Anna and I did a lot of defending in this match. It was a test of concentation. Could I have done better here?
Anna won the first Heart and correctly switched to a low Heart (from an odd number). I won this with my Ace and had a think. Or rather, I should have had a think. I just returned a Heart. Declarer won and took a losing Spade finesse, but with Hearts 4-4 we couldn't take enough tricks.
After winning the second Heart if I switch to a Diamond declarer is down. If he plays low we can take a Diamond trick to go with our three Hearts and a Spade, and if he plays the Ace of Diamonds we get three Diamond tricks and two Hearts.
Should I have spotted this at the table? Maybe. It's pretty likely declarer has the Queen of Hearts, else he wouldn't have ducked the King on the first trick.
On two of the other tables East-West bid and made a good 4♠, and on the last declarer went down in 3NT playing on Diamonds instead of Spades (perhaps afraid Hearts were 5-3).
We collected a lot of good results on part-score boards, and took advantage a few times when the opponent's overbid. On the rare times we had a game we bid and made it. But the opponents had the cards and did pretty well.
On this board Anna's caution was not rewarded:
I had a borderline 1♦ opener and an easy 2♦ rebid. Anna bid a forcing and natural 2♥, and I showed my Spade stop with 2NT. After a pause, Anna signed off in 3NT. With a good 20 point hand I think she was worth at least an invitational 4NT (which I would have passed), but in fact 6♣ is the winning bid here.
3NT made twelve tricks on a Spade lead.
This was not a good board for Team Rowan. One opponent bid and made 6♣, the other also 3NT+3. On the fourth table Colin and Sheena got to a good 6NT, but East found the killing Diamond lead - a low Diamond in fact. Declarer naturally went up with the Ace and finessed Hearts, going down two. Bad luck.
Overall we lost the match by about 2700 points for a 4-12 loss.
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