Maccabi vs Wanderers

After what surely must have been an enormous number of illnesses and unavailable players I was asked to join the Wanderers bridge team, based out of the Buchanan Club in Glasgow. I agreed, then checked the league table; Wanderers sit sixth in Division One. Having not played in any league for many years this was going to be challenging. Last Wednesday I drove out to Maccabi club in Giffnock to meet the team.

Fortunately, I had a good partner (Mark Menzies) and the cards were friendly. My first contract was a 5♣ with 11 winners missing two Aces, and most of the rest were similar. I had a few 3NTs that could have been tricky if a key suit didn't split, but it always did.

The table played quickly and at the break it looked like we'd done OK. We had one big slice of luck, when I made a terrible blunder and got away with it:

♠ K T x x x ♥ T 9 8 ♦ A x ♣ A J x ♠ x x x ♥ x ♦ x x x x x ♣ x x x x 12 0 9 19 ♠ Q J x x ♥ K x x ♦ K x x ♣ x x x ♠ A ♥ A Q J x x x ♦ Q J x ♣ K Q x

W N E S Danny Mark 1♥* 2NT; - 3♦ - 3♠ - 4NT; - 5♦* - 6♥

Mark opened 1♥ and I had the North hand. I was about to reply 1♠ when I remembered we'd agreed five card majors. In the five minutes before the match most of that time was spent discussing Jacoby 2NT so I bid it here, showing a game forcing hand with exactly three trumps. Mark bid a natural 3♦ and I bid a natural 3♠ then he bid Blackwood.

I knew I had there good cards in my hand and so bid 5♦, showing three Aces. But I only had two. I realised almost immediately what I'd done and started to worry. Mark, who is a quick bidder and player, was in a deep think. I was desperate to put the breaks on, and was fearing what bid he produced. Whatever he bid, it was going to be one level too high.

Thankfully, he took the conservative route and settled for 6♥. West lead the ♠Q and I put the dummy down. The conversation went:

"Thank you partner"
"Sorry."
"You know you're supposed to have three keycards."
"Yeah I know, sorry."
"Thank you partner"

As the hand went on I waited for it to be one down, and was hugely relieved when Mark made it. I apologised to the opponent's and we moved on.

My other hand of interest is where we missed a game. I've rotated it so I'm South this time:

♠ T x ♥ A K x x ♦ T x x ♣ A x x x ♠ A Q x x x ♥ Q x x x ♦ A K ♣ x x 11 15 1 13 ♠ x x x ♥ x x x ♦ J x x x x x ♣ x ♠ K J x ♥ J x ♦ Q x ♣ K Q J T x x

W N E S Mark Danny 1♣ 1♠ x 2♠ 3♣ 3♠ 4♣ - - -

I opened the South hand 1♣, West overcalled and partner made a takeout double. East made a courtesy raise and I bid 3♣, showing a genuine Club suit. When West bid &Spades; again Mark bid 4♣ where I played. If he'd have doubled again I would have bid 3NT with ny good Spade stop.

West lead a top Diamond and dummy came down. It looked like a pretty clear two losers in Diamonds then I have to guess Spades for one loser. But, after cashing the ♦AK West cashed his ♠A and the hand was over.

At first I thought that we had done well to avoid 3NT, but actually Diamonds are blocked and we have time to set up a Spade trick, so it always makes.

Overall, we had most of the cards sitting North-South and got a good score. This was matched on the other tables and Wanderers won the event 11-5.