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.