The matches start at 7pm, which is quite early for us, and Anna was still reading bedtime stories at 6:59. This may have contributed to our slow start, as we missed a chance to beat 3NT then both underbid here:
I decided to make a Weak Two despite having four Spades as they were so weak. Anna bid Ogust and I showed what I thought I had, a weak hand with good trumps. Anna settled for 3♥. I thought about bidding on anyway but made a disciplined pass. On reflection I have exactly the sort of hand that could easily make game so should have bid 4♥, and maybe should have replied to Ogust differently too. I thought we judged hand strength by high card points (in which case I am weak), Anna thought by losers (in which case I'm strong). I think her way is probably better. This hand also shows why I don't like Ogust, as it doesn't really tell you anything useful (unless perhaps you play very wide ranging Weak Twos).
Against 3♥ the defence led a Spade, and took the first two tricks before East returned a third Spade for West to ruff and me to overruff. At this point the play in 4♥ would be tricky, as if the Diamond finesse fails I might lose a Spade as well (if I draw trumps first) or a Heart (if I ruff with dummy's Ace of Hearts). I think the best line would be to ruff a Spade high, and hope that you can still draw trumps without a loser.
In 3♥ I could just draw trumps, and when the Diamond finesse was on I made 11 tricks. 3♥+2.
Our team-mates Jill and Barbara also played in 3♥, and it was only one Metropole pair who got to 4♥, on the auction 2♥-4♥.
After this we settled down a bit, and had a few good boards making 6♠, then 4♥x+1.
Our daughter has just got her own clock and is allowed to stay up until 8pm, so during the first hour of the match I heard her chatting away to herself. Then she ran in to tell me it was "a very unsusual time, eight-ninety!", which was actually 8:09. I tried not to get distracted, but did then forget to bid Checkback Stayman and Anna made a comfortable 2NT+1 (missing 4♥=). Then there was one more slam board:
I had to count my points twice to believe it was really 20, as it didn't feel good enough. Perhaps I should have gone with my instinct and downgraded it. After I did open 2NT Anna bid Stayman then wasn't sure what to do when I hit her suit with 3♠. We play that an immediate 4NT here would be quantitative, so to set Spades as trumps she needs to bid the other major (here 4♥). But we don't play much together and I suppose Anna didn't want to risk a mix up so bid an immediate 6♠.
West led a Club. Dummy was a disappointment, and it looks pretty hopeless. We have good trumps but otherwise the hands don't fit well together. Move my Queen of Clubs to the Queen of Hearts and it would be an easy 12 tricks. As it is I need to play Hearts for one loser.
I thought for a long time how best to do this. Then apologised to the opposition and had another think. It needs some imagination to find any winning layouts. I decided the best chance was to lead low from dummy hoping to get either a singleton Queen or Ace-Queen doubleton onside. You can see this didn't happen and in fact I went two off.
When I was dummy on the next hand I looked it up on Suitplay and was pleased to see my line was best, giving me about a 7% chance of success.
Our team-mates and one opposition pair also played the board in 6♠ (all going down), with one opposition pair getting to the making 4♥. So not a good board for Team Rowan.
After this we finished with a few good games bid at all the tables. The final result was a loss of 180 at our table, but +1460 at the other for a 10-6 win overall. A winning start to the season!
