Derryvolgie Bridge Club

Despite numerous visits to Belfast, this was the first time we managed to get to the local bridge club. Several times during the day I put our system card in front of Anna but she waved it away, insisting that she was going to play on instinct alone. As it she got lucky, as there were no difficult bidding hands. Her declarer play was also excellent, making crucial overtricks on all her contracts.

I played a single contract of 2♠, which got 21% after I should have done better.

We got a few gifts from lax declarer play, but also suffered when the local declarers bid ambitious contracts and made them. During the first half I was wondering if we should have gone on the more challenging Thursday-night game, but then a series of 0% scores reassured me we were in the right place. The low-point was when doubling them in 2♥, making with an overtrick.

It was a friendly atmosphere and nice talking to people. Anna hasn't since commented on the poor quality of my chat so I assume it was OK.

Here's an interesting hand from early on.

Danny Anna W N E S 1♥ - 1♠ - 3♥ - 3NT - - -

I opened 1♥ and rebid 3♥. I was close to rebidding 3♣, who knows where we would end up then. As it is Anna bid a sensible 3NT, and got a Diamond lead.

She won with the Ace and with the aid of a Heart finesse took 9 tricks. This scored exactly 50%, beating a few pairs who stopped short of game and one in 4♠. Those in Hearts took 12 tricks.

Overall we came third with 59%.

Team Buchanan vs Hamilton

This Glasgow league match started at 1930 to accommodate us and I just made it on time, after finding a parking space on Cadzow street. When I reassured the rest of them that John was arriving soon on the train there was general uproar: "The train?" but he got there in time to start.

In the first half we barely had any hands. In fact the strongest hand I had all night was 14 points. So lots of defending. Once when declarer in 2NT finessed I smoothly ducked my King, and the contract went down one. Afterwards John explained that if I just defended normally and took my King and returned his suit it would have gone two off.

This was a rare hand I got to play:

I opened the South hand 1H and rebid 2H. 

On seeing dummy it looks like I possibly have one loser in each suit. But when the lead was a Club, I thought I was going to take 10 tricks. Heart to the Ace revealed the bad news, and now as well as two Aces I now have three trumps to lose, which luckily I can afford as I'm only in 2♥.

I made 2♥= but possibly we should have been in game. Twice more we stayed low, once making 3♥= then 3♠+1, so maybe we were slightly underbidding.

Apart from that things went well. I got rather warm and might have been sweating a lot as one of the opponents tactfully said that I was very warm-blooded.

On the final hand the opponents were about to play 2♥, but I made a takeout double. The opponents were shortly in 5♥, which I felt obliged to double. Obviously it then made, for a bad finish of -550 points, but overall Team Buchanan had done enough to win the match 15-1.