New Zealand Listener - November 5, 2016

NOVEMBER 5 2016 http://www.listener.co.nz 63

Readers were invited to submit a

frightful haiku for Halloween. Anne

Martin of Helensville warns: On All

Hallows’ Eve/No banshee can match

the howls/Of treatless children. From

Palmerston North’s Maureen Leamy:

You want to scare me?/Forget witches and

vampires/Just send in the clowns.

Daphne Tobin of Porirua: Halloween

once meant/We’d be scared of things that

lurked./Now we take seles. One Tree

Hill’s Mike Jarman: One more band of

kids./Sweets! Where have I put the sweets?/

Cursed trick I fear.

Te Aroha’s Emily Brice: All Hallows’ Eve

night,/Children take fright, at bags full/Of

Turkish delight. Lower Hutt’s Ada George:

Vampires and zombies/As far as the eye

can see,/There is no escape. Atholea

Shanks of Oamaru: Eldritch shriek, fangs

bared/Haunting howls instilling dread/

Those damned cats again.

Some readers ind current events

more troubling than the supernatural.

Picton’s Nozz Fletcher explains: Scary,

creepy clown/Will Ohio elect him?/Shivers

down our spines. Piha’s Peter Stevens:

Anticipating/Election day’s feared

approach/And the chance it’s Trump.

Geraldine’s Robyn Gillies relects:

You know what’s scary?/What Homo

sapiens do/In their ignorance. Paul Kelly

of Palmerston North: Auckland rents are

ne/I choose to live in a car/We are not

homeless.

But a chilling twist by Bay of Plenty’s

David Wort is this week’s winner: “Mate,

you look like death,”/I joked as he shook my

hand/”I am Death,” he said.

For the next contest, send us a short

story of up to 50 words set in one of the

following places: a seedy motel room,

a second-hand bookshop or a sinking

ship. Entries, for the prize below, close at

noon on Thursday, November 10.

WIN THIS

Wordsworth

A DVD containing

exclusive footage of

one of music’s most

innovative icons, David

Bowie, looking back at his

music and how he came

to be a legend of many

genres.

by Gabe Atkinson

Submissions: [email protected]

or Wordsworth, NZ Listener, Private Bag

92512, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141.

Please include your address.

BRIDGE by David Bird

TAKE 5

by Simon Shuker

BARDEN’S

CHESS PROBLEMS

White mates in three moves, against any

defence (by Johannes Bruski, 1906). This

looks hard to solve, since the black king is

snug in its hideout while the obvious try

1 Qg2 (threat 2 Qb2 mate) is defeated by

Nc4 followed by Nd2+ or a rook move, and

White cannot mate at move three. The

actual answer is an inspired and precise

move, and the only way to deal with

Black’s Nc4 defence. Is your creativity up to

finding White’s winner?

(Answer on page 64)

Game all, dealer South

West North East South

— — — 1S

Pass 2C Pass 2NT

Pass 3NT All Pass

South was playing a weak no-trump, so his
2NT rebid was strong. In tournament play

it is usually treated as forcing-to-game. This
is on the basis that North will hold around
10 points or so for his two-level response
and South will hold at least 15. Playing the
2NT rebid as forcing allows you to bid it

on as many as 19 points, leaving space for

North to show three-card support for your

main suit. How would you play 3NT when

West leads the queen of hearts to the ace

and East returns the nine of hearts to the

bare king? It looks as if West has five hearts

to East’s three (because of East’s return of

the nine). With only six tricks on top, and

the hearts bare, you will have to pick up

the spade suit. What is the best play there?

If spades break 3-3, it is a 50-50 guess which

way you should finesse against the queen.

Since the hearts are breaking 5-3, though,

East is a slight favourite to hold four spades.

Does this mean you should finesse him

for the queen? No, because if East holds

Q-x-x-x in spades, you cannot pick up the

suit. The best play, therefore, is to lead a

low spade to the jack at Trick 3. You win

against Q-x-x or Q-x with West. Finessing

the other way, through East, will win only

against his Q-x-x.

BIDDING QUIZ

WEST West North East South

♠ A 10 4 – – 1D 1H

♥ Q 7 5 3?

♦ Q 9

♣ Q 8 6 4

What will you bid now?

(Answer on page 64)

EAST

♠

♥

♦

♣

WEST
♠
♥
♦
♣

Q 9

Q J 10 6 3

J 9 4

K 8 4

SOUTH

♠

♥

♦

♣

NORTH

♠

♥

♦

♣

8 7 6 5

A 9 5

Q 8 3

10 9 3

A J

8 7 2

K 6 5 2

Q 7 5 2

K 10 4 3 2

K 4

A 10 7

A J 6