For my next league match I had another new partner, and agreed a simple system with Martin. We had a poorish start, the low point being this agonising decision I got wrong:
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West opened a precision 1♦, which is limited to about 15 points. He then rebid 3♦ and East went into a very long think. He had faith in his partner's bid and chose 6♦. West wisely made no comment.
On the first trick Martin found the excellent lead of a Heart and declarer finessed, my King winning. When declarer had to follow suit with the ♥J it was clear that he now had two Heart discards in dummy, and I needed to get the right switch. Could I find my partner's Ace and defeat the slam?
I came close to leading a Spade, but finally settled for a safe trump lead, reasoning that gave almost no chance of declarer making it. However, the spade finesse is onside and furthermore North is squeezed into discarding Spades, so only one finesse is needed for four Spade tricks, and all three Clubs can be discarded. Declarer took full advantage of my generosity and the favourable position and brought home the slam.
At the half way point we were down about 1000 points on each table. Certainly our opponents had got the better of us so far. Captain John Di Mambro reminded us that at this stage in the league the match was effectively a free shot. We took this advice to Heart and after the break brought in consecutive 6NT slams. Both times I began a Puppet Stayman sequence then realised I didn't know the continuations so had a punt. It would have been three slams, but I underbid on this one:
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East opened 1♥ and I bid an immediate 4♠. When I saw dummy I realised that 4♠ had excellent play, but that 6♣ was even better. On Ronald's table he began with a double from the South hand, and after partner jumped to 3♣ East-West competed but he was able to play in 6♣.
My thinking was that if I double I let East-West into the auction, and I knew by this point in the evening that they certainly weren't afraid to compete. They could have found a cheap sacrifice, especially if they find the double fit. With my values in South I could well have ended up doubling 5♥ off two, which is actually worse than making a vulnerable 4♠.
We defended quite nicely sometimes. My declarer play was rather shaky but here's one that did go nicely:
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I have the lovely South hand and opened 1♥. An advantage of playing five card majors is that North was able to scrape together a raise. I pictured a perfect hand opposite and tried a Splinter in Spades. At this point Martin regretted even responding and signed off quickly in 4♥. I got a trump lead, and taking a leaf from my opponents' book took some time to consider the hand.
I could win the heart lead in Dummy and lead up a Diamond. If the Ace is onside I'll get my ♦K plus one Diamond ruff (assuming they can continue Hearts) which still only adds up to nine tricks. I could establish a Spade by force but don't have the entries. But if Clubs are 3-2 I'm home, using two trump entries to dummy. So I won the first trick in dummy and lead up a Club, the ♣T losing to the ♣Q (is this a situation where East should maybe play the ♣K?). I was later able to establish the Clubs, and the ♦A was onside so that was in fact eleven tricks.
After the Red Velvet cake in the last match I played today our captain had produced an excellent lemon sponge. It inspired our half-time comeback but the match was still lost 9-7.
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