region (see photo at bottom of this page from the Mosquito).  We were happy to be missing it all, especially when we heard that our basement suffered only minor puddles.

But our friends R & M didn't make it.  As a result, I ended up playing the first day with M's partner, T (we played very well in an open team game). Monday, I had to use the partnership desk.  The afternoon session was not a great success.  But in the evening, I got very lucky with my partner.  We ended up 2nd (of 98). 

This was more or less immediately followed by my one other really good session.  The first qualifying session of the (National) mixed pairs.  Kim and I were 5th (of 396) in this session.  Unfortunately, the qualifying sessions don't count for much in the final analysis (about 6% each, I think) and we didn't play very well in the other three sessions.  Provided that you at least qualify, it's best to peak on the second day, rather than on the first day.

Another highlight of the trip, not directly bridge-related was the dinner that we prepared for our bridge teacher and all-around guru and his partner.  This came immediately after our good session, so there were lots of jokes based on the students turn the tables on the teacher theme.  Kim's dinner preparations were nothing short of amazing.  I was in charge of grilling the chicken which I managed to accomplish tolerably well [actually, I did a pretty darn good job].  A good time was had by all.

These national events are (generally) open to anyone, or effectively so.  They give platinum points and, of course, are not "flighted".  If you play well against the best, you get rewarded.  Otherwise, nothing.  I should add one little caveat, though.  The mixed pairs is held simultaneously with the early rounds of the Vanderbilt teams event.  This means that the top players are not playing in the mixed.  But they could if they wanted to.  But the vast majority of attendees at NABCs never enter a national event of any sort.  We can't quite understand that.  Bridge is perhaps the only sport where you can actually play against the best in the world.  Why not take advantage of that privilege?

Thenceforth, it was pretty much downhill for me, bridge-wise.  And as of Saturday night, it was downhill health-wise too.  R and I played six sessions althogether.  Despite having spent a lot of preparatory time, when we sat down together it was almost as if we were coming from different planets.  We did play some really good bridge on the Saturday, in another national event, the Jacoby Swiss Teams.  But we started poorly and ended horrifically.  Playing well in between wasn't enough.

There was one other highlight in the middle.  As consolation for not placing in the mixed pairs, I at least won the St. Patrick's day limerick competition which was worth $60!  I am now the official Poet Laureate of Bridge for 2010 ;)  Here's my winning entry (I submitted five altogether):



This game of bridge is a breeze,
I bid six notrump as a tease,
    I sure got my kicks
    When I wrapped up twelve tricks,
Lucking into a stepping stone squeeze.

So, my grand total of masterpoints for the tournament was 13.9 (approximately half of these were platinum) compared with 41.5 in 2004 (but then we didn't enter any national events).

Glad to have gone.  Happy to be back!

Basquing in sunny Reno

We left the East coast in the nick of time, leaving our loved ones back home to face the deluge.  This is Cindy with her raincoat on (we don't normally live by a lake!).  Meanwhile, it is sunny here, there's snow on the mountains and it's generally very pleasant, if rather cool.  When we were here six years ago, there was no snow, and there was a heat wave.

Yesterday, between sessions, we went to Louis' Basque Corner, a bistro specializing in food from the Basque country.  In terms of value of money, this was by far the best place I've eaten out for quite some time.  Indeed, I think it was the best place, regardless of the cost.  We had a prix fixe meal for $23.95, sitting refectory style with eight people to a table (our party was only four).  I always find this kind of seating very friendly -- it takes me back to my boarding school days.  Here's what we had: a spicy pasta soup with excellent freshly baked bread; a platter of beans and chorizo; a really tasty salad; followed by chicken Basqué (I'm guessing on the spelling) which was really fantastic.  A mix of chicken, peppers, aubergine (egg plant) and various other things that I didn't particularly notice at the time.  These were all served family style.  Then came our main dishes.  I had chosen salmon.  This was the best salmon, and certainly the biggest portion, that I've ever eaten at a restaurant.  Seriously.  Two of us had steak, which looked incredibly good but would have completely knocked me out for the evening bridge session.  Our fourth, an adventurous gourmand, had the sweetbreads.  With a considerable experience of sweetbreads, she declared them to be "very good".  We finished all of this off with ice cream (or cheese) and coffee.  Did I mention the large carafe of red wine that was all part of the deal (as bridge players we wouldn't normally be ordering wine)?

I could happily go back there every evening.

Meanwhile, so far (one day) the bridge has not been entirely memorable for us.  We played in different events and didn't distinguish ourselves greatly, although Kim's team managed to scratch in the consolation Swiss.

Mojito power

Another good game of bridge, this time with my favorite partner, Kim :)  In the Friday evening game at the Watertown sectional we were 2nd overall (of 80 pairs).  You can imagine our joyful feelings when we discovered that our score after 7 rounds was 66%, having had a very good last round!  Unfortunately, we discovered that Bob and Lew were also at 66% in another section and, by coincidence, played the same last three boards as we did.  While we might have had 70% on the last round, they had three incontrovertible tops (100%).  The final results were that we ended up 2nd with 67% while Lew and Bob moved up to 71% overall.  Not bad!

Kim says I hadn't really stopped being happy after last week.  Now I'm happy again!

Dinner beforehand was at Casa de Pedro in Watertown, Venezuelan fare.  We've been several times before -- the food is always good.  Kim broke the golden rule and had a mojito!  But it didn't seem to do her any harm.  I guess we'll have to go there everytime we play in Watertown now :)

Bunburying

I'm sure you recall that in The Importance of being Earnest, Jack Worthing, so named because the gentleman who found him as a baby happened to have a first-class railway ticket to that "seaside resort" in his pocket at the time, likes to lead a double life.  When he wishes to escape from his social obligations in London, he goes by train to visit his fictional invalid cousin called Bunbury.  Hence Bunburying.

One of my favorite types of Bunburying is looking for abandoned railroad lines.  During the bridge tournament in Cromwell, I was able to spend a little time investigating the lines that formerly crossed in Cromwell, or rather just over the river in Middletown.  While I was working on that, I happened to be close to the extant line, the so-called Valley Branch of the NY, NH and Hartford R/R.  Quite fortuitously, a train came through just then and I was able to get a photograph using my handy iPhone (see above).

The time I spent must have been good for my brain because later that day, playing with Peter Matthews for the first time, we ended up 3rd overall and 1st in X in the two-session A/X pairs.  The field was quite strong although many of the top players were still in the knockouts.  Due to a technicality which occurred at another table, we were given 3rd place rather than 2nd equal.  This doesn't seem quite fair (it made a significant difference in masterpoints) but that's the way it's done.  If you're curious about this, you can read Den of Iniquity?

In any case, it was the best result I've ever achieved in a two-session open regional event.  Kim says I've been in a really good mood ever since.

Meanwhile, I've made my Western Connecticut railroad map almost completely accurate for the area around Cromwell.

Survival of the fittest

I'm still enjoying listening to the recording of Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth and it is, as is everything by Dawkins, really excellent.  He and his beautiful wife, actress Lalla Ward, share the reading and, in an about-turn of my previous blog comments, I really think that this format enhances the experience.  She has a correspondingly lovely voice, while Dawkins' own voice is also easy to listen to.

One of the most exciting recent developments, and which is covered in some detail, is the 20-plus year experiment of Professor Lenski at Michigan State University (presumably no relation of the Lensky who met such an untimely death at the hands of Eugene Onegin).  Briefly, they have allowed 12 "tribes" of the bacterium E. coli to go through a daily feast and famine cycle for, at this point, almost 22 years.  The results are quite amazing and something of an embarrassment to the creationists, who are now doing everything they can to discredit the results, just as you'd expect.

Dawkins himself has been busy promoting the book and appearing on various TV outlets, even on Al Jezeera where he was, rather surprisingly, very favorably interviewed, given what he says about the Judeo-Christian-Islamic deity in The God Delusion.  There's also an interview (if you can call it that) with Bill O'Reilly where O'Reilly predictably manages to shout louder than Dawkins.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our boys in blue, the Patriots have set a new NFL record for embarrassing losses.  They changed the script from we go ahead by 17 points in the fourth quarter only to lose it in the last minute to a completely new idea: we allow the opponents to completely outclass us and begin the second quarter down 21 to nothing.  At least they keep us guessing!  In this case, it was the Baltimore Ravens who were fitter and therefore survived.  I must say they seemed to be a fairly complete team: awesome defense, a better running game than I've seen in the NFL for a while, and a moderately decent passing game.  Maybe they will go all the way to the Superbowl.

It's hard to know exactly what went wrong.  Clearly the entire team was in shock after, get this, winning the toss but electing to receive in the second half, then allowing the first play from scrimmage to rumble 90+ yards for a touchdown.  On the subsequent series, Brady was completely at sea.  To what extent that was because Julian Edelman couldn't get open like Wes Welker would have, or whether Brady and the team were just not prepared for the Baltimore defense, it's hard for me to judge.  But I don't really think it was the Welker/Edelman factor.  We still have Randy Moss, and several other competent receivers, for goodness sake!

Unfortunately, my team's efforts in the open knockouts at the most recent bridge tournament, were agonizingly similar to Brady et al's.  The first two boards (of a total of 24) that we played at our table ended up as losses of 20 and 13 imps!  We outplayed our opponents 50-23 on the other 22 boards but it was a question of too little, too late.  Still, we managed to get 3rd (of 20) in the board-a-match the following day so we recovered some self-respect.

Everybody must get "Stoned"

My bridge partner, Len, and I have now won our direction in two successive weeks at the Newton-Wellesley bridge club, this time with a 68% game, good enough for 1st overall.  So I'm having a quiet celebration with a Stone's IPA.  Stone's is one of my favorite beers, even though it's brewed in Southern California where you wouldn't exactly expect to find good beer.  But San Diego is the home to the Stone brewery which also brews one of my other favorites: the aptly-named Arrogant Bastard.  You might find a visit to the web site amusing.

Had I been able to attend the recent NABC (bridge championship) in San Diego, you can be sure that I would have found time for a brewery tour.  Who knows, it might even have improved my bridge.

I mention all this because I've recently realized that beer has been woefully unrepresented in this blog heretofore.  So let me jump right in and give you my top ten beers (not necessarily in this order):

1. Smuttynose IPA (Smuttynose Brewing Co, Portsmouth, NH)
2. Stone IPA (Stone Brewing Co, San Diego, CA)
3. Wachusett IPA (Wachusett Brewing Co, Westiminster, MA)
4. Ipswich IPA (Mercury Brewing Co, Ipswich, MA)
5. Arrogant Bastard (Stone Brewing Co, San Diego, CA)
6. Harpoon IPA (Harpoon Brewery, Boston, MA)
7. Copper Ale (Otter Creek, VT)
8. Martinsbrau (Carlisle, MA) -- no this isn't actually a commercial brewery
9. Fuller's ESB (Fuller's Brewery, Chiswick, England)
10. Guinness Stout (Guiness, Dublin, Ireland, celebrating their 250th anniversary).

You might be surprised, knowing me, how few English beers are on this list.  That's because they don't travel well and of course most draft beers are better than most bottled beers (which are in turn better than most canned beers).  But the main reason is that the heyday of British beer is well and truly over.

When I was growing up, and either thinking about pubs or sneaking into them underage, probably 80% of pubs were "tied" houses.  They sold beer only from one brewery.  The beer came regularly, and it was always fresh!  Then came the era of "free" houses.  No, the beer wasn't free to buy.  But the licensee could buy beer from more than one brewery.  This coincided more or less with the era of carbonated alcohol (typified by such as Double Diamond).  CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) emerged and fortunately, the tide of such beer-drinkers anathema was stemmed.  But in recent years, all things American have visited the homeland.  In particular, the obsession with choice.  The result is that half of the beer the typical pub sells has gone off!  And the sad part is that they don't seem to notice!

When I first came to these shores 30 years ago, it was like stepping into a beer desert.  It was impossible to find good beer anywhere.  Now, good local beer abounds.  And, although I have to wash my mouth out with soap and water, it's actually better than the stuff they try to sell you in England!

Good times, blights and crashes

We've been having a good time lately. After last weekend's hike, we've been feeling good. The weather was nice all week (until Saturday) and the nicest time of year is here.

Some of you will be pleased to note that I now have a bridge blog where I will now be putting any detailed accounts of bridge games, hands, etc.

When Saturday turned so dismal we decided to play bridge. Normally we would go all the way to Westwood (about 35-40 mins) because they have a very competitive game. But this weekend there was a sectional in Rhode Island (drawing the better players) so we decided to try Dean's "Good Timers" game at the Bridge Spot in Woburn (only 20-25 mins). We had a good time. Dean runs a very nice game there. We didn't suffer any terrible fixes (the bridge equivalent of a "bad beat") and we received a handsome number of gifts. That's the thing about playing in games where most of the players are new to the game. There are a lot more fixes and a lot more gifts. You have to hope that the latter outweigh the former.

Our first year of growing vegetables appears to have been a failure. Not an abject failure, because we have been receiving our "share" of wonderful fresh organically grown vegetables. But the squashes that Charlie planted do not seem to be doing anything. Surely we should be seeing them by now? And all the tomatoes got the blight. Apparently, the early wet weather this summer has precipitated the worst tomato/potato blight in years in these parts. So yesterday (Shh.. don't tell anyone how late we were) I pulled up all of the tomato plants and put them into garbage bags.

But just as you think everything is going well, life throws you a curve ball. My server down in New York which has been hosting PartnershipDesk for the last three years has crashed quite badly. Both the power supply and the motherboard were fried it seems. Since I don't believe in coincidences, I would imagine that the power supply failed and in turn zapped the motherboard. There's still a perfectly good processor, two mirrored hard drives (of which I now have one) and the memory to salvage if it comes to that. Meanwhile, I have to get the site up and running again!

The Instant Matchpoint Game

The finals are in progress in São Paulo (third set of six). USA 2 is battling Italy in the Bermuda Bowl, but currently with a fair lead - oops - Italy surged ahead in the second set and it is they who have the lead. In the Venice cup, the Chinese women are comfortably leading USA. In the Seniors, Poland has a commanding lead over England.

Kim and I took the opportunity of a free Wednesday evening to play in the Instant Matchpoint Game at the Winchester club. In turn that enabled us to eat at one of our favorite places, Punjab in Arlington center. The food was good as always. But, OMG, the traffic was bad. We were both 30 minutes late for our date!

The way the IMP game works (not to be confused with International matchpoints) is that each board has a set score (out of 100) for each of the probable, and many of the not-so-probable, outcomes. This allows you to see immediately how your result was. Supposedly, the matchpoints are based on about a thousand results from the table at some unknown previous event. But they were certainly bizarre. Given that the setter, Larry Cohen in this case, has significant discretion to "correct" odd happenings from previous plays, you'd expect, or at least hope, that the absolute par on a board would score somewhere around 50, unless it's a very lucky layout or requires double-dummy play or defense. But very often the par score was far from 50. A case in point: on board 25, par is NS -600 (E/W can make 3NT or 5C) for which the unlucky N/S pair would receive 23. Our score was -100 yet, for that, we got only 63! What would have to happen for us to get a really good score?

On the whole, we didn't play particularly well and ended up fractionally below average. Nevertheless, we received 1.28 masterpoints! A strange world, indeed.

Nashua Regional and Bermuda Bowl

Yesterday I played with Len in the open Swiss at the Nashua Regional with teammates Kathy and Saul (not a regular partnership). Because of the new flighting by average masterpoints, we ended up being in flight B which was just as well since we didn't distinguish ourselves brilliantly, ending up 8= in B. There were 52 teams altogether and we were tied for 20th overall (but flight A "paid" only 19 places). Surprisingly, we didn't bid and make any slams. We got to the six level twice, pushing a bit too much perhaps, but both times the slam failed. Other than that we didn't have any major problems. For the uninitiated, a "Swiss" is run by matching teams with the same current total victory points (each of the eight matches that a team plays has 20 victory points available to be shared between the two opponents).

Today, Kim is playing in the open pairs with Donna. At the break they were lying 2nd so I'm hoping that the Chicken Parm at dinner at the Villa Banca has helped push them into first place. We had dinner with our friends Rob, Melissa, Steve and Dave from NY/NJ.

Meanwhile, Adam and Doug and the rest of USA 1 in Sao Paulo are not doing too well. They're lying 17th (of 22) teams. But USA 2 looks well placed (5th currently) to qualify for the 8-team playoffs.

Le Bridge

Having done our homework on French bidding, cards, language, etc. we were keen to play bridge in France. There were were several bridge clubs within an hour's drive from my brother's village, but the largest one, and the one with the best schedule was in Châteauroux. The people at the club were friendly, particularly one lady who had lived in the US and was therefore easy to talk to (in English). We were a little taken aback by their announcement that we would have to play under pseudonyms since we didn't have FFB licenses. In the end we did end up seeing our names in print although, as expected, the official results on the web show us as "Joueur inconnu" gaining 105 points.

Despite the strange cards (1, R, D, and V, etc.) and little things like South (me) having to do the scoring (more complicated than it sounds since we had to enter such things as the opening lead, not to mention the fact that 4C is four hearts, while four clubs is 4T), we managed 56% and second in our direction (the best place to be when guests in a strange club). We might have won if we had stopped after 8 rounds but we got a little tired -- and our luck ran out somewhat -- in the last round. All of our explanations of bids and so on were conducted in French and there were never any problems. Bidding boxes, albeit strange ones, were used so that bidding was never an issue.

I would like to have shown a hand from the session (27 boards, by the way) that illustrated perhaps a brilliant play based on mistaking jacks for kings (like the Rueful Rabbit does in the Victor Mollo stories) but there was nothing like that.

The standard of play was about what you'd expect in a club game away from the big city. A few good players but mainly people looking for a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. There was a degree more seriousness perhaps than we are used to. All in all a very enjoyable afternoon and we would heartily recommend it.

Next blog: Travel Trials