Last issue we hinted that Scott Smith might make a late run to catch his partner, David Ackerly, in the race for the 1998 Baden Wilson Trophy (most As). It looks like Scott did it just right, pipping David by just one ‘A’ point. The top 10 for 1998 were:

Julie Atkinson reports on the recent Club Director’s exams:

"Congratulations to the following people on passing the Club Directors exam:

There is no resit available this year, unlike past years. However from 2000 those sitting this exam will also have a restricted pass available to them. This will be given to those demonstrating a good understanding of those Laws commonly applied at club sessions, but needing assistance if anything more complex should occur.

It was disappointing to find that common laws are still being misinterpreted, as this strongly suggests that there is a lack of education available to our directors. This is despite the fact that in the past 12 months Arie Geursen has held several seminars around the country, and a videotape of those seminars is available to clubs at a nominal cost.

Directing can at times be a thankless task, and many directors are paid little if anything for the time and effort that they give. My sympathies to those that failed this exam as it is not an easy exam, but perhaps the reason for the continuing poor pass rate is because we are failing our directors by not providing enough education. I would ask that centers use some of the tuition grant available from the NZCBA to provide more information and instruction to aspiring and current directors in their areas, to complement the seminars that are run by the NZCBA.

Perhaps if this can be done then we as players will have the standard of directing that we expect and often demand."

Results of the Tournament Directors’ exam will appear in the April Issue.

A very recent publication and an Australian one, is a book by Melbourne’s Cathy Chua called "Cheating Scandals in Bridge". Its subject matter is self-explanatory and is a very readable account of some of the "cheating" problems in bridge since the 1930s – many example hands too. The book should interest players from "social standards to expert".

I am reliably informed (!) you can get the book from Kauri Bridge Supplies in Auckland.

Kathy has written three other books including "The History of Australian Bridge".

Unfortunately, news of the 1999 Internet Bridge Championships came too late for last December’s issue.

News of two recent international invitation events. England’s Macallan International Bridge Pairs was won for the second successive year by the Norwegians, Geir Helgemo and Tor Helness by a healthy margin from Lauria and Versace of Italy and Christian Mari (France) playing with Omar Sharif.

The Americans, Larry Cohen and David Berkowitz, led throughout to win the Cap Gemini event, once more from a pair of Italians, Buratti-Lanzarotti, with Enri Leufkens-Berry Westra of the Netherlands third.

Both are invitation events containing 16 pairs of no mean standard. However, six of the eight Souths were found wanting on this deal from the Cap Gemini:

Six times. South led © J after the above auction with the defence immediately losing their fourth trick as the club disappeared on © K. One could ask what the rush was to lead a shortage with such good trumps? Helgemo led a cluband recorded a well-deserved plus.