One of my early mentors was Ralph. I first met Ralph when I was in Junior High. He was one of the Health teachers, and was notorious for yelling at the kids running down the hallway. At the time, my impression of him was not all that favorable.
Fast forward about 20 years, and I am between a Post-Doc and employment, playing and directing in some in clubs near my parent’s home. Ralph was a permanent fixture at table 1 and probably the most respected player in the area. So it was gratifying when he wanted to partner with me on a regular basis.
We played his home-grown system, which was based on a 13-15 NT, a short club (when balanced 16-20), and a variety of other things that no one else I have ever played with use. It was a system that was designed around right-siding contracts and guiding defensive play.
He was someone who abused the alert system when teaching someone this system, but sometimes it led to funny situations. In the course of two weeks, we had a auction of 1C by him, 1NT by me, which he alerted. The first time, he explained my bid as 8-11 HCPs, no five-card major and at least three cards to be led into. He continued by saying that he has been playing this system for more than 20 years, and in that time it had never come up, so he was certain that while I may have the points right, I probably did not have all of the required elements. I did, the hand was right-sided, and I was the only one making a critical overtrick at matchpoints because of that bid.
When the auction reoccurred two weeks later, he gave the exact same explanation, until the end, where he added: until two weeks ago, when this same partner made this bid correctly, and he would bet anything that I had that hand again. I did, the hand was right-sided, and I made a game that was set at the other table, but this time it was IMPs, and led to a win in the match.
When I was reintroduced to Ralph, he was on borrowed time; he had been on dialysis for more than 10 years at a time when few lived even 5 years once needing that procedure. He died shortly after I had left the area for a job, but I’ve never forgotten the lessons Ralph taught me. And I sometimes wish I could play his system again.
