The first swings came on Board 2:
East opened 1♠ and I had the nice South hand. We play an unusual 2NT, showing both minors, but only for weak or strong hands. This one falls in the middle, so annoyingly I had to settle for a 2♦ overcall. When we ended up defending 4♠ I was a little anxious about not having shown my shape, but at this vulnerability it's unlikely we have a good sacrifice, and I've also not given away too much to declarer.
I lead my ♥Q, which declarer won in hand. She then cashed two top trumps. This is probably the right play in trumps - after I've shown long Diamonds in the auction finessing is a better bet in isolation, but on this deal you don't want to lose the lead with the risk of a defensive Heart ruff. But once declarer has seen I've shown out of Spades she should be able to play off the Hearts, discarding Clubs from dummy. However, she mistimed the play and lead a third Spade to Anna's Queen.
It's crunch time for North. A club switch is required, but this looks risky and she's expecting me to have a Heart trick, so continued Hearts. (I did signal for Clubs though, we play McKenny and I threw a low Diamond). On the heart lead declarer let it run round to her six, an instinctive play but a costly one. Hearts are now blocked, and in returning to hand she has to play a Diamond. I snapped up the Ace of Diamonds and it was my turn to err. Instead of simply cashing the ♣A and across to partner's King, I lead a low Club. Anna did well to take her King and return a Club for one down.
Overall, across the two tables, one of our declarer's and one of theirs made it, for a flat board.
The biggest hand of the night was this one. North's hand is massive, and partner is bidding strongly too.
Our East opened 2♠, a nice compromise with a poor seven card suit. I made a 2NT overcall, showing 15-19 points and a Spade stop. I don't have the points but I've certainly got the Spade stop, plus the potential for tricks in Diamonds. Anna leapt to 4♣ over this, which is a natural bid with slam interest. I have poor Clubs but co-operated with a cuebid of 4♦. At this point, with total faith in our system, Anna could have bid 4NT to ask for Aces, then 5NT for number of Kings and ended up bidding 7♣ or even 7NT.
However, this is a not-very-common auction for a pair who don't play together much, so Anna reasonably signed off in 6♣. As she said after, it would be too sad being left to play in 4NT, if I took it as natural, or invitational to 6NT.
We were not alone in missing the grand slam. On the other table in our match they had an unopposed auction, got as far as Blackwood, but without agreeing the trump suit, so when North got an impossible 'two keycard' response decided in the confusion to sign off in 6♣. Our team-mates with the North-South cards had to deal with East opening 3♠, after which North bid 5♣ and South passed. On the fourth table South overcalled the 3♠ opening with 4♦, North bid Blackwood then signed off in 6♣ opposite one Ace. Missed opportunities all round!
In the rest of the early boards we missed a couple of games, but so did they, and I thought we probably had the better of it. Then the opponents went on a run of bidding and playing quickly, making six of seven rapid fire contracts. Anna admits to feeling a bit dazed during this stretch, and although we defended accurately, it was a lot of points in the minus column.
On the very last board we finally picked up some cards:
After three passes I opened 1♠ and Anna jumped to 4♠, showing a weakish hand with seven losers. I should almost always pass this, but could see that with my controls if Anna had any sort of decent second suit in Clubs or Hearts we might have a slam, and I always like to bid a slam on the last board. I didn't quite know how to explore this though, and just bid Blackwood. Anna showed no keycards (the most she could have had is the Ace of trumps), and I signed off in 5♠. In fact, her not having the Ace of trumps probably makes her hand bettter, as what I don't want is too many points wasted in trumps with something like ♠AQJxx, in which case even the five level might be too high.
As it happens Anna's hand kings make for a decent fit, and there are 11 easy tricks. I got a nice low Heart lead for trick 12, not needing the Club finesse.
In retrospect a better bid to explore the slam would have been a cuebid of 5♣, hoping Anna could bid 5♥ (bypassing 5♦ showing she has nothing wasted there), after which I can have a punt at 6♠.
The other table in our match had a misunderstanding and played 3♠+3 after West muddied the water with a Michael's 2♠ overcall. In the other match both pairs bid 4♠, so overall the board was a gain for Team Rowan.
Although the slam is not great (and bidding past 4♠ is dangerous), I'm pleased to say when I gave the hand to my school bridge club today they enthusiastically bid up to 6♠, making on the Club finesse.
Overall Team Rowan gained 2090 in our match and lost 1840 in the other for a narrow win, translating to 8 1/2 - 7 1/2 victory points.
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