Glasgow League: Team Rowan vs Shawlands

We managed to get the children to bed 15 minutes before the start of this match and I'm sure that helped, as Anna and I had a good game throughout. Three times we doubled them in 1NT. This was the most profitable:

Our doubles of a Weak NT are 14+, which happens quite a lot. In general I will only remove with a weak hand with a long suit. Here I am very happy to pass.

I'm not sure if East-West had a method to escape, especially as this was a double from the pass-out seat where different agreements apply. You can see that running to 2♦ would have been bad too, but not as bad as 1NT.

I led a Heart. Declarer won his ♥J in hand and started on Diamonds. They do not sit kindly. Anna won and continued Hearts. I didn't know how the Hearts were splitting, so took my ♥Q and switched to the ♣Q. This turned out to be a good switch, as it set up Anna's top Clubs.

Declarer finished with just one Spade and one Heart, for 1NTx-5 and -1100. There was the possiblity of a third trick for declarer if he'd hung on to a Club, but was forced to find a lot of discards.

On the other tables the results were 1NTx-4, 1NT-3 and North-South playing 2NT+2 when West made a surprising transfer over 1NT.

This was a hand where I could have defended better:

I led a low Heart, hoping partner had something in the suit. Anna produced the Queen which declarer won in hand and immediately led the King of Spades. I ducked, and declarer started setting up the Diamonds. My hope was that Anna had the ♥T, in which case we could get two Hearts, two Diamonds and the Ace of Spades. So I tried the Jack of Hearts, but when that didn't work out declarer actually had an overtrick for 3NT+1.

It was a mistake to duck the King of Spades. I know from the auction that Anna's ♥Q is her only high card. So if declarer has ♠KJ(x) then he always has five Spades, and the Ace-King of Hearts and Spades. That's nine tricks, with no shortage of entries to dummy.

So I might as well take my ♠A. I still have a decision to make, whether to go for the Hearts, or the Clubs. Here the ♣Q switch would work (same as it did against 1NTx in the hand above), as declarer doesn't now have the entries to set up Spades and Diamonds and goes off a lot. However, if I continue Hearts (as I probably would have) declarer still makes it comfortably, so I think I was quite far away from beating 3NT.

On the other tables East-West played 4♠-1, 3♦+1 and 3NT-2 by West, where North's Club lead makes it more difficult (declarer needs to play on Diamonds not Spades).

In the end we won our table by +3290 and the match by +3080 to win 13-3. Team Rowan are (for now at least) top of Division Two!

Faben vs Outred

John and I had quite a good game here. On Board 1 we had a mix-up defending against their Strong Club opening. I made a 'natural' 2♣ overcall, which actually showed the majors:

John's accidental psyche of 2♥ kept them out of their best fit, and left me in 2♠. It went three off. This was a good result against their making 4♥. The nice thing about playing in the SOL is that if 4♥ was making the other way you can be pretty sure our team-mates (Derek and Alex) bid it, and indeed they did.

Later I mistakenly passed John's forcing 3NT:

3NT made comfortably enough. The other table got things right in getting to 6♥, but went two off for an undeserved 11 IMP gain.

Apart from these happy accidents there was some good play and we were up at the break.

In the second half this was the most exciting board:

Over their Weak 2♦ John bid 4♦, alerted as the majors. I was on the same page here, and knew he had a big 5-5 hand. I felt quite bold jumping to 6♠, but maybe I didn't do enough. John had a think and then passed. He's got the ♠AK, and I've got the other three Aces, so it was an easy thirteen tricks and 6♠+1.

On the other table the auction started the same but Charles Outred bid 5♦ with my hand. Vi responded with 6♥ and Charles bid 7♠, making. This meant an 11 IMP loss for Team Rowan.

Overall we hung on for a narrow win.

Glasgow League: Team Rowan vs Morison

On Monday in the National League John and I had a good game, beating Team Goodman. In fact, I think more accurately our team-mates had a good game, but still it was nice to be on the winning side. I found it very challenging when Iain Sime and Brian Short were defenders, as everything seemed to go wrong for me as declarer. Tonight it was more straight forward in the Glasgow League Division Two, and we rattled through the boards with me declaring about half of them. Playing total points is also the most relaxing format, as you know that overtricks really don't matter, so lots of early claims.

Perhaps due to complacency or fatigue here's one near the end I could have done better on:

I got the obvious Diamond lead and ducked twice before winning the Ace. This was the same on all four tables. I then lead a Heart up to the Queen. West played low, but after a long enough pause to make me pretty sure he had the Ace. I cashed my four Clubs, East throwing one more Heart. I then led a Heart from dummy and the Nine appeared from East. At this point if I'm really on the ball I can work out the whole suit. I don't think West would have ducked from ♥AJx, so East must have the Jack, hence West is down to a bare Ace. Playing a low from hand should produce the Ace, and I've got 7 tricks (and luckily they can't cash out in Spades).

Of course, I did the normal thing and played the King of Hearts, reasoning I might still make my Ten of Hearts in dummy. I didn't, the defence took three Diamonds, two Spades and two Hearts for 1NT-1.

Every other table made 1NT=, after West took the Ace of Heart straight away, cashed the long Diamond, and returned a Spade, East greedily grabbing the Ace-King and giving the contract.

Despite this minor mistake we were pretty good otherwise and got a few big swings on our table, stealing a few games from our opponents. Our match (along with Colin & Sheena) finished +1580, the other table (with David & Heather and Neil & Anna) was +940. That meant a 12-4 win