Nothing much is happening at the Bridge Club — the only thing I have to remind you of is that the Christmas Party is on December 5.

It’s always a fun event, so make sure you book your space.

This week’s hand is one I’ve covered before, and I dug it out after my partner on BBO the other night revoked (not followed suit even though he had cards in that suit) and cost us two tricks.

The reason I went to this was to cheer myself up when I relived the consequences of this revoke ... for the opposition!

We have all revoked with varying consequences, but today’s hand features Ralph Mizrock, who in his day was known as the “revoke king of South Africa”, based on the number of times he revoked nearly every time he played.

All of his revokes, however, paled in front of this one during the Amsterdam World Pairs Olympiad in 1968. Mizrock was South.

Dealer North. East West vulnerable

North

S1052

HA843

DAQ1084

C4

East

SJ8743

HKJ10

DK962

C7

South

SAQ96

HQ652

D53

C1083

West

SK

H97

DJ7

CAKQJ9652

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

Pass Pass Pass

1C 1D 1S Pass

3C Pass 3NT

Mizrock duly led partner’s suit, a Diamond, and it was covered by the 7 and 10 forcing East to win with the King. East now had nine tricks — or so it seemed.

East lead a Club to the Ace and on the second Club North discarded a small Spade and so did Mizrock sitting South. No one commented. On the Queen of Clubs North discarded a Spade and South discarded a small Heart. When declarer played the Club Jack, South woke up to the fact that he had revoked but at this stage still held 10, 8 in Clubs making the suit totally worthless in dummy.

Modrick called the director and explained what happened. Out came the rule book and all declarer was entitled to was two tricks, giving him a total of seven — down two. The onus was on all four players to call attention to a revoke and clearly none had done, so the result stood as down two.

Needless to say, the South Africans refused to take that score and conceded the contract to East-West. So a happy ending to a fairly stressful ten minutes in a World Championship.

Notice that if East wins the Diamond Ace and smoothly plays back a low Heart, the contract would probably fail. East would probably play the 10 and the defence would get two Spades, two Hearts and a Diamond — down one. Fun hand — and you can see how Mizrock earned his title.

P.S. I’m too rushed to check whether the revoke rules have changed and allow the director to “restore equity”, no doubt someone will let me know!