Holiday double - Walberswick and Southwold

Anna and I strolled happily into Walberswick bridge club last Tuesday, delighted to have an afternoon to ourselves playing bridge. "Good evening!" I brightly announced to everyone, even though it was only 2 pm.

For the first ten hands Anna was dummy a lot, and I fear suffered a post-prandial slump, especially when she was in the seat in the sun opposite the allotments. When we were sitting out she deliberately had a caffeinated tea, for the first time in several years, and a Mint Club biscuit.

I played quite briskly, except for one hand where I totally ground to a halt. 

In 3NT, I was hoping for lots of Club tricks with

♣AJ9872

♣KQ

There was only one outside entry to dummy. I planned to unblock the ♣KQ, then cross over and enjoy the rest of the tricks. But when I played the ♣K, West showed out. What's the solution?

Overtake the ♣Q with the ♣A and play Clubs from the top, giving up one Club trick to East but getting the rest. I figured this out but was thinking about the whole hand and must have been deep in thought for at least five minutes.

Below is the best bid and played hand 

W	N	E	S
			1♣
1♥	x	2♥	3♣
3♥	4♣	4♥	-
-	-

I had the South hand and of course opened 1C. West overcalled 1H and Anna sitting North made a takeout double showing four Spades. East raised to 2H, I stretched to 3C, West bid Hearts again, Anna 
supported Hearts and East bid on to game.

At this point I thought 4H was probably going down, but didn't quite have enough with my South hand to double, and nor did Anna as North.

Anna led a Club from North and there was no defence. I tried a Spade, but declarer played low to her Queen in dummy, and there was no Spade ruff. She ruffed a Club, drew trumps, and we only got one Spade, one Diamond, one Club for 4H=.

Overall we finished the day second with about 66%. If we'd have found the 5C sacrifice above we might have won.

-----------

Wednesday evening we played bridge again, this time in the Sole Bay Bowls Club. Google Maps didn't get us there, not did the map on the Bowls Club website. Typing the address into Google got us to a Health Centre from which we could see people playing Bowls but couldn't get over the fence. Finally we got in at 7:08 pm, which is shockingly late as you're supposed to be sat down ten minutes before play.

It was a nice venue once we settled in.

Early on, at favourable vulnerability Anna opened 2♦ and I had :

♠ x x   ♥ J x x  ♦ J x x   ♣ Q x x x x

I tried a raise to 4♦. To my surprise, this actually got doubled for penalties, and Anna had to play it. She had a couple of useful Kings and scraped 4♦x-3, which was hopefully a good save against a vulnerable game.

Anna was also bidding aggressively:

 

W	N	E	S
			1♠
-	1NT	-	2♦
-	4♠	-	-
-

 
I opened the South hand 1S and Anna made a 'bucket' 1NT bid, showing 6-9. Even playing four cards majors some would raise to 2S with that North hand, as you won't be happy if partner passes out 1NT and you get a Heart lead.

I rebid 2D, and Anna fully appreciated the value of a double fit and raised me all to game. This is good Teams bidding, but at Matchpoints I'd rather try for a top just making a comfortable 2S+2.

West led a Club, which East won. She'd been listening to the auction and returned a Diamond, on which I played low from hand and West ruffed. At this point I'm down if West returns a Heart to get another ruff, but luckily he tried Clubs again. 

I was then able to draw trumps with the Ace-King (as they were now 2-2) finishing in dummy, and after some thought realised I didn't need the King of Hearts onside, I could just lead the Queen of Diamonds from dummy to pick up that suit, finally losing just one Heart, one Club, one Diamond, for a stressful 4S=.

No idea what this is

At the end of the evening we went down to the Nelson for a pint of Adnams, and I reflected on a missed Heart slam which was mostly my fault.