For those who don't have a very good memory… or were not born we shall follow in the Daily News the European Bridge Championships played twenty years ago in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1979. You may be surprised by the names of some of the players who are still active!

In the very first bulletin the star reporter was someone you will find in the 1999 edition of the Danish Open Team.

Sweden's 'Mr. Carrot' endeavours to repeat 1977 Brilliancy Win

Anders Morath whose sandy hued hair gave rise in part to the nickname that has been bestowed on Sweden's 'Carrot Club' system is the only competitor in these championships who is a previous winner of Bols brilliancy Prize. Morath earned the distinction during the 1977 European Championships in Elsinore for his performance on the deal below. The deal was reported by Denmark's Steen Møller bridge columnist of Berlingske Tidende who is of course competing in the Open series and who himself won the 1977 journalist prize for describing Morath's performance. Møller titled his winning entry 'A Piece of Swedish Brilliance'.

Dealer West. Game NS ª 7 5 © A Q 5 3 ¨ A J 6 4 2 § 8 6 ª 9 3 ª K 10 8 6 © 10 9 6 2 © J 7 4 ¨ 10 9 7 ¨ 5 § A Q 7 4 § J 9 5 3 2 ª A Q J 4 2 © K 8 ¨ K Q 8 3 § K 10 Open Room West North East South 1¨ Pass 2ª Pass 3¨ Pass 4NT Pass 5© Pass 6¨ All Pass

The Swedish team had a flying start and their system 'The Carrot Club developed by Morath and Flodqvist and used by two of the pairs has served them well, sometimes with a little luck - as here.

In the Open Room with Spain sitting North-South the bidding went smoothly along well-known lines - as did the play when East chose to lead a club.

Down One!

In the Closed Room North-South were Hans Göthe and Anders Morath - Mr. Carrot himself. (If you are not linguistic enough to see the similarity between the Swedish word for carrot and the name Morath, just look at the colour of his hair and you'll see why he's known as Mr. Carrot.)

The bidding needs to be explained. 1NT was a two way bid inviting slam when followed by 3¨. 3NT showed a weak balanced hand and the remaining bids were control showing. There was of course a great deal of knocking on the table, following the alert procedure, but no one really took much notice until North alerted the 4§ bid. At this point West woke up and inquired as to the meaning. Taking this as a warning signal Morath placed the contract at 6NT to protect the king of clubs.

West led the two of hearts giving the count away. South won in hand, crossed to dummy with a diamond and took a successful spade finesse. He proceeded to cash the diamonds, throwing a spade, whilst West discarded a couple of clubs. Then came a second spade finesse and when South now scored the ªA West was in deep trouble. Finally he threw the §Q. Now the low heart in dummy went away and Morath played the §10 to the bare ace, taking the rest with two heart tricks and a club.