Last night there were two matches in the InterSchool League. In Division 2B it was the match I'd been waiting for, as two High School of Glasgow teams faced each other. In the end it was a victory for the senior pupils, as the Lion Kings beat the Spy Kids 26-16.
In the evening two undefeated teams from Division 1B played on RealBridge, as Glasgow Alpha hosted Eton. From the early boards it was clear that Eton were a good side, as their careful card play gave them an advantage. Board 3 was a good one for us though:
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After the opponents started 1♥-2♥ Michael sitting South risked a takeout double with a weak but shapely hand. Kevin kept things low with a 2♠ response, which is where he played.
There are potentially lots of losers, but luckily East made the normal Heart lead. Kevin threw away three Diamonds from dummy, then set about ruffing Diamonds in dummy, and Clubs in his hand. In the end he couldn't be prevented from making 9 tricks.
On the other table our West made nine tricks in Hearts for a 7 IMP gain.
The next board featured excellent defence and declarer play:
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East opened a Weak 3♦ and the Eton West had a tricky bid. 3NT feels wrong with the Diamonds blocked, but he tried it anyway. North led the ♠T, to the ♠Q, ♠K and ♠A and declarer immediately unblocked his ♦A and looked for a way to get to dummy.
He tried the ♣T, ducked all round, then the ♣3. If North covers this the suit is blocked, but he didn't know this and played low. Declarer put in his ♣8 from dummy. South had to take this with the ♣K, and now declarer has an entry to dummy. But all is not lost for the defence as you can see the Diamonds don't run.
After winning his Club trick South played Spades, ducked to North, then the defence played another round of Spades. Declarer won, crossed to dummy, tried the Diamonds, and although they didn't work out he still collected 9 tricks, via 2 Spades, 3 Diamonds, 3 Clubs, 1 Heart when the Ace was onside.
In fact, to beat the contract the defence need to give up on Spades and establish their Heart trick, which is not easy to see.
On the other table after a 3♦ opening our West bid 3♥, which East passed. Declarer played well to make 3♥, but still a 10 IMP loss. At the half way point were were 7-20 down.
In the second half this was the most interesting board, and featured my first director ruling.
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North opened 1♥ and East overcalled 2NT. South asked what it meant, waited a while with no response, then decided to bid 3NT anyway. Just then West announced that the 2NT overcall was 20-22 points, and doubled 3NT! It should have been clear to West (and everyone else) that there weren't enough points for East to have 20-22 points, and his bid shows the minors.
South believed the explanation though and asked to change his bid. I decided not to allow this (as though he thought he'd been damaged actually he hadn't), and let him play the hand.
On a Heart lead he finessed successfully, and established 2 Spade tricks, to go with this 3 Hearts and 2 Clubs. Then, he ran the Ten of Diamonds, which held. That gave declarer eight tricks. For the ninth he needs to read the distribution and give East a Club at the end, after which East will be forced to return a Diamond into declarer's waiting ♦KJ. Although close to it he missed this endplay so the result was 3NTx-1.
After the hand and with some discussion I ruled that the result should stand, as East-West had basically damaged themselves by West thinking that his partner had a strong hand and doubling. Perhaps a more just result would have been if 3NT made, but here Eton got a bit lucky as East actually had a very nice 15 points so 3NT was beaten.
On the other table North played 4♥ very nicely to go just off one. We ended up losing the match 22-33 overall, which in a 12 board match translates to 6-14 VPs.
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