When to double

Last night I played the 12 board EBU pairs with John Faben. He agreed to play my system, with the inclusion of the Culbertson New Asking Bid. This is a rather complicated method of slam bidding, which of course didn't come up at all. 

Instead our score was decided by a combined poor defence to 2NT, and a couple of misjudgements from me

On this one I really should have doubled, but didn't:

The auction strongly suggests a 4-4 Spade fit, so I know they are breaking 5-0. I also have lots of other defence and I'm not worried about them running to 5♣. So although it's John who has the trumps it's me who knows the whole picture, and should have doubled it.

I thought we'd get a good score just for beating it, but actually just 56%, as 4♠-2 was a common score.

Now here's one where I definitely shouldn't have doubled, but did:

It's a messy auction. I opened 1NT and John transferred to play in his long Diamond suit. Along the way North doubled Clubs then bid his Spade suit. When 3♠ came back round to me I know they've got to a silly contract, so doubled.

As it happens, my partner has two tricks for me (a Heart ruff and the ♠K), and we get 99% for 3♠x-2. But if I hadn't doubled, we still would have got 96% for 3♠-2, and I had no reason to expect two tricks in my partner's hand, so 3♠ might have made. Worse than that, my double could help them run to a better contract. If South bids 4♣ (and I think he would have if he was confident North's double shows Clubs) that's only one down;, and 4♥ is making. So my double had not much to gain, and a lot to lose.

Overall we finished on 61%.

EBU Wednesday Night

Having spent the weekend watching other people play bridge, I was thinking how easy it all was. Time to put that to the test. Tonight Anna and I played the 1930 twelve board EBU tournament. 

Things did not start well, and it soon became clear we were in a battle to finish above 50%. Then it became clear we were going to lose that battle. At least we finished on a high. This was the last board:

The 1♠ is a five card major and the 3♠ four card support with 0-6. When this came round to Anna she reasoned I must have a few points and doubled. I failed to work out that she was unlikely to have four Hearts (she would have doubled the first time) and bid a reluctant 4♥. I clicked it in what I hoped was a confident way though, and West quickly bid 4♠. In for a penny, in for a pound, I doubled this.

Anna cashed the ♥A then switched to the ♦J. I thought we would have loads of tricks but actually with declarer's singleton Diamond it was just one off. Still, +100 was a matchpoint top, to propel us to 47% overall and 84th place.

Peggy Bayer Match 10: SBU vs Northern Ireland

Last round. "Should we go for it now, as there's nothing to lose?" one of the team asked me. I thought they were already going for it. I said to bid game if it's there, bid slam if it's there, and double them if you think they're not going to make it. But don't push too hard. It would be great to see them make another slam or two though.

After the tournament I think there's lots of things we'll try and sort out. Are Stayman and Transfer on after a double? (No). Is a jump response weak after partner opens? (No). The most important thing though is not bidding, even though it feels like it is. It's declarer play (and once you get good at that, you get better defending too). And the golden rule is count your tricks.

Although our bidding isn't always very precise the players have a good feel for what's right. Here's Michael on Board 1:

The normal thing would be to transfer then bid 4H, but bidding it direct is often a good idea (stops West getting into the auction to bid Spades).

The defence began with two Clubs. The best defence is then a trump, after which declarer has to realise that a Spade up to the King-Queen is a much better bet than trying to guess the Diamond Queen. As I've said a few times, good declarers don't like to rely on a finesse when there's a chance of setting up a trick by force.

As it happens on both tables declarer wasn't tested as the defence lead Diamonds. 4H= and a flat board to begin the match.

We inched ahead with some part scores, then they bid a good slam to leave it close with two boards to go. I had high hopes there was a slam Kevin and Michael might bid. They nearly did:

Michael opened 1NT. Kevin sensibly bid Stayman first, but then is a bit stuck when he gets a 2D response. He bid 4NT, which is asking for Aces (simple Blackwood, so it doesn't matter that we haven't agreed a trump suit). Michael showed two Aces, and Kevin thought he'd push his luck and ask for Kings. This is risky as (a) Michael opened a weak NT so can hardly be that strong and (b) Michael might not know about this King-asking bid. 

5NT was passed. The least common contract in bridge, and rarely a good one. At least it made here, as with South having the vital Queen of Clubs there are 13 top tricks. 5NT+2 did gain us 2 IMPs against the 5C+2 on the other table, leaving us 6 IMPs up and awaiting the result of the final board.

Unfortunately, the last board  was a 13 IMP loss after Northern Ireland bid a great 3NT based on a running minor suit. Overall that meant we lost the match 27-34 IMPs and 8-12 Victory Points. The final rankings for the Peggy Bayer:

Note that England scored 164 out of a possible 200 Victory points. But we beat them 13-7 in the first round.

For the Junior Camrose, a similar story

Overall reflections:

• The tournament was very well run. It worked well on Real Bridge, which for something like this is much better than Bridge Base. I liked having a little chat with the players before and after each match, and they could talk to each other too.
• The standard was good. Three teams (England/Scotland/Ireland) were very good, and really punished our guys for any mistakes. This is good to see - as soon as we make a four card overcall / accepted an invite with a minimum / forget to count tricks we got instant feedback of a bad result. 
• Bridge is hard. There are so many things we could improve on, and so many questions the team now have. We made a lot of mistakes, but also improved hugely.

And most importantly, the team were great. During the preceding weeks they were at all the practices, and this weekend were at every match on time, no arguments and all supportive of each other throughout. It was a very steep learning curve and we have emerged with three famous victories (did I mention we beat England?) and plenty of highlights.

They are now planning to conquer Britain at the online schools event in March.

Peggy Bayer Match 9: SBU vs Ireland

This is our penultimate match, against the strong Ireland team. Things got off to an explosive start, with over 100 IMPs exchanged in the first ten boards. I say exchanged, we didn't get many of them. I made a note of things the boys could do better, but then abandoned that and decided instead just to enjoy the two boards we did well on.

Board 5 and Board 6 were both game swings for SBU:

East opened a precision 2C but that didn't stop us from getting to 4S. It's not a great contract, but with the Club King and Diamond King onside it can make. You still have to take your chance though, and Kevin did that. He got a nice Club lead, then drew trumps and lead a Diamond to the Queen. 4S=.

On the other table Michael opened the East hand 3C. That was passed out. He got the perfect dummy - not in the sense that he can make it, but in the sense that they had game their way. 3C went two off, but that didn't matter and it was 10 IMPs in. A fine team effort.

On to Board 6:

3NT has eight top tricks. Michael got a Spade lead, and correctly went up with the Queen for his ninth. On the other table Kevin sitting South lead a low Club, and the defence took the first four Clubs. Aidan made a safe return and declarer could only come to eight tricks. 3NT-1 and another 11 IMPs in. It's an easy game when it goes well!

Unfortunately, not much else went right and we accumulated a heavy 29-104 loss. Any more than 60 IMPs difference and you get 0 VPs. The updated leader-board: 

We can theoretically catch Wales, but England are now unassailable at the top (the England team we beat in Round 2!)

Strangely in the U26 Junior Camrose the six teams are ranked in the same order.

Peggy Bayer Round 8: SBU vs Wales

This was the match I really wanted to win today, as I think we are quite closely matched teams. We got off to a shaky start, losing 11 IMPs playing in the wrong major game.

After that it was very tight, lots of flat boards, often the sign of a good game. This one was very well defended by Wales:

West opened a weak 3S and Kevin overcalled 4D. Michael raised this to game. It looks like there's only two Spades to lose, but look what happened.

East took the Ace of Spades, then West the King. Then West lead a third Spade. This beats the contract, as declarer can't win by ruffing high or low. East got the Queen of Diamonds for the third trick.

That was 10 IMPS to Wales putting them up by 15 with two boards to go.

At this point one table finished, and I sat with our faster pair, waiting for the results of the last two boards. On the penultimate board Michael made 4H for a game swing for us, and on the last we beat 4S for another game swing, and a surprise 37-30 win. Here's the 4H:

There was just a Heart, Diamond and Club to lose. I won't publish the bidding at the other table, but suffice to say Aidan and Harry sitting East-West made enough noise to put them off from bidding game. 

Our narrow win translated to 12-8 Victory Points. The other Scotland team scored a good win against Ireland too to consolidate second place:

Next we have Ireland then Northern Ireland. If they both go well we can move up a place into 4th.

Peggy Bayer Round 7: England vs SBU

After our shock win against them in Round 2, it was back to business as usual for the very strong England team and they piled on the IMPs agaisnt us for another 20-0 win. It really was a mismatch, where nearly every board we either misbid/misplayed/misdefended for a game swing out. Even the 'flat' boards they did a trick or two better.

When you are playing a much stronger team there are a few ways to get good scores: 

1) Take some unusual action and hope it works. Because your cardplay isn't as good as theirs it's best to underbid, and hope they go off in a higher contract

Aidan passes the 1S overcall despite a very good hand in support. 1S+1 is a win against 3S-1 at the other table. The 5 IMPs we scored here were the bulk of our positive IMPs.

2) Rely on them getting carried away and going down in a slam. This nearly happened, but didn't quite work out today:

With the trump finesse working, and the King of Clubs falling, 7S makes. At the other table we were in 4S+1. Of course England should have settled for 6S, knowing that it would likely win the board, but they probably knew that they were well ahead and fancied trying the grand slam. The 14 IMPs lost here did not affect the outcome of the match.

3) Actually outplay them

After some straightforward bidding Harry got a generous low Spade lead from South. He set up the Clubs and got a Diamond in the endgame for 10 tricks. At the other table they were also in 3NT. North lead a Heart and declarer was held to 9 tricks, for a 1 IMP gain that constituted the rest of our positive IMPs. 

Overall it was a crushing 122-6 loss for 0 Victory Points.

With Scotland and Ireland also winning there's no change in the leaderboard:

Peggy Bayer Round 6: SBU vs Scotland

The rematch. We were still outgunned, but I was hoping for a closer match than when they beat us the first time. We got off to a great start on Board 1:

Harry judged well to go to 3S and Aidan to 4S. This contract is making, as declarer can draw trumps and just lose a Heart and a Diamond. But East-West also judged well and sacrificed in 5H. This was doubled and off two for +300.

On the other table North opened 1NT and Kevin bid an immediate 3H, winning the auction. We briefly lead the match 10-0.

After that we bid games that weren't there, Scotland bid games that were and they quickly put 50 IMPs on us. There were three hands which require careful technical declarer play (e.g. 'loser on loser') that we weren't quite up to - not surprising given the limited time we'd been playing.

This was an exciting board on which everyone did well:

The Scotland West opened 5C, with East and everyone else making a disciplined pass. Over to Aidan for the opening lead. He kicked off with his Ace of Diamonds, the right lead against this sort of contract in order to 'have a look at dummy'. Dummy is now high in Hearts and Diamonds so the only hope is a Spade. Aidan lead the Queen, covered by the King and Ace, and Harry returned a Spade for one off.

It sounds straightforward but it would have been easy to misdefend. In two of our matches and one in the Junior Camrose 5C was allowed to make.

On the other table Michael had the West hand. As Paul Gipson said "I doubt Michael has ever seen such a hand, but his choice of opening bid augurs well for his bridge future". Unfortunately for the present, the Scotland defence were also up to it and the board was flat in 5C-1.

In the last few boards we won a few IMPs back , with some spirited bidding from both sides - exactly as it should be in a Junior International. I have been impressed with the judgement skill of all the teams so far, and although we lost heavily at least we boosted the other Scotland team

Our 23-74 IMP loss translated to just 1 Victory Point. Current standings:

After six matches we have won two of them, and avoided any 20-0 defeats!

Tomorrow it's England, Wales, Ireland then Northern Ireland again.

 

Peggy Bayer Round 5: Northern Ireland vs SBU

For this match I was out of the house, and followed it remotely from underneath a gazebo. I enjoyed it. Without particularly doing anything different the good results kept rolling in, and we were comfortable winners 60 -19 IMPs. 

This was the best played board:

After a weak two Harry overcalled 2S, Aidan bid a natural 2NT and Aidan raised to game. 

There's only 23 points between the hands. 3NT is just about there but with nothing to spare - every high card is needed. 

East lead a top Diamond which was ducked until the second round. Aidan resisted the enormous temptation to cash all of his Clubs and instead crossed to dummy to lead a Heart up. He knew he needed two tricks from Hearts, and used his Club entries to lead up to the Ace twice. He now had 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 1 Diamonds and 5 Clubs for 3NT=.

If he cashes all the Clubs he can't lead up to his Hearts twice and goes at least one down.

On the other table the auction started the same with Alexander (East) opening a weak two. When South overcalled 2S Jonny (West)  was surely a bit surprised, holding so many Spades himself, but found the right bid of pass. North bid 3C ending the auction. That also made, but we still got a 10 IMP gain.

Our win translated to 18-2 Victory Points, enough to leapfrog above Wales into 4th position:

We've now played every team once. Out of a possible 100 victory points we have 42.76. A great start!

Peggy Bayer Round 4: Ireland vs SBU

This was always going to be a tough match, and so it turned out to be. The Ireland team are undefeated, and the best we could do was tie a few boards, our only big gain coming when the Irish overbid to 6NT.

Every flat board involved us bidding and playing well, whenever we didn't we lost 10 IMPs. 

This was a missed opportunity:

Michael took the direct route and is in 3NT. Of course they lead a Spade, but the good news is they're 4-3 so we're still in with a chance. From here, you can see that there are 5 top Hearts, 2 top Diamonds and 2 Clubs if you finesse. But you might also choose to take the Diamond finesse, which Michael did. Hard luck, 3NT-1.

At the other table East-West got to 4H. Aidan and Harry were accurate in defence to hold it to 9 tricks and a flat board - which I'm counting as a win.

Late on we gained 6 IMPs for this pleasing result

Harry overcalled 2H and played there. He made +1 by ruffing two Diamonds in dummy (overall making 4 Hearts, 3 Diamonds and 2 Clubs). The other table went down two in 4H. So I'd say we bid the board better and played it better. 

However, it wasn't enough and overall we lost the match in IMPS 57-19 for 2-18 in Victory Points. Don't these VP scales seem quite extreme?

Here's the current standings:

With one match left in the first round three teams are vying for top spot, England having roared back with two 20-0 wins today. 
 

Peggy Bayer Round 3: Wales vs SBU

For this match my third pair were given their international debut. I was pleased to see them bidding and playing accurately in the first few boards, drawing trumps and making a few contracts, which always helps to settle the nerves.

They did well overall, but came unstuck in the second half when dealt a series of good hands - hands that mostly want to be in game. We don't yet have the bidding precision to always diagnose this, and missed a couple of games (and bid what has become the SBU favourite contract, 5♣-3).

Missing games is of course costly at IMPs, and from the match being about level we slid to a 36-45; loss.

Here is a small success:

Jonny opened 1♥ and Al quite rightly passed. Despite the bad Heart break Jonny escaped for down one and minus 100. On the other table Kevin and Michael competed to 3♣ and made with an overtrick, for a 2 IMP gain. Connoisseurs of bad contracts will note that actually East-West can make 3NT, though of course no one bid it.

We lost this match 7-13. This is the current leaderboard, including the carry over from yesterday.

Peggy Bayer Round 2: England vs SBU

After a heavy loss in Round 1 on to our second match, against the very strong England team. They have a somewhat more advanced setup than us, with a professional bridge player as their coach, and an assistant coach too which no other team has. They also have a reserve pair who got a Bronze medal at the European Championship, as someone in my team pointed out to me. Anything other than a 20-0 loss would be counted as a win.

That's the setup over, on to the bridge. We had a good start, with two flat boards. Then England gained a little, but we stayed in touch. The boys were bidding their games, and defending tightly. 

Even better, we picked up a game swing. Aidan made 9 tricks here, no other declarer did:

It's a messy 3NT, with work to be done in every suit. Aidan made it via 2 Spades, 2 Hearts, 2 Diamonds and 3 Clubs. On the other table Kevin and Michael beat 3NT by two tricks, for an 11 IMP gain.

Next it's Michael and Kevin bidding a very distributional hand:

East opened a Weak Two (we play very wide-ranging bids here). Michael made a forcing bid of 3♣ and East bid his Spades. Michael now settled for 4♣.

Michael got a Diamond lead and immediately ruffed another Diamond. He took his Aces and crossed back to hand. It's now time to play trumps. I've never discussed this suit combination, but Michael instinctively got it right. He lead the ♣K. This gains when the Queen is singleton (as it is here). Playing a low one hoping the Ace is singleton doesn't work, as if the Ace is singleton his partner still has ♣Qx and gets another trick. Result: 4♣+1.

Of course this techincally correct play was found by the England declarer at the other table too, and the board was flat. But two well played hands I consider a good result.

Finally, a simple pleasure:

Against 3NT Michael lead a low Spade and they soon wrapped up five Spade tricks, with the Ace of Hearts to come for 3NT-2. This was a fast table, and this result came in first. I knew it was going to be a good board. On the other table we played 4♦-1 to win a couple of IMPs.

The good results kept coming in. There was a further highlight of Kevin making 5♥x. On the other table Harry declined to double 5♥ and gained his team 5 IMPs. But in fact on every board we were good, and ran out 26-15 winners. Restricting England to just 15 IMPs was a fantastic achievement. The score translated to a 13-7 win.

These are the running scores:

Peggy Bayer Round 1: Scotland vs SBU

The Peggy Bayer is the U21 Home Nations Bridge Tournament, played alongside the U26 Junior Camrose tournament. I am the non-playing captain of the SBU team, which is the second Scotland team. We have a very inexperienced team but they are fast learners and keen to do well.

Over the last few weeks we've been practicing on Bridge Base at lunch time, and playing in a few tournaments at the weekend. The boys have been great and have come on enormously.

Today at 5pm we had our first match against our rival Scotland Team. It was an exciting game with lots of swings on our table. In practice events we'd fared well against these more experienced opponents, but on the big stage they got the better of us, running out 67-27 winners, translating to 18-2 Victory points.

There were two boards where we gave it away, overbidding and getting doubled, but the rest was just losing out in competitive bridge. Both teams played very well and it was a good standard to watch. This was the most enjoyable board forme:

Kevin had a maximum 2♣ overcall and Michael responded 2♠, having a decent hand with five of them. Kevin bid 4♣ which describes his hand perfectly and Michael recognised the value of his Aces and Kings and bid 5♣. A Diamond was lead.

Kevin threw a losing Spade on a top Diamond and lead a Heart up, soon enough 11 tricks were in the bag.

5♣= was a great score. 

At the other table Harry opened a weak 2♦. Although this is below our official range (5-9) points it's exactly the right sort of hand to open a Weak Two, a solid suit with no defence.  I think it's fine opening weak twos like this as long as you and your partner are disciplined, and don't bid again. 

On that table East overcalled the 2♦ with 3♣ which was passed out. Declarer made the same 11 tricks for 3♣+2, Scotland gaining 10 IMPs on the board. Of the six tables in the Peggy Bayer, two bid game.

Although it was a heavy loss, they played well, and the team have now won their first Victory Points for their country. Not many, but a few. And we have promoted the other Scotland team to the top of the table! Here is the scores after Round 1 - with Ireland playing very well to get the better of the strong England team.

Team Rowan vs Morrisons

Last night was the final league match of the season. I had my mind on the Peggy Bayer, the upcoming Junior Home Internationals for which I am the non-playing captain of the Scotland team, and was hoping for some nice quiet relaxing bridge. That didn't happen though, and in the first few boards we gave away two game swings then got one back bidding a 23 point 3NT. I knew it was 23 points but bid it anyway - everything was onside and Anna made +1.

In our house I play upstairs, and four times in the first hour I had to go and see Zoe, who was most definitely not asleep.

Things failed to settle down with some distributional hands, and big decisions. Here's one that did go smoothly for us:

I have a flat 18 point South hand, which doesn't feel like a great hand. I decided to rebid it 2NT anyway, on the policy of always bidding to the max at aggregate. Anna bid Checkback Stayman and I showed three Spades. At this point she bid 4♣, and I had to think.

Probably Anna is cue-bidding, having set Spades as trumps. But Clubs is my suit, so her bid could be natural with a 5-4-0-4 hand. I ruled that out as extremely unlikely and cuebid my Hearts. That's what Anna wanted to hear and she bid the slam.

East predictably lead a top Diamond, immediately finding the weakness. On any other lead declarer can afford to lose a trump and still collect 4 Spades, 3 Hearts, 4 Clubs and 1 Diamond. On this lead there are still 12 tricks there, but the risk of losing two as well. So it looks like the slam comes down to guessing trumps - but Anna found a better line.

Her plan was to cash the top Spades, then play off winners hoping to discard two losing Diamonds. This works if Clubs are 3-3 (or 4-2 with the long Club hand having the last trump), or the Queen of trumps drops. It probably needs trumps 3-2 but you might need that anyway.

Anna set about her plan playing two top Spades. As it happens the Queen popped up straight away, so that was 13 tricks.

Three of the four tables played 6♠, all making, one played 3NT.

Overall we won the match 12-4. I think that means we will finish the season in 3rd or 4th place in Division 2.

Going for Broke

In last night's EBU 12-board tournament Anna and I got off to a great start. On the first board I opened third in hand with an awful 9 points, got raised to the three level and made it. We were flying along, at least for the first three boards. Things slowed down a bit as we both failed to make overtricks, through a combination of their solid defence and our unimaginative declarer play. With one board to go we had dipped below 50%, so needed something good on the last:

West opened 1♥ and Anna overcalled 1NT. I know she's got a decent hand with a good Heart stop, and considered bidding 6♣. I made the sensible bid of 3NT though, expecting it to make comfortably.

My plans were scuppered when West bid 4♥. Anna doubled this, I suppose showing she really did have a very good Heart stop. Not many tables would be playing in 4♥x, so this could be the swing I was after.

However, having been restrained once I couldn't resist the second time, and had a go at 6♣. Since this was matchpoints there wasn't much point bidding only 5♣, as even if that made it would be a poor score losing to the majority of tables playing a comfortable 3NT.

6♣ was passed out and West lead the Ace of Spades and another. Despite dummy having nothing in Clubs it has some play. It could all come down to guessing trumps. I decided to play the Ace on the first round then finesse, reasoning I could cope with trumps 4-1 onside. But in fact they were 5-0 onside. This might not have been fatal if I had enough winners to play through East (meaning he has to ruff and I can overruff) but here it's got no chance.

Given West's unusual bidding, perhaps I should assume there's a void somewhere, and Clubs is the most likely place for it. So that argues for finessing Clubs on the first round, though in fact that's still not enough to make it.

If I leave in the double of 4♥ that's no good either. Despite Anna's excellent trumps, my ♥Q and are other two Ace-Kings we only get six tricks for +500, still losing out to 3NT making. And that's assuming we don't crash any of our trump honours. As it was going down in 6♣ didn't score well either, and we finished on 46%.

Team Rowan vs Metropole

Last night Anna and I had another Glasgow Division 2 league match against the undefeated Metropole Team. It was a very close match, with the big swing on our table when I overbid to a bad slam and went down:

Looking at all four hands, you may wonder how 6♦ could fail. The trumps are 3-2, and the Clubs are 3-3 with the Queen on side. If I just draw trumps and finesse in Clubs I get four Diamonds, five Clubs, two Spades with the ruff and a Heart.

However, I was reluctant to take that Club finesse. No one likes to go down early on in a slam on a finesse. So instead I drew just two rounds of trumps, then played the ♣AK, and had a think. At this point I realised my plan of ruffing out the Clubs was doomed, as I couldn't ruff both a Spade and a Club in the South hand, and return to North to draw trumps. I glumly tried this plan anyway, and I was correct in that it was impossible, and it duly went two off.

I could have still made it if I'd kept going with Clubs and discarded a Spade from dummy (then guessed Hearts right in the endgame, which I probably wouldn't). But probably the best plan was just to play the Club finesse.

What I've learned is that when you have limited trumps and limited entries like this sometimes you do just need to finesse. It was an expensive lesson, turning +1370 into -200. That 1570 point swing would have meant instead of losing the match overall 9-7 we would have won it 9-7.

The other three tables played 3♦+3, 5♦= and 5♦+2, so the team lost 330 overall. Even if I'd have just bid and made 5♦ we'd have won the match.

Apart from that board, I think we marginally had it better on our table, and picked up a lot of small swings, that perhaps just about added up to that failed slam. Here's one:

My bidding is somewhat erratic here (still on the tilt from 6♦-2) and my raise to 5♦ depends on partner having quite a suitable hand. 5♦x is not going to make, but could be a good sacrifice.

Anna played it nicely, drawing trumps then eliminating Clubs and Spades before playing Ace and another Heart. This would have gained a trick if an opponent had ♥Kx or ♥Qx and so was forced to win and give a ruff and discard.

5♦x-2 was worth -300, against the opponent's easy 4♠ for a modest gain.

The other tables played 5♠+1, 4♠= and another 5♦x-2, team Rowan declaring on all four tables and gaining 300 overall.

Finally an early board, showing the opponent's careful defence:

I have a great suit for a pre-empt, eight solid Spades with zero defence. The only problem is I'm in second seat and vulnerable. When East opened 1♣ I compromised with a 3♠ overcall, and I'm glad I settled for that as West doubled and East passed! I'm not sure East should pass, and they are rather fortunate that there are five tricks in defence.

I tried leading a Spade from hand hoping they would crash their honours. There's really no reason for West to play his ♠K (would I really be leading the Queen from AQ?) but it sometimes works. When that didn't happen I settled for 3♠x-1.

The other tables scored 4♥= on a similar auction, 4♠x-1 and 4♠-1 (the defence did crash their trump honours on those two tables). Overall we gained 320 on the board.

After those initial excitements there were a lot of fairly flat boards, where the opponents played 3NT on a combined 30 count and Anna and I tried to keep our concentration. I was still looking for an opportunity to 'win back' the missing points from my 6♦, but kept my discipline.

In the end the four tables produced very similar scores, more so than I've seen in any oher league match. Our match was won by 390, the other lost by 1020, for a narrow 9-7 loss overall.

Team Rowan vs Ramblers

Anna and I played our fourth match of the season for Team Rowan last night. Things started well with a 6♠ slam. I nearly didn't bid it, but actually there were 13 tricks. After that I decided that I would always back my judgment. The next board this philosophy cost us a game when I felt West must have all the Hearts so finessed the Nine. This lost to the Ten and I went two down in a vulnerable 3NT with 29 points between the hands.

After that things settled down and we had the better of the cards, and the better of the play. We made all of our games, plus a couple that maybe shouldn't have made. Anna produced a series of awful dummys that nevertheless were just enough.

In the competitive auction we pushed them into a lot of non-making contracts. Even though this was aggregate it makes a difference, getting +100 rather than -110. Twice we pushed them all the way into game, which is always a bit worrying. Luckily they both went down.

Here's a tough hand that Anna played in 1NT, her self-professed least-favourite contract:

North lead the ♦A then the ♦Q. Anna took this and she's up to six tricks, seven if she guesses Spades right. South has shown out on the second Diamond, so the Spade finesse is a big favourite. However, if it fails you risk losing the rest for four off. So Anna played the top three Spades and settled for one down.

The key to the hand is to cash the ♥AK first. Then by the time you have the decision in Spades you already have five tricks, so the worst that can happen is two down. I also would have ducked another Diamond by letting the ♦Q hold, giving South the chance to throw a Spade away (if he's got three) or keep his Spades (if he's got four to the Jack). As Anna said afterwards if you duck the first two tricks the defence could switch to Clubs and take you down immediately, though that's not really very likely I don't think.

On the other table in our match it was also 1NT-1 on similar play. In the other match both Norths played 2♦=, for four scores of -100, +100, -90 and +90 and the flattest board of the match.

I missed a golden opportunity on the last board of the match, with some lazy bidding. My only excuse is that I'd been declarer four times in a row (and 12 times in the 24 board match):

Anna opens 1♦ then rebids 2♣ and with a balanced 17 count I go straight to 3NT, making +2.

However, given that this is aggregate (not Matchpoints) I should explore slam, as there's no harm playing 5♣. If I bid a fourth suit forcing (which we play as forcing to game), Anna will bid 3♣, showing her 5-5 shape. I then bid 4♣ setting trumps, and after a few cuebids she shows her Spade control and I jump to 6♣.

Anna's hand is very suitable for 6♣, and in fact by setting up the Diamonds you make all 13 tricks.

On two of the other tables they played 5♣, and on the last South got to 3♠x, which went off four.

Overall we had a big lead on both tables and won the match 16-0.