Things started well when John found an excellent switch to beat their 3NT, then navigated a tricky 4♠. At this point we were about 20 IMPs up, though didn't know it at the time of course. It wasn't until Board 8 that I had something to regret:
I had the good 11 point hand and opened 1♥. After the double John was between several bids and chose 3♥. I took this as pre-emptive, was expecting them to bid 4♠, so thought a 4♣ bid would be useful. With his fitting Clubs John bid 5♥, passed out, and we were in trouble.
Not only is 5♥ almost hopeless, but it looks like we've got plenty to beat their 4♠ (probably two off).
5♥ is almost hopeless, as it makes if the Spade finesse works and I can play trumps for no losers. That requires either a singleton King with West, or singleton Jack with East. Given the double East having the singleton is more likely, so I decided to play for that.
But something strange happened. After cashing one top Diamond East switched to the King of trumps! This was clearly a misclick, but under the rules of the league Undos are allowed only in the bidding and not in the play. This makes sense, for several reasons, but did feel harsh here. East did actually ask for an Undo but I refused, on the grounds that plenty of other people in the league (including me) have misclicked and not even asked for an Undo, as they know they are not allowed.
The contract now depends on the Spade finesse, which failed, so it was one down anyway. This was flat with the more reasonable 4♥-1 on the other table.
Near the end of the first half we had a gain bidding a making 5♦, a bit of a guess from me but turned out to be the perfect contract here:
When John ruffs the third Spade high he can claim once trumps are 2-1. Even better, 3NT would be down. The other table was in 3♦+2, so that was +6 IMPs.
At the end of the first half Team Faben were up by 16 IMPs.
At the start of the second half I checked with my opponents on the policy for Undos, and they confirmed they were for bidding only not the play. I was pleased to hear them say that, but not much else went right.
When the opponents got to 4♠ I needed to find a lead. I would have liked to lead a trump, but didn't have any. I guessed to lead a Heart. This couldn't give declarer a finesse he couldn't already take, but did make things easier for him. He took two Hearts and eight trump tricks for 4♠=.
On the other table East opened, so South was on lead against 4♠. He did lead a trump. Declarer has eight trump tricks and the Ace of Hearts, so needed one more. He tried leading up too the King of Clubs, then the Jack, but both failed. The last thing to try is the Heart finesse, but instead I think he tried to drop the King of Hearts in three rounds, which worked, but used up all his trumps so he couldn't draw them and enjoy his ♥Q. One off.
This one I misbid but it turned out fine - still a mistake I think:
The North hand should correct to 4♠. The suit can play opposite a singleton, and it's quite likely that partner's double stop in Hearts won't be enough as you'll have to lose the lead twice setting up Spades.
As it happened there were enough tricks outside Spades that if the defence set up their Hearts declarer is up to nine tricks without having to set up the Spades, so John made 3NT=. Similar auction and result at the other table.
The match was still tight but we had a poor finish. We conceded 3♦x= then I made a lead-directing double which John followed to let a contract make. On the last I played 3NT with seven top tricks and finished down two; a poor effort as it's not too hard to set up an eighth (or maybe even make it if the cards lie nicely).
We lost the second half by 29 to lose the match by 13 IMPs. That meant just 7/20 VPs. This is the table with four teams still to play one match:
Congratulations to BShenkin for winning the league and comiserations to Smith finishing bottom. It looks like we will finish second last assuming Chow get some points on their last match.
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