Anna and I had an unusually solid game, and as Anna said afterwards "I still felt sharp at the end". I couldn't see any full mistakes that we made, just this board that we could have done better on:
I have the East hand. Although the hand isn't ideal for a weak three (or even good) the fact I was second-in-hand vulnerable convinced me it was worth opening. In this position and vulnerability you want to have a decent hand, which I felt I had.
The hand did indeed belong to us, and Anna has a nice hand. You can see that 4♥ would go very well. I have three very useful cards for Anna; the ♠K, ♥K and ♦J none of which she is expecting. With only a Club singleton she felt she had to pass, and I was stuck in 3♣.
South lead the ♠J covered by the Queen and Ace. To stop a Spade ruff North returned a trump, to my Ten and Ace. At that point south switched to a low Diamond. I have a choice of taking a simple finesse in Diamonds or a ruffing finesse. I guessed right to take the ruffing finesse. With Clubs 3-1 I then just made it.
However, I was well aware that 4♥ would have made (especially with the ♥QJ coming down).
On the other table in our match the auction was the same. Against 3♣ the defence never returned a trump so declarer could ruff a Spade and make it without guessing Diamonds.
In the other match both Easts also opened 3♣ but the Wests responded 3♥ and they got to game (4♥+1). Maybe those pairs had more precise agreements about opening a Weak Three (so East guaranteed some strength) or maybe just more optimistic Wests.
Overall then a flat board for Team Rowan.
The rest of the match was typically close. Anna and I stole a couple of games on our table (and caught them in 3♣x-4), but our team-mates were unlucky in bidding two slams on a finesse that both failed. At the end of 24 boards on 4 tables we lost by just 80 points. That meant a loss by 8.5-7.5, but (mainly by virtue of having played more matches) we are currently top of the league!
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