Rowan vs Stirling

The Glasgow league matches consist of four tables. In this match against high-flying Stirling when the first two tables had finished we were 310 points up. But when the second match, featuring Anna and I, finished, we were 5000 points down. It's fair to say we were not on top form, or even on medium form. 

It was a demolition. Of the 24 boards there were only two where we achieved a result above par. I was guilty of pushing too hard, against some very disciplined opponents. They defended well, we played poorly, and the result was inevitable. 

Here are three of the worst:

Against 2NT Anna lead a Diamond to my Queen and I returned a Diamond to the Ace. Declarer then ducked a Spade to me. I don't really want to lead any suit, but had worked out that declarer likely only had two Hearts, possibly ♥KQ, so a Heart return was safe. I tried the ♥9, which declarer ducked to Anna's Queen. She cashed her Diamond and that was four tricks to the defence.

At this point I strongly suspect declarer is down to a singleton King in Hearts, so if Anna returns a Heart it's one down, and a great defence. But I foolishly threw a low Club, encouraging Clubs. I was just thinking about Anna making a safe exit, rather than realising we actually had enough tricks to beat the contract straight away. The result was therefore 2NT=, when it was nearly one down. A missed opportunity.

On other tables East-West variously made 2NT and 3♥.

This part-score battle soon became irrelevant, as we gave away a few large penalties and one massive one. Here is an example of fine judgement by the opponents:

My 5♦ bid is a calculated overbid, luring West into 5♠, which goes off one. But instead he doubled me for -500.

At the other tables the results were 4♠=, 5♦x-2 and 4♠x=.

Finally one where I thought the opponents were lucky, but actually I misdefended:

My 4♣ is another 'pressure-bid' that backfired as they got to 5♦. Anna cashed the King of Clubs then switched to a Heart. Declarer naturally finessed, and I correctly switched to a Spade. But declarer immediately went up with the ♠A, and was able to draw turmps via a finesse, then cross to dummy's Hearts to discard all his Spades. Note it doesn't actually matter that Hearts split 5-1, as on the run of trumps North has to discard a Heart (or the King of Spades).

The correct defence now appears simple. We need three tricks to beat the contract, so need a Spade. On Anna's ♣K lead I should overtake and return a Spade. Then it's surely one off.

On the other tables the results were 3♦=, 4♦= and 3♣+1 the other way.

Overall, a crushing defeat.