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English 47 Brian Zietman Towards the end of 2011 I had the pleasure of playing with Rena Haas in a national tournament organized by "Gat", one of the four bridge clubs in Jerusalem. This tournament was attended (for a big change) by all the owners/managers of the other bridge clubs in Jerusalem. It was held in honor of Avi Raz, a well-known pharmacist from Jerusalem, who had been one of the founding fathers of bridge in the capital. Just a decade ago there were three bridge clubs in Jerusalem, each one operating twice a week on different days, so they were not in competition with each other. In fact, I often used to serve as tournament director in all three clubs, without any con fl ict of interest. Then, almost nine years ago, we opened the Jerusalem Bridge Center, which "shuf fl ed the pack", so to speak, since we were open six days a week, thereby competing with all the other clubs. This created strained relationships with other clubs, which were trying to retain their share of the market. Recriminations were rife and competition was fi erce. However, thiscompetitionprovedbene fi cial for the bridge players. All clubs improved their facilities, while the participation fee remained stable. Bridge teaching in the capital prospered, and the yearly amount of tournament participations grew by more than 100%, from about 20,000 nine years ago to about 45,000 last year! Compared to the national increase of less than 10% during that period, this was certainly remarkable. The level of bridge players beyond Sha'ar Ha'Gay has also improved, as all clubs were competing to bring big-name teachers like Eldad Ginossar, Efraim Brifman, Moti Gelbard and Gilad O fi r to run courses. Hopefully, a new atmosphere of positive thinking will mean that more new players will appear, conditions will continue to improve, and relationships between club functionaries will become more cordial. Here is a hand that I played against Martin Rotblatt (a club owner from outside Jerusalem) and his partner Malcolm Cream. We all know Hebrew, but at this table we all reverted to our mother tongue – English – mixed of course with a lot of Hebrew words  . The bidding: West North East South Malcolm Rena Martin Brian Pass 1 ♣ Pass 1 ♥ Pass 1NT Pass 3NT All Pass You hold West ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 764 JT2 KT532 54 What would you lead? I guess that most of you would lead from the 5-card unbid diamond suit, headed by the King. However, Malcolm had different ideas and found Working Hard for an Average