I'm sure we've all woken up at one time or another and realised that we've done something terribly foolish in a moment of intoxication or insanity, and are stuck with the consequences unless we can think of a way to weasel out of it. This feeling overtook Paul (Russell) at last night's UBC. Partway through a perfectly reasonable auction which Paul R had kicked off by opening a middle-of-the-road 2, his opponent asked the seemingly innocuous question "What does that mean?". Paul Gilbert, sitting opposite, gave a reply that was far from innocuous. Paul R now had to wake up to the fact that he had made a terrible blunder earlier in the evening. Yes, he had agreed to play Benji. In this scheme, 2 is a hand too good to open 2—handy if it ever comes up, but vastly less useful than the vorpal diamond pre-empt, and a risky action on a 7-count.

The final contract and result were essentially inevitable. I would, however, like to congratulate Toby on the rare feat of making an ostrich (like a turkey only much much bigger), and praise Paul's ethics—he knew from the unauthorised information that his 3 bid (which would show a minimum if 2 were weak) would be misinterpreted, but he "carefully avoided gaining any advantage", in the words of the Laws.