Sole Bay Bridge Club

Having written about bridge, and watched a lot recently, it was now time for me to have a go myself. A humbling exercise. Anna and I had the pleasure tonight of playing at the Sole Bay Bridge Club in Southwold. There were four tables, playing a good standard.

There were a couple of hands where we could have done better. Once I had a nice five trumps in defence and thought we were sure to beat their 3♦ contract. I was (quietly) rubbing my hands with glee. However, when declarer ruffed I fell into the trap of over-ruffing. I have read that "You shouldn't over-ruff unless you can see that it will gain you a trick" but I couldn't help myself. That led to 3♦= and a bad score for us (well played to the declarer Gwen Webb).

The other hand was when I was declarer in 2♥, dealing with a 5-1 trump break of my own. I knew what I needed to do - ruff in my own hand and scramble my way to eight tricks. But I guessed a Spade finesse wrong and went one down (well done the defence of Doug Kemp & Anthea Marriner).

Finally here is a joint-effort where Anna and I missed out:

♠ J x x x ♥ Q T 9 5 x ♦ x ♣ K x x ♠ x x ♥ J x ♦ A x x x ♣ x x x x x 6 5 14 15 ♠ K T 9 ♥ x x x ♦ K Q J x x ♣ A J ♠ A Q x x x ♥ A K x ♦ x x x ♣ Q x

W N E S Anna Danny - - 1♦ 1♠ 2♦ 3♠ - - -

East opened 1♦ and I had the South hand. I made a 1♠ overcall. West bid a competitive 2♦ and Anna a pre-emptive 3♠, which I passed. Although I have a maximum hand at matchpoints scoring I think pass is clear, especially as Anna could be very weak.

West led the Ace of Diamonds and when I saw the singleton Diamond in dummy I knew I was going to make a lot of tricks. West switched to the Jack of Hearts which I won in hand. Although I feared a Heart ruff I thought East was such a strong favourite to have the trump Ace it was worth a finesse first. I crossed to dummy by ruffing a diamond, then successfully finessed trumps. If I could draw trumps I would then be able to run the Hearts and discard my losing Clubs. However, the King did not fall under the Ace.

So, I tried a sneaky manoeuvre in Hearts. After winning the Ace-King-Queen I still had the winning Ten-Five in dummy. I called for the Five from dummy. East didn't fancy ruffing in with her winning Spade, so I threw one Club, then another one on the Ten of Hearts. I now had now Club losers, so eleven tricks, just losing a Spade and a Diamond.

Unfortunately, 2♠+3 was still not a good score, as a couple of pairs were in 4♠= (well done John Price & Di Pulman, Gwen & Roger Webb).

Fortunately, we got enough boards right to finish with a winning score of 63%.