Bridge
I’ve just come back from Ostend, where I spent four perfect days. No, not sun, sea and sand — eight…
Bridge
Not many players can pull a fast one on Gunnar Hallberg. The seasoned Swede, who came to live over here…
Bridge
I’ve always suspected that pessimists make better card players than optimists — and I recently came across the proof. A…
Bridge
Playing rubber bridge the other afternoon for higher stakes than usual (£20 per hundred), I had a memorably miserable time.…
Bridge
If I had to name my favourite bridge player… actually, I can’t, there are too many. But the young Danish…
Bridge
It was about 20 years ago that I first became friends with Janet de Botton, and urged her to take…
Bridge
Colin Simpson, who has died after a long illness at the age of 69, was a star both at the…
Bridge
I’ve never forgotten a conversation I had some years ago with the talented, blunt-talking Norwegian player Espen Erichsen. We were…
Bridge
It’s nice being part of a community. That’s how bridge is: over the years, you get to know, or recognise,…
Bridge
The England ladies trials, two weekends ago, were as exciting as ever, but also rather heartbreaking for me and my…
Bridge
As Janet said last week, the recent European Open trials made for compulsive viewing. Ten pairs took part; first and…
Bridge
My friend Neil Mendoza and I had a great finish to 2017 when we won the Portland Club’s annual Auction…
Bridge
Know thy opponents — experts make a point of it. When you’re at the bridge table, it’s just as important…
Bridge
Being on lead against a grand slam is bad for your blood pressure. So much is at stake (not least,…
Bridge
I spent last weekend glued to Bridge Base Online, watching the 16th European Champions Cup taking place in Latvia, and…
Bridge
Call me middle-aged, but the days when I enjoyed playing bridge all night are long gone — which is why…
Bridge
Bridge is a partnership game — but haven’t you sometimes wished you could file for a quick divorce mid-rubber? The…
Bridge
Twenty-five years ago, Zia Mahmood offered a £1 million bet that no team of his choosing could ever be beaten…
Bridge
I’m writing this from Stuart Wheeler’s beautiful villa in Tangier, in the hills just above the bay, where for a…
Bridge
Aren’t the Irish supposed to be lucky? The Irish open team are having no luck at all at the moment.…
Bridge
The ‘Lightner double’ is perfectly named: a bolt out of the blue which strikes fear into your heart. There you…
Bridge
The Andrew Robson Bridge Club in Parsons Green deserves its huge success. The standard may not be as high as…
Bridge
I felt like an absolute hypocrite the other week. Sally Brock’s team had just beaten Alexander Allfrey’s in the semi-finals…
Bridge
The Hubert Phillips Bowl is one of my favourite tournaments of the year: a friendly, knockout event with a rather…
Bridge
Sometimes Janet teases me that this should be called the David Gold Column, as I mention his name so frequently.…
