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.