European Youth Teams Championship - Match 10 vs Italy

I'm no longer at the tournament, having said my goodbyes and gone back to Schiphol. I've got here a comfortable 3 hours before my family arrive so have plenty of time to see what happened with the Italy match, then make them a big sign.

I can see that we lost 25-65, collecting a further 2.19 VPs. Not a bad result, against the number one team here. 

Board 1 was a fairly typical 7 IMP loss, where we guessed to go low and everyone else bid 3NT. Four times in this match the opponents gained a swing on 3NT boards, and only once did their 3NT fail and we gained a few back. Bidding, declaring, and defending 3NT well should be our goal!

However, Scotland did fight back. Bravo Donald and Michael bidding this one to 4♠ for a six IMP gain (only 2♠+3) on the other table:

After South (Michael) opened 1♠, West doubled and North (Donald) made a 2♠ raise. Strictly we play four card majors but I like his raise. East bid 4♥ and Michael bid 4♠. Even if you finesse trumps (which I think you should after the takeout double) that's 10 tricks.

On the other table our West (Jack) chose not to make that takeout double, having only three Hearts, and Italy settled in only 2♠. Well played guys.

After a couple more good results we went into reverse, removing a good 3NT into 5♦, doubled and off three.

Perhaps some slam deals could save us?

Jack and Lydia bid this one to 6♥, played by East. They got a Heart lead. With the Diamond Queen dropping declarer can throw a losing Spade from the West hand, and just needs to guess Clubs right. Presumably we guessed wrong, as it sadly went one off, for a big swing out (other table 4♥+2, so could have been a big swing in).

One final 3NT woe: how did the Italian declarer (North) steal 3NT here on a Diamond lead?
  

I'm guessing he won the Ace first round (no point ducking, just tells the defence they've found your weak suit), then stole an immediate Spade trick to get up to nine.

I've been impressed with the fortitude of the team in putting aside bad results and continuing to bid up / pre-empt / interfere with strong Club openings. Jack and Lydia duly bounced back here.

All 18 East-West pairs bid to 6♠ here (or doubled 6♦), and that included Scotland. We did it in four bids (East opens 1♠, West bids Blackwood...), the Italians took 14 bids.

It does take some care to play it well. The only thing that can go wrong is in the Heart suit, so you focus on that. Do you lead up to KQ twice, or finesse the Jack? Can you still make it if there is AJx offside? You'd like to eliminate the other suits first (so you might get a ruff and discard) but that won't work when trumps are 4-0.

I think the best you can do after drawing trumps is lead up to your KQ. Assuming no honours appear you lead the Ten on the second round, having a decision to make what to do next. Here it's no problem as the Ace appears on the second round. 

Well done Lydia making the contract, and gaining another slam bonus. 

That's our last match today, with a lighter weekend schedule. Tomorrow it's Bulgaria then Germany.

Round 10 Victory Points: 2.19

Total VPS so far: 22.61 (17th place, still just above Ireland and a long way behind everyone else)

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