When the 1979 European championship was held in Lausanne, according to the daily bulletin the pre tournament favorites were Italy whilst Poland were highly fancied. In those times the VP scale was from 20 to minus 5

After two matches the twenty-one teams were led by:

The big match was between France and Great Britain. Board 13 is often unlucky for someone and this time it was the British.

Board 13. Dealer North. Game All ª 9 6 2 © Q J 10 9 7 4 ¨ Q J 8 § 7 ª A K J 4 3 ª 8 © A © K 8 5 2 ¨ A 10 6 ¨ K 9 4 2 § K 9 5 3 § A J 10 6 ª Q 10 7 5 © 6 3 ¨ 7 5 3 § Q 8 4 2

In the Closed Room Britain's multi-coloured 2¨ took a tumble but it could have shown a profit.

Two Diamonds has many meanings. Here South's response said 'if you have a weak Two Heart bid this is where we play'. When Perron doubled for takeout Mari rather than take a leap into the unknown very reasonably converted to penalty by passing. As can be seen Six Clubs, despite the 4-1 split is an excellent contract so Two Hearts doubled had the makings of a save. However the defence was very much on the ball. West led the king of spades and shifted to the six of diamonds covered by the jack and king. East returned the five of hearts and West cashed the ace of spades before giving partner a spade ruff. Now the defenders put declarer on the table and South finished having to lead away from dummy's queen of diamonds for down 1100.

This was the auction on VuGraph:

Ten tricks were readily made but 10 IMPs were conceded. West's bidding may seem surprisingly cautious but the sequence did not mean what appears on the surface. Two clubs was Drury inquiring whether the opening One Spade was sub-standard. Two Diamonds affirmed that it was sound and Three Clubs was of course forcing.

Truly every convention is used at some cost and here it seems that Drury made it hard for either East or West to express his hand fully.

At half time Great Britain were 21 IMPs behind and NPC Bill Pencharz changed his line up. This time there were no Prussians to 'rescue' the British and in the second half the French gained in both the bidding and the play. The final score was 96-44 a blitz of 20-0 in VPs.