Christmas Tournament

There were 11 pupils for the school Christmas party. We played matchpoint scoring with boards that had already been played at the Buchanan, meaning I could instantly generate a score even for boards that were only played once.

For the three younger pupils, who had no experience of bidding (or even playing in suit contracts), I bypassed the auction and fixed the contracts. When this led to the most Junior pair leading the field there were accusations this method was unfair, but actually the scores all evened out and I would suggest the final result was somewhat random.

Not to take anything away from the winning pair of Claire and Parveen, with 56%, assisted by Sarah when Parveen had to leave early. Sarah also had the distinction of being in the lowest ranked pair, on 43%, partnered with me.

The best play award goes to Niamh, for this

l North was put in a contract of 1NT, and received a Spade lead. West took his ♠AK, ♦A then tried the Jack of Hearts. Declarer won in hand, then crossed to dummy and took the marked Heart finesse, collecting five Heart tricks in total and finishing on 1NT+2.

While this might not have been the hardest play to find, it was a good achievement given the general noise in the room, Michael Buble Christmas songs and sweets around the place.

Next year we'll all be bidding.