Gone to Gorenberry

In a cottage in the Borders last weekend. To my surprise, after batting around a balloon for about twenty minutes, we played a few hands of bridge.

There were some good hands, and powerful bidding:

Love all E deal ♠ A J x x x ♥ Q x x ♦ Q x ♣ J x x ♠ Q T x ♥ x x x ♦ K x x x x ♣ x x 10 5 16 9 ♠ - ♥ A K J T x x ♦ A x x x ♣ A x x ♠ K x x x x ♥ x ♦ J x ♣ K Q T x x

Neil Anna Danny Andy W N E S 1♥ 1♠ - 3♠ 4♥ 4♠ - - -

I had a monster hand as East. We were playing with no conventions, certainly not Reverse Benji, so I had an easy 1♥ opening bid. Andy sitting South was bold enough to overcall 1♠. West passed. As we were all playing with simplified bidding Anna supported Andy with a nice bid of 3♠. Although this takes up space it quite suited me, as I could then show all the power of my hand by coming in again with a big 4♥. The only downside was that it might have given the impression that you just bid wildly with a monster hand regardless of what partner has (and everyone knows I never do that).

Andy's instinct was to come in again with a bid of 4♠. This was queried but someone (Louise?) checked his hand and gave him the all clear. 4♠ it was, passed out.

In the play Neil was advised to lead a Heart. I won this first trick with the ♥T, and tried another Heart, which was ruffed. Anna moved round from dummy to advise Andy on the play. Four losers were detected. After drawing trumps (finessing West) there was a desperate attempt to set up Clubs to avoid Diamond losers. I ducked the Ace of Clubs on the first round (don't know why), but won the second Club and brilliantly switched to a Diamond. One off!

Consolation for Andy (who played well), is that 4♥ makes easily.