Start of a new Season

Team Rowan from Buchanan Bridge Club were promoted to Glasgow Division One last year. Last night we met some of the other teams in a special start-of-season curtain raiser, scored as a big Teams Match. Based on the results, we'll be back in Division Two next year.

It was the first time me and Anna had played in a few months, and before we started Anna trotted out all the usual pre-excuses about being rusty. Actually though I think we played alright, despite our team of four coming last (results here, curiously scored as 'Lunchtime Pairs').

There were a lot of flat boards, with the losses coming from not being aggressive enough in the bidding. If this is a hint of what's to come in Division One, there's going to be more bold bidding, and more doubling.

Here's one where we lost a game swing:

Board 5 Dealer North NS Vul ♠ Q T 3 2 ♥ K ♦ Q 9 4 ♣ A T 7 6 4 ♠ A 9 8 7 6 ♥ J 7 ♦ 8 7 2 ♣ Q 9 5 11 7 13 9 ♠ K J 5 4 ♥ Q 3 ♦ A K T 6 5 ♣ 8 3 ♠ - ♥ A T 9 8 6 5 4 2 ♦ J 3 ♣ K J 2

Danny Anna W N E S - 1♦ 4♥ ?

On both East deals and opens 1♦. South overcalls 4♥.

What do you bid now as West?

On my table I was West, and had that dilemma. I went for a pass. As you can see 4♥ is unbeatable, and in fact when I lead the ♠A declarer made 4♥+3 for -710. David and Heather Merriman were our team-mates. At their table the auction started as above, but this time the opposition West came in with 4♠, which is a bit wild but has the safety net of some Diamond support too. North can't really double this, and it was passed out. Despite the good Spade support in dummy it went three off, but still a good score of 4♠-3 and +150, which combined with our score meant an 11 IMP loss. Was I too meek?

By contrast, here's a hand where boldness gave us a rare gain:

Board 24 Dealer West None Vul ♠ K J 5 ♥ 8 5 3 ♦ K J 8 7 3 ♣ 9 8 ♠ 4 ♥ 2 ♦ T 9 6 5 4 2 ♣ K Q 7 6 5 8 5 18 9 ♠ Q 9 8 ♥ A Q 6 ♦ A Q ♣ A T 4 3 2 ♠ A T 7 6 3 2 ♥ K J T 9 7 4 ♦ - ♣ J

Danny Anna W N E S - - 1♣ 3♣* ?

1♣ promises at least four, and 3♣ was alerted as "both majors and strong".

What do you bid now as West?

With a singleton in both major, and excellent Club support, I decided to go for it, with 5♣. Then on the way to the bidding box I decided to upgrade, and pulled out 6♣. Maximum Pressure. North was having none of it and bid 6♠. This was doubled by Anna and passed out.

6♠x-2 gave us +300, a good score. How would we have done in 6♣? I bid it as an advanced sacrifice, but with Anna's balanced 18 count it's actually pretty close. South claimed he would have underlead his Spades to get a Diamond ruff which would put it one down; but we'll never know. Without that unlikely lead you can make it, and around the room people playing in Clubs were making 12 tricks.

After that temporary high we had a bit of a slump, which I attribute to my overheating and Anna denying herself any biscuits.