Bridge over the Rainbow
The trilogy is complete!
The land of Oz has featured in books and films, but not until Alex & Harry started investigating did it become clear that most of the population are bridge players. Focusing their attention on the Over the Rainbow Bridge Club in Munchkinland in the land of Oz, they have found a bridge club full of characters with so many of the features of players to be seen in all the bridge clubs in Scotland, and, doubtless, elsewhere.
In Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, the third and final volume, the Over the Rainbow Bridge Club is threatened by dark forces. Can Dorothy and her friends come to the rescue? Will the Lion have the courage to stand up to them? Will the Scarecrow understand what is happening? Will the Tin Man even care?
In the first volume, If I Only Had A Heart, we met Dorothy and her friends and followed them through a year at the Over the Rainbow Bridge Club.
In the second volume, Bridge Over The Rainbow, two new arrivals stirred up rivalries that saw the club members taking to the road, desperate to outdo each other.
Reviews of Earlier Books
If I Only Had a Heart
● Short-listed as IPBA Book of the Year 2017
● ‘… well worth reading with good hand selection and clearly delineated characters’ - Brian Senior
● ‘… the hands are exciting and well analysed. I have found it a really good read’ – Bridgetidningen, Sweden
● ‘… not only funny and entertaining but instructive and very well analysed’ - Roy Bennett
● ‘A delightful excursion into fantasy bridge. The hands are most entertaining and often instructive. A thoroughly enjoyable book’ - American Bridge Teachers' Association Quarterly
Bridge Over the Rainbow
● ‘The sequel to 'If I only had a Heart' is even funnier than the original, filled with laugh-out-loud moments … in the hands of these vicious misanthropes, a hand record is a weapon' - ACBL Bulletin
● ‘… we can all recognise … those annoying and … endearing characters from our own bridge worlds’ - A New Bridge Magazine
About the Deals
The three books contain a total of 148 different deals.
Every deal used occurred at the table. No hand is made up. The only change we have made is switching a few minor cards in a small number of these deals.
And what happened in the hands has often come from reality.
Every deal has some interesting feature, and frequently many such features. Sometimes it requires skill and technique to solve the play or defensive problems the hands present. The undoubted polished technique of the Tin Man, the patience and understanding of Dorothy, the blunt force of Auntie Em, all have their place in finding a way through.
Sometimes it requires something beyond pure skill. It might need the flair of Professor Marvel, or even the ingenuity of the Wizard himself. All have their place.
But there are some hands which go beyond ingenuity, which need help from outside the rational world to find a solution. But to the Scarecrow, rational thought is a foreign concept, and it is in such situations, who but he could possibly see the way ahead?
By the same authors
Scotland’s Senior Moment
‘A realistic account of what it is like to enter a world championship, the authors make the reader feel part of the strategy and action; invariably, I found myself rooting for the underdog Scots’ - Bridge World
‘For your expert or aspiring expert friends, if you want the feel of being at the world championships on an underdog team, try Scotland's Senior Moment. I am … utterly delighted with it’ - Kitty Cooper
‘I enjoyed the book, and I found the story pretty intense, even though I knew what was going to happen, ultimately. The whole thing was a bit of a roller coaster, and I went up and down with the captain. The authors covered, and gave colour to, a wide variety of subjects: the events themselves, the captain’s role, preparing the players, dealing with the players and (of course) a lot of bridge. I especially liked the captain's insights when the team did not perform well - there was much value there for the reader’ - Michael Rosenberg
About the Authors
Alex Adamson
(Linlithgow, Scotland) is a Scotland Open Team player. Additionally, he has captained the Scottish Open, Junior and Women’s teams. After a successful European Championships in 2018, he captained the women in the Venice Cup in Wuhan in 2019.
Harry Smith
(Scone, Scotland) has represented Scotland in both the Open and Senior Teams. As NPC, he captained the Senior Team to a European Bronze Medal in Dublin in 2012, and to the quarterfinal of the World Championships in Bali the following year, the story of which is told in Scotland’s Senior Moment.