The first and last boards let me down tonight. On the first, I made a difficult-to-read and far-from-clear takeout double with a partner who was still dealing with trying to put a four-year-old to bed. It didn't end well:
I made a solid 1♣ opener, and Anna responded a natural 3♣. West bid 3♠, to play. With my solid Clubs and short Spades I thought I was certainly worth bidding on, but didn't want to miss out on a possible easy 3NT. The solution - double! I thought that with a balanced hand with a Spade stopper Anna should bid 3NT. She thought with a balanced hand with a Spade stopper she should defend, probably thinking I had a strong NT. If I did have a decent strong NT type hand, with a bit more defence, then we might have beaten 3♠.
Anyway I regretted my bid when Anna passed. Declarer didn't even bother finessing Spades and still collected an easy 3♠x= for -530.
On the other tables South played 3NT-1 with no opposition bidding on a Spade lead, North played 4♣-2, and North played 3NTx= when allowed to make a Spade and a Diamond.
This board was a bidding challenge that we did not excel on:
I think my opening bid of 1♠ is clear, and Anna's 2♥ response (for us shows 10+ only). After that I decided that rather than rebidding 2♠ which could be passed, or 3♠ which I wasn't good enough for, I'd bid 3♦. This is still game forcing so I might as well have bid 3♠. Anna wasn't sure my 3♦ bid was game forcing and jumped to 4♥. I probably should have corrected this to 4♠ but considered that since she skipped fourth-suit-forcing Anna knew the final contract, so I passed.
4♥ is not a good contract. You have six trump tricks, plus two Aces. For two more you need some comnbination of the Spade finesse, a high Club, and a Club ruff. West led the ♠2, which is surely a singleton. That means your only hope is to win and play a Club up, hoping the defence don't win and switch to trumps. It didn't work out for Anna and we scored 4♥-2. With the bad Heart split I think 4♥ is hopeless, and luckily for us 4♠ looks doomed too. Well done if you get to 3NT and make it.
On the other tables they played 4♥-1, 4♠-2 and 5♠-1.
In the 24 boards I had only four opening hands. I made a few easy 1NT contracts where I felt I had good control and knew what everybody had, so backed myself to make this 4♠ on the final deal:
With a Heart and two Spade losers I need to play the minors for no losers. This could be playing Diamonds if the Queen is onside and they are 3-3 (as is the case here), or the club finesse (fails here), or playing off the Ace-King of Clubs (works too). You can guess that I took the one losing option.
I tried so hard to work out East's hand, and by the time I was playing the Club suit felt convinced he must have the ♣Q, as he'd only shown the Ace of Hearts so far. What I'd forgotten is that he had five Hearts, making his 2♥ raise quite reasonable (maybe even an underbid). I should have instead focused on West's hand - he overcalled 1♥ with a five card suit to the Jack (as far as I knew), so I should have played him for the remaining ten points. I didn't, and went one off in a making contract.
The other tables played 4♠-1, 3♠= and 3♠+1.
But the rest of the team came through, Jill and Barbara bid a couple of slams, and we won the match comfortably.
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