Anja is behind the microphone. Enthusiastically she calls me up front. 'Our honorary member is present: Ed Hoogenkamp is joining us tonight!'
Yes, tonight I'm playing at my old club: Crash from the city of Leiden. Nathalie is to be my partner. I would have preferred to keep a low profile to my visit but a moment later I'm smiling at many familiar faces from the past. Honorary member... weren't they usually very old or dead? I don't feel like an honorary member.

I and some bridge friends founded Crash, in order to raise the level of bridge in the district of Leiden. For some reason Leiden had never reached the level of districts like Amsterdam, The Hague or Rotterdam. As a consequence talented players moved to those districts, in order to improve their game.
The plan was for Crash to become a club for better than average players, in order to stop players from fleeing to other districts. Five or six years later Crash made it to the final of the Dutch teams championship and repeated that feat the next three years. The fourth time they won those play-offs, so one might say the plan was successful.
On my moving to Spain, I was made an honorary member at the farewell (Crash has only two H.M.'s, Maaike Valkenburg is the other one). Perhaps it has to grow on me, but I still feel somewhat ill at ease... Honorary member, it just isn't my cup of tea.

After my appearance up front, fortunately I am allowed to play bridge. Things don't go smoothly all the time (I have never played with Nathalie before), since I haven't touched the cards for some months. Then this deal turns up:.

S/EW		♠	A 9 6 3
		♥	7 5 4 3 2
		♦	K 3 2
		♣	10
♠	Q 10			♠	K 8
♥	K 8			♥	A J 10 9
♦	10 9 8 5			♦	Q J 7 4
♣	Q J 8 6 2			♣	A 9 4
		♠	J 7 5 4 2
		♥	Q 6
		♦	A 6
		♣	K 7 5 3

¹ Czech: weak(6-10 CP), five-card spades and four-card or longer in any other suit
² Pre-emptive

The deal before, South also opened such a Czech. He played there and went down one, vulnerable, for -100.
So he tries again. 'Not vulnerable', he jokes, 'so it won't be that expensive.'
I gamble a take-out double over 3♠, South passes and it's Nathalie's turn.
Rarely I have seen such a quick execution... Without much thought she passes my double and a moment later her ♥K lead hits the table. Her second heart goes to my ace and the third heart is ruffed by declarer with the ♠7 and overruffed by Nathalie with the ♠10.
Next she plays a club to my ace and the fourth heart is again ruffed and overruffed, this time with the ♠Q.
'The ♠K is going to drop now, will it?' declarer hopefully asks.
'No', I say, showing my cards. 'More expensive than you thought, Rini', I add.
He can see the humour of it. Down two doubled, because you lose three trump tricks, while the opponents have only four trumps between them. Doesn't happen every day.

The hero(ine) of the deal is of course Nathalie. What a pass and what an opening lead! That's the way to play with an honorary member!