Sole Bay & Halewsorth

This last week Anna and I were lucky enough to play at two different bridge clubs. The first was a return to the Sole Bay Bridge Club in Southwold, where we'd last visited in 2016.

We arrived promptly for the Wednesday evening game and made up an extra half table. Anna warned me "It's a while since I've played" but actually it went pretty smoothly. I bid a bold slam early on then got a bit lucky on the deal below.

No one is vulnerable, East deals:

♠ A K Q ♥ x x ♦ x x x x ♣ K x x x ♠ x ♥ K Q T x ♦ A K Q x ♣ A J x x 12 19 6 3 ♠ T x x ♥ A x ♦ T x x x ♣ Q x x x ♠ J x x x x x ♥ J x x x x ♦ J ♣ x

W N E S Anna Danny - - 1♥ - - 1♠ - - -

I picked up the weak South hand with 6-5 in the majors. I decided that if East opened I'd make a Michaels Cue Bid, as that was the one thing we'd discussed on the walk over. But when East passed I decided I couldn't really open a Weak Two, so passed. West opened 1♥ which came round to me. I should maybe pass, as I have five trumps in defence, but I felt like bidding so bid 1♠.

West thought for a bit then passed (they played penalty doubles so she couldn't double for takeout), and Anna sitting North made a disciplined pass with her excellent trump support.

Wehn dummy came down I realised I'd hit the jackpot; there should be six trumps and assuming the ♣K was onside that would make the seven tricks I needed. In fact I made nine, with a Heart ruff and the ♥J becoming high leading to 90% for 1♠+2. A couple of East-West pairs made a very dubious 3NT;, which makes as the Spades are blocked.

We finished with two bad boards (Doug making 3NT+3 against us, twice), but did enough to finish 1st with 65%.

The next Friday we went to the afternoon session at Halesworth Bridge Club. It was a friendly informal atmosphere which perhaps lulled us from maximum sharpness. This time we finished 3rd with 59%. Featured below is an early setback where, unusually, both Anna and I undervalued our hands and missed the game.

No one vulnerable, South deals:

♠ A T 7 3 ♥ T 9 7 6 4 3 ♦ K 6 ♣ 6 ♠ J 8 4 2 ♥ Q 5 ♦ T 9 8 7 ♣ J 9 5 7 4 16 13 ♠ Q 9 6 ♥ - ♦ A Q J 4 2 ♣ A K T 4 3 ♠ K 5 ♥ A K J 8 2 ♦ 4 3 ♣ Q 8 7 2

W N E S Danny Anna 1NT - 2♣* 3♣ 3♥ - - -

Anna chose to open the South hand 1NT, which sometimes works well but backfired here. I had the weak North hand and bid 2♣ as a weak version of Stayman, intending to correct a 2♦ response to 2♥. East thought for a while then bid 3♣, over which Anna bid 3♥. I re-evaluated as North. Only seven points, but with partner having four Hearts and opponents bidding Clubs it looks pretty good, so maybe I should have bid 4♥. But my general strategy was not to bid marginal games so I passed out 3♥, which of course made 10 tricks.

Turns out the rest of the field didn't think it was such a marginal game. Almost all of them got to 4♥, so 3♥+1 was worth only 17%.

At the break we had a cracking cup of tea and Anna took the chocolate Hob-Nob and fig roll.