Sunday 18 February 2024

Peggy Bayer Match 10 - Northern Ireland

Our final match is against Northern Ireland, who we beat comfortably last time. While they get going, my reflections on the whole weekend:

- Great meeting in person, rather than online. Everyone agrees about this
- It would be nice if the same set of boards were used in the two tournaments, so that we could all chat together about the deals
- The bridge has been of quite a variable standard. I think in this situation the focus should be on encouraging the newer players, which it has been
- Hotel has been good, apart from the disappointing lunches (for those having the soup)


On this deal Al sitting South played in 4H. We've been working on dealing with losers in your hand (either by ruffing in dummy or throwing on dummy's winners), but here there's no need to do anything. Just draw trumps - 7 Hearts and 4 Spades means 4H+1, a game swing against 2H+3 at the other table (maybe a weak two passed out). 

Later I sat in to watch our East-West pair bid to a very bad 3NT. "I probably should have passed." said West. "Niamh, I hate you." said East. The contract made, but I hope they don't do it again. I'm not going to print the board in case it encourages them.

We won the match comfortably - well done the youngsters!

Final positions in Peggy Bayer (U21)

And in the Junior Camrose (U26)

All that remains is the final dinner and closing ceremony. Each federation has been asked to give a short speech. The other two Scotland coaches approached me and said they thought I should do it. Thanks guys. 

Peggy Bayer Match 9 - Ireland

I've not been following this match at all, as faced with another light lunch of soup (the exact same soup as yesterday) I booked myself into the Sunday Carvery. 

It was magnificent. The beef was a little dry but more than made up for by the turkey. Then I went back to get some of the more pork, and Bobby the chef came back out to carve it for me. Desert was a Bailey's cheesecake and ice cream. I couldn't finish it all.


Looking over the scores now, this board was a good one.


Kevin played 4H as North. One way the defence can beat it is with a Club ruff, another is by setting up a Spade trick. If they do both they get it two off.

But presumably they did neither, and Kevin managed to set up his Diamonds as he made 4H.

On the other table Rachel and Isla bid to 4S East-West. This is an excellent contract, and only needs Diamonds to break kindly. In fact, one of the prepared deals in my classroom in Glasgow is almost exactly like this - although in that one Diamonds are 3-2 and you can make the contract. Here we went one off, but still a good board.

Overall we lost 15-5, a similar score to against Ireland last time, and cementing us in 3rd place out of six overall.  
 




Peggy Bayer Match 8 - Wales

This time we're playing without Kevin - who's going to bid all the games and make them?

Not this guy.


Timon remains on the bench, and it's up to Alexander to take the captain's armband. I sat in to watch the first board. 


The Welsh West opened 1C, and Isla sitting North made a weak jump overcall of 2S. Our system is that we play weak twos, weak jump overcalls, but strong jump shifts opposite partner's opening bid. It makes sense to me.

The Welsh East bid 3D, which ended the auction (I'd play that as forcing, but it was passed out). Our defenders cashed their two Hearts and two Spades and that was 3D=.

On the other table the Welsh South was in a surprising 2NT. West lead a low Club. I've been trying to teach that the defender after dummy should lead dummy's weaker suit ("lead through strength and round to weakness") East has a choice therefore between a Diamond or Heart. Presumably East chose an unlucky Heart, as declarer made 2NT for 6 IMPs to Wales.

Our North-South did well to get to 4S here.

You get a Club lead. The most you can possibly lose is one trick in each suit, so your plan should be to avoid that. First your draw trumps, (either with a finesse or playing the Ace, equal odds). Then the key to the hand is you play Diamonds, setting up a winner to throw away a losing Heart on. It's a textbook hand. 

Unfortunately Wales have read the textbook but we haven't, and lost 12 IMPs here. The match is delicately poised 26-19 in our favour.

Update - we lost.

Peggy Bayer Match 7 - NIBU

If you stay in a hotel for long enough you gradually stop having a massive breakfast and revert to your usual bowl of cereal. Second day and I'm day down to one fry-up plus muesli. 

Today we have Northern Ireland up first, followed by Wales. The three debutants will be playing in both those matches, and in fact Isla has been promoted to be North and look after the 'bridge computer'.

The hotel feels quiet this morning, though all of the team have made it up for breakfast. I'm not sure if it's an Irish thing, but even late last night there were small children running around the lobby and bar. I get nervous on the parents' behalf if I see a five-year-old up after 7 pm. They should be watching Gladiators and getting ready for bed.    

We've taken an early lead against NIBU, with Kevin steering in a 3NT. On the next board, we attempted 4S:


It looks like you lose one Heart, three Diamonds, and one Club, and that's exactly what happened. The defence has to play Clubs at some point though, else declarer can throw a Club on the lucky 13th Diamond. When West has KQJ76 of Clubs that should be easy, and indeed it was two down.

On the other table Isla and Rachel bid tried 3H. With four obvious losers it made exactly. The usual rule when your side is declarer on both tables is that you profit if you make at least one contract, and indeed that was the case here for a 1 IMP gain. 

Turns out that South mistakenly made a weak jump overcall with the South hand - which lead North to bid 4S. The better bid by South is just a 1S overcall I think.

The team brought in a succession of 3NT. They won 20-0. Next up is Wales. 



 



Saturday 17 February 2024

Peggy Bayer - Bonus Speedball

Tonight there was the opportunity to enter the Speedball, a fun tournament played super-fast. The England players had been instructed to form teams with someone from another nation. This was an excellent idea, and might go some way to improving the public relations of the most hated team (from being so successful). 

However, I will be playing with Kevin from our Scotland side. He has been forced to play a simple Acol system in all the matches so far, so I have agreed we will instead play something a bit more complicated, to further handicap us in the limited-time format. My contribution is to insist on playing four weak twos. It will be a triumph if a weak two Clubs bid comes up (and we both remember it). 


I thought it would be a good thing as a coach to play some hands, so I am more sympathetic with the players when they make mistakes, and this did indeed turn out to be the case. The very first card I played was a lead out of turn. I then checked that they were playing Four Hearts. No, it was Four Spades. Making, wasn't it? No, one off. I was all over the place.

On the second board I sharpened up:


EW Vul
S deal
♠ -
♥ x x x x x x
♦ x
♣ Q x x x x x
♠ A K x
♥ A Q J x x
♦ K J x x x
♣ -
KevinDanny
WNES

1♥
x4♥- 6♥

I opened 1♥, and after the double when Kevin shot to 4♥, raised to 6♥. After the Club lead I played the Ace of trumps (King didn't fall), used the Ace of Spades to throw a Diamond from dummy and cross-ruffed the rest. It's a strange hand as we've only got 20 points, and in fact most of them aren't useful. The only useful points are those in Hearts and the Ace of Spades.

After that I had visions that we might actually do quite well, and in fact we bid three more slams. 6♣=, 6NT+1, and 7♣x-2 after a Blackwood misunderstanding. But we had so many bad ones too. I messed up the system once, and criminally forgot about our four weak twos when Kevin opened a weak 2♣ and I assumed he was strong

We declared the majority of hands, usually doubled, and usually off. Three times we had an eleven card fit, but bid too high with almost identical distributions and our opponents chose correctly to defend. Two of those misadventures were against my bridge nemesis, the England captain Michael Byrne. The last time we played, at least ten years ago, he also took me three off doubled in 4♠. I wonder if he remembers. Although he's my only nemesis, he may have several nemeses, like a man who is the Best Man at many weddings, but an evil version of that.

In the end despite playing very quickly and bidding a lot we only managed 43.6%. Not very good, but good enough to award myself a consolation pint of Guinness, £6.80.

Later I found out that the English pairs, who had generously agreed to partner players from other countries, had placed large cash wagers on which paiir would finish higher in the final rankings, rather like lords saddling Scotsmen as horses and riding them around the paddock for amusement.

The winning pair were two of the senior coaches, Anne Hassan and Diane Greenwood, who seemed to be taking it far too seriously (an impressive 61%).

I may struggle to get up for breakfast tomorrow.

Peggy Bayer Match 6 - England

With one match left in the day the team looked quite tired. Final push against England, trying not to lose 20-0.

In the interest of letting me go back to my room and change my wet shoes here is the second hand of the match:


England tend to play a lot of hands. In one room the English South played 2S, probably after opening a weak two. He made 10 tricks when everything went nicely. In the other room the English East played 3D-2, presumably when West doubled the 2S opening. That contact went two down, for an early IMP for Scotland.

A few too many boards got away from us, and we lost 18.3-1.7. We have therefore avoided a whitewash once again, and scored fractionally more victory points than the first time we played England.



We remain in 3rd place, though slightly closer to 4th than 2nd now.



Peggy Bayer Match 5 - Northern Ireland

Today it was soup for lunch. Just soup! I was waiting for the rest to come, but that was it. The soup was quite nice, but still somewhat disappointing. It was billed as a light lunch, but no one expected just soup.

I decided to walk half an hour through the countryside to the local shop, so the team had enough to eat. What did they want? "Dairy milk, crisps, and general snacks" they told me. I asked for more details. "Rachel doesn't like Salt and Vinegar crisps, but I do."


When I returned I caught up with the bridge. We did well against Northern Ireland. The highlight was this slam hand:

After South (Rachel) opened 2NT North (Kevin) transferred then drove to 6S. There were no problems in the play.

A couple of boards were played sideways (meaning Scotland declared four times) and had to be cancelled. Once that was sorted we came away with a 17-3 win, cementing 3rd place at half way.