Anna and I missed the first match of the season, but we had an inkling it didn't go well when nobody mentioned the result. For the second match we were at home to another good team. It was good to see everybody again at the Buchanan club. We still lost the match, but at least picked up a few points in a narrow defeat.
There was one slam hand, which was bid at three out of the four tables:
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Both me and Anna were close to opening bids. I decided I was too weak for 2♥, don't know why Anna didn't open 2♦. As it is we both passed so our opponents, Bob McKinnon and Ian, had an unopposed auction to 6♠. The 4NT bid was Keycard in Clubs, so I guess South didn't know if his partner had the Ace or King of Clubs and couldn't go on to investigate a grand slam (which could very well have been laydown).
I lead my singleton Diamond and felt pretty hopeful about getting a ruff, but alas not to be. My lead gives away the 12th trick straight away, but in fact with the Diamond finesse working slam is always there, and even has chances if the finesse fails if you have time to set up a Diamond trick by force.
I think with interference it's quite hard to get to 6♠. From Team Rowan Trish and Christine missed the slam when West opened a multi 2♦, South bid a direct 5♠, and North passed.
At the half way point we were about 1400 points down, not too bad.
As for Anna & I, we played OK. We had one hiccup due to miscounted points, and one 3NT I could have made but didn't (and only realised this morning I could have made it), but otherwise we did fairly well.
My highlights were when we got to a robust 5♦, in preference to an ugly 3NT, and Anna brought it home. Then she started chuckling playing 4♥ when she realised she'd blocked the Club suit. It didn't matter though and we got a good score for that one too when the opponents could have sacrificed in 4♠. They were obviously deterred from bidding on by my earlier brisk double of their 5♣ contract (which thankfully went one off).
The other highlight was when Bob, who'd been quiet as dummy, suddenly slammed his fist on the table, on top of the Ten of Diamonds. I'd been in a dwam and didn't know what was going on. I thought he was trying to straighten the card, then he explained that a little ant had been walking across the table.
My lowlights were when Anna kept opening and rebidding the suit I was very weak or void in, and I had to ponder whether to plough on or do the sensible thing and pass. This happened three times. Once I passed it out and despite the misfit we missed a game. Then I passed it out and we played a 6-0 instead of a 5-3 fit. The one time I bid on it turned out Anna had opened 1♠ on a weak 10 count and was now desperate to pass, but I kept making forcing bids until eventually we subsided in 3♥, which luckily still made:
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North lead the ♣A, so I just lost a Club, Heart and Diamond for 3♥+1. Where East opened 2♠ it made once and went down once.
In the second half of the match our table was fairly flat. Heather and David had a good card and so our final deficit was 940 points, which still translated to a 6-10 loss. Plus two points for turning up!
