Despite misdefending many hands, and giving gifts to nearly every table we played against, there were a few highlights. Three times I had long suits and high level decisions to make, and each time I got it right, pushing the opponents just enough but not overbidding myself. This got us good plus scores for defending 4♠-1 on Board 8 (when we refused to sacrifice in 5♣), 5♥-1 on Board 13 (when I chose not to bid 5♠ even though I had eight of them) and 5♠x-1 on Board 17.
In my featured hand below it's Anna with a tricky decision to make.
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Anna sitting East has only ten points, but a nice hand with both majors so opened 1♥. South has 13 points, but has no bid, so passed. I was sitting West and started with a 1♠ bid. North then bid 2♣. Playing weak jump overcalls, and especially at favourable vulnerability, I would have gone for 3♣ instead. The advantage of that is when East then bids 3♠ over your 3♣ West doesn't know how strong the 3♠ is. After the 2♣ overcall when East jumps to 3♠ (as she did) that shows good support in Spades and a six loser hand. It's also a bit pre-emptive, as Anna could have bid 3♣ with a really good hand. South has good support for partner and bid 4♣. West has eight losers opposite partner's six, and nothing wasted in Clubs, so bids 4♠. North then had another look at the vulnerability and sacrificed in 5♣. Anna sitting East passed this, but when it came back round to me sitting West I doubled. This is mostly because 5♣ feels like a sacrifice, but also because I've got a fairly flat hand so don't mind defending.
When the double came back round to Anna, she was a bit nervous about passing. She has shown a decent opening hand, but has only 10 HCP, which might be a lot less defence than partner expects. Me and Anna have had a few blunders where we've wrongly rescued partner's penalty double, but mostly now we just pass them out. Anna did pass out 5♣x.
There's not a lot to the play. Declarer has only nine tricks (six Clubs, one in each other suit), and with a flat dummy no chance of any extra. 5♣x-2 was worth +300 to us. This was worth 75% of the matchpoints. The double was important, as it took us from +100 to +300 and passed all the pairs sitting East-West making part scores. And what about East making 4♠? The three tables playing in Spades all made ten tricks, although it can be beaten if North leads a Diamond either on the opening lead or after winning the trump Ace.
My second hand features Anna wilfully ignoring the advice of Bernard Magee, and getting away with it. We subscribe to Bridge Magazine, edited by the wonderful Mr. Bridge. The last few issues have had an Acol Bidding Quiz on the front cover, by Bernard Magee. Each question subtly illustrates a particular point in bidding, which people often get wrong. Try this question, in Bridge Issue 133 from January this year:
The answer, says Bernard, is easy once you understand the auction. With a good hand East would double the 1NT. So his 2♠ must be a weak hand with a lot of Spades. West must therefore pass. A link to the full online version of Bridge Issue 132 is here.
This was the auction me and Anna had on Board 16. Not quite the same, but similar:
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I've got the exciting West hand. I thought about opening a Weak Two in Spades, reasoning that my seventh Spade might balance only having two points. I think this would have worked OK on this deal, we still get to 4♠, but on other auctions partner might expect me to have slightly more defence. So I passed. Anna sitting East opened 1♣, and South has an easy 1NT overcall, showing 15-17 and a good Club stop. It's now time for me to show my Spades. I remembered Bernard Magee's Acol Bidding Quiz and made a weak sign off in 2♠. I was then rather alarmed when Anna raised to 4♠. I think she might have suspected that I had a normal two level overcall (10+ points, 5+ Spades), rather than a hand two weak for a Weak Two.
4♠ was passed out, and when I saw dummy I was greatly relieved. I have seven top Spades, two top Diamonds, and am very likely to get a Heart ruff for my tenth trick. Whenn North lead a Diamond I won in dummy and immediately started on Hearts. This is necessary just in case trumps are 3-0, in which case drawing even one round of trumps could mean I've no trumps left in dummy by the time I get my Heart ruff. I did finish with ten tricks, then wondered if I could have done more to try and develop a Club trick, by ruffing out the Clubs, though in fact that wouldn't work here.
Making 4♠ was worth 69%. Everyone playing in Spades made 10 tricks, except one 4♠-1 and one 4♠x+1. The best score for North-South was South playing 1NT (presumably after a 1NT overcall and West passes). This made a remarkable ten tricks, which means that West definitely didn't lead a Spade.
Full results from St. Andrew's here, well done to Donald Kennedy & Alasdair Forbes winning on the evening with 63%.
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