Glasgow League: Team Rowan vs Shawlands

We managed to get the children to bed 15 minutes before the start of this match and I'm sure that helped, as Anna and I had a good game throughout. Three times we doubled them in 1NT. This was the most profitable:

Our doubles of a Weak NT are 14+, which happens quite a lot. In general I will only remove with a weak hand with a long suit. Here I am very happy to pass.

I'm not sure if East-West had a method to escape, especially as this was a double from the pass-out seat where different agreements apply. You can see that running to 2♦ would have been bad too, but not as bad as 1NT.

I led a Heart. Declarer won his ♥J in hand and started on Diamonds. They do not sit kindly. Anna won and continued Hearts. I didn't know how the Hearts were splitting, so took my ♥Q and switched to the ♣Q. This turned out to be a good switch, as it set up Anna's top Clubs.

Declarer finished with just one Spade and one Heart, for 1NTx-5 and -1100. There was the possiblity of a third trick for declarer if he'd hung on to a Club, but was forced to find a lot of discards.

On the other tables the results were 1NTx-4, 1NT-3 and North-South playing 2NT+2 when West made a surprising transfer over 1NT.

This was a hand where I could have defended better:

I led a low Heart, hoping partner had something in the suit. Anna produced the Queen which declarer won in hand and immediately led the King of Spades. I ducked, and declarer started setting up the Diamonds. My hope was that Anna had the ♥T, in which case we could get two Hearts, two Diamonds and the Ace of Spades. So I tried the Jack of Hearts, but when that didn't work out declarer actually had an overtrick for 3NT+1.

It was a mistake to duck the King of Spades. I know from the auction that Anna's ♥Q is her only high card. So if declarer has ♠KJ(x) then he always has five Spades, and the Ace-King of Hearts and Spades. That's nine tricks, with no shortage of entries to dummy.

So I might as well take my ♠A. I still have a decision to make, whether to go for the Hearts, or the Clubs. Here the ♣Q switch would work (same as it did against 1NTx in the hand above), as declarer doesn't now have the entries to set up Spades and Diamonds and goes off a lot. However, if I continue Hearts (as I probably would have) declarer still makes it comfortably, so I think I was quite far away from beating 3NT.

On the other tables East-West played 4♠-1, 3♦+1 and 3NT-2 by West, where North's Club lead makes it more difficult (declarer needs to play on Diamonds not Spades).

In the end we won our table by +3290 and the match by +3080 to win 13-3. Team Rowan are (for now at least) top of Division Two!

Faben vs Outred

John and I had quite a good game here. On Board 1 we had a mix-up defending against their Strong Club opening. I made a 'natural' 2♣ overcall, which actually showed the majors:

John's accidental psyche of 2♥ kept them out of their best fit, and left me in 2♠. It went three off. This was a good result against their making 4♥. The nice thing about playing in the SOL is that if 4♥ was making the other way you can be pretty sure our team-mates (Derek and Alex) bid it, and indeed they did.

Later I mistakenly passed John's forcing 3NT:

3NT made comfortably enough. The other table got things right in getting to 6♥, but went two off for an undeserved 11 IMP gain.

Apart from these happy accidents there was some good play and we were up at the break.

In the second half this was the most exciting board:

Over their Weak 2♦ John bid 4♦, alerted as the majors. I was on the same page here, and knew he had a big 5-5 hand. I felt quite bold jumping to 6♠, but maybe I didn't do enough. John had a think and then passed. He's got the ♠AK, and I've got the other three Aces, so it was an easy thirteen tricks and 6♠+1.

On the other table the auction started the same but Charles Outred bid 5♦ with my hand. Vi responded with 6♥ and Charles bid 7♠, making. This meant an 11 IMP loss for Team Rowan.

Overall we hung on for a narrow win.

Glasgow League: Team Rowan vs Morison

On Monday in the National League John and I had a good game, beating Team Goodman. In fact, I think more accurately our team-mates had a good game, but still it was nice to be on the winning side. I found it very challenging when Iain Sime and Brian Short were defenders, as everything seemed to go wrong for me as declarer. Tonight it was more straight forward in the Glasgow League Division Two, and we rattled through the boards with me declaring about half of them. Playing total points is also the most relaxing format, as you know that overtricks really don't matter, so lots of early claims.

Perhaps due to complacency or fatigue here's one near the end I could have done better on:

I got the obvious Diamond lead and ducked twice before winning the Ace. This was the same on all four tables. I then lead a Heart up to the Queen. West played low, but after a long enough pause to make me pretty sure he had the Ace. I cashed my four Clubs, East throwing one more Heart. I then led a Heart from dummy and the Nine appeared from East. At this point if I'm really on the ball I can work out the whole suit. I don't think West would have ducked from ♥AJx, so East must have the Jack, hence West is down to a bare Ace. Playing a low from hand should produce the Ace, and I've got 7 tricks (and luckily they can't cash out in Spades).

Of course, I did the normal thing and played the King of Hearts, reasoning I might still make my Ten of Hearts in dummy. I didn't, the defence took three Diamonds, two Spades and two Hearts for 1NT-1.

Every other table made 1NT=, after West took the Ace of Heart straight away, cashed the long Diamond, and returned a Spade, East greedily grabbing the Ace-King and giving the contract.

Despite this minor mistake we were pretty good otherwise and got a few big swings on our table, stealing a few games from our opponents. Our match (along with Colin & Sheena) finished +1580, the other table (with David & Heather and Neil & Anna) was +940. That meant a 12-4 win

SOL4: Faben vs Maiolani

We lost this match by about 12 IMPs. I think there were two boards where I gained IMPs for the team (a double of 4♠, and a risky 3♥ vulnerable overcall) but several where I lost some. This was the low point:

With a massive hand I didn't mind coming back in with 4♣. I was close to bidding 5♣, and so was John. A Spade was lead. My first thought on seeing dummy was "We've missed 5♣". I tested trumps and when they weren't 3-2 I knew what to do; set up the Diamonds straight away. However, something went wrong. I left two trumps out instead of just one, and they were the ♣QJ in West. That meant after clearing the Diamonds I couldn't draw trumps and get back to the East hand. I ended up one down.

I've looked at this hand quite a lot since. The easiest way to make it is to draw three rounds of trumps, and leave just one out. On this layout I actually do best to start on Diamonds straight away (before drawing trumps), and maybe that's what I should have done.

The other table got it right and made 3♣+2. On their table South didn't overcall at all - a missed opportunity as North-South make 4♠ I think.

My other bodge was this one:

John's double showed at least four Hearts, but that still wasn't enough to convince me to go to 5♥. You can see that I've made the right decision to defend 4♠. John led the King of Hearts, I encouraged, and he played a low Heart to my Ace. I took it as suit preference and switched to Clubs. John won and returned a Diamond. I got back in with the Ace of Spades and it was decision time. I was convinced that John had ♣AQ and that it didn't matter which minor I played. So without too much thought I played a Diamond, and now John got endplayed and declarer escaped for -2.

4♠x-2 was +300. On the other table South opened 1NT and after a 2♥ overcall North bid 2♠, East 4♥ and South had no choice really but to bid 4♠. This wasn't doubled but went three off, holding our gain to 4 IMPs. If I get the defence right instead it's +8 IMPs.

SBU Bronze League 6: HighSchoolOfGlasgow vs Buccaneers1

Since the Peggy Bayer junior internationals my secondary school team have been competing in a Wednesday night league on Bridge Base. As I am technically Bronze too I have always been on standby, but so far not been needed. This week with school exams we had only three so I offered to play (actually I offered to reschedule but the other team preferred to go ahead and play, obviously not very intimidated by the thought of playing me!)

I don't think having one experienced player makes a huge difference; certainly a lot less than an experienced pair would. I bid sensibly and made my contracts, but think actually most of the IMPs were generated at the other table.

This is a nice hand that my partner, michaelwk bid and played well:

We play a weak NT and four card majors. Michael's 1♠ bid nearly always shows five, but I still felt more comfortable replying 2♥. This is in theory 10+, which I think my hand is worth. The main reason I didn't support Spades was because I didn't know how high to bid - 2♠, 3♠ or 4♠? When Michael rebid 3NT (showing 15+ and a good Diamond stop) it was possible that he had a 4333 hand but I guessed not and corrected to 4♠.

When I saw his hand I was glad we were in 4♠ and not 3NT. Playing 3NT on a Diamond lead you win and take five Spades, but then have to lose the lead and end up losing four Diamonds and two Aces for 3NT-2.

4♠ looks easy but you have to be careful. Missing both the ♣A and ♦A you are going to have to lose the lead, probably twice, and if you do that after drawing trumps you might end up with lots of Diamond losers.

Fortunately, Michael got the ♦A lead which makes things easier. However, if you draw trumps you could still fail. If the defence duck Clubs and Hearts you can't get to dummy and end up still losing two Diamonds and two Aces. So at trick two Michael correctly started on the Hearts. This generates more tricks, and has to be done early while you still have trumps in dummy. He ended up making 4♠+1, just losing two Aces.

On the other table North bid a simple 2♠ after the 2♦ overcall, and South raised to 4♠. Our West (Harry) lead Ace and another Heart. This sets up dummy's Hearts, but once trumps are drawn he can't get to them. Declarer tried playing Hearts before drawing the last trump but our East (Al) ruffed in and played a Diamond through for 4♠-3, a big difference.

We won the match by a big margin and after two rounds are among the top teams in Division 7.

SOL4: Faben vs DShenkin

A disappointing game for me tonight. I think I made a lot of 40% decisions. These are obviously poor decisions, but I think I was unlucky that they all seemd to fail. Starting with the positive, here's a board where I lost IMPs to good declarer play. Can't argue with that:

They've stretched to bid 3NT so we've a good chance of beating it. I led a safe Diamond and waited for our tricks to come in. We couldn't stop declarer setting up the Clubs, but he's still a bit short. Three Clubs, three Diamonds, one Spade and one Heart. On the last Club it's crunch time. I have a hand full of winners, two Hearts, a Diamond to come, and my King of Spades. I threw a Diamond, and John had already thrown one, so declarer promptly crossed to his hand and took two more Diamond tricks.

If I bare the King of Spades, declarer surely finesses and goes down. My counterpart on the other table did exactly that. So it's well played by their declarer (Martin Diamond) and their defender (David Shenkin), for a well earned 10 IMPs.

There were four more game swings their way, all of which involved competitive high-level auctions. This was the most embarrassing, where I conjured an extra loser:

John's 2NT shows a good raise, after which 5♥ is clear with nothing but trumps. This got doubled.

It looked like five off, for -800. Losing two Spades, two Diamonds and the Club finesse, which I thought was sure to fail.

West cashed the top two Clubs, but was then afraid to lead a Diamond away from the King, so continued trumps. Could I take advantage? No. I finessed Clubs, but in a muddled attempt to confuse the opposition played the Nine and Jack on the same trick. I was assuming the Club finesse would fail and didn't want West to switch to Diamonds. But when the finesse won, I've not blown too many high cards, and couldn't win the fourth Club. So it was 5♥x-2, rather than 5♥x-1.

The other table had pushed to 5♠-1, so the board was already lost. But going off an extra trick meant -12 IMPs, rather than -9 IMPs.

That was my low point. Our partnership low point came on this board, where John had the misfortunte to weigh in at exactly the wrong time.

John's 4♥ shows some sort of very distributional two-suiter, and weak as he didn't bid before. When East doubled this I foolishly weighed in with 5♣. It was only when John corrected to 5♦ I realised he obviously had the other two suits. I corrected to 5♠, which was a much worse trump suit.

I realised 5♠ was going to be bad, and it was damage limitation. I played to keep trump control and set up the Diamonds, which I achieved, but only after I'd lost a lot of tricks for 5♠x-5.

Our new team-mates Alex Adamson and Derek Sanders made a solid 4♥, but that was largely irrelevant opposite our -1100 and we lost 12 IMPs.

There was another board where I had 20 points and propelled John into an awful 4♥, but I think that's enough rue for now. We lost the match by 33 IMPs to collect just 3 VPs.

On the plus side my team of High School of Glasgow pupils playing in the SBU Bronze League are doing well.

Glasgow League: Jacobin vs Rowan

Anna and I did a lot of defending in this match. It was a test of concentation. Could I have done better here?

Anna won the first Heart and correctly switched to a low Heart (from an odd number). I won this with my Ace and had a think. Or rather, I should have had a think. I just returned a Heart. Declarer won and took a losing Spade finesse, but with Hearts 4-4 we couldn't take enough tricks.

After winning the second Heart if I switch to a Diamond declarer is down. If he plays low we can take a Diamond trick to go with our three Hearts and a Spade, and if he plays the Ace of Diamonds we get three Diamond tricks and two Hearts.

Should I have spotted this at the table? Maybe. It's pretty likely declarer has the Queen of Hearts, else he wouldn't have ducked the King on the first trick.

On two of the other tables East-West bid and made a good 4♠, and on the last declarer went down in 3NT playing on Diamonds instead of Spades (perhaps afraid Hearts were 5-3).

We collected a lot of good results on part-score boards, and took advantage a few times when the opponent's overbid. On the rare times we had a game we bid and made it. But the opponents had the cards and did pretty well.

On this board Anna's caution was not rewarded:

I had a borderline 1♦ opener and an easy 2♦ rebid. Anna bid a forcing and natural 2♥, and I showed my Spade stop with 2NT. After a pause, Anna signed off in 3NT. With a good 20 point hand I think she was worth at least an invitational 4NT (which I would have passed), but in fact 6♣ is the winning bid here.

3NT made twelve tricks on a Spade lead.

This was not a good board for Team Rowan. One opponent bid and made 6♣, the other also 3NT+3. On the fourth table Colin and Sheena got to a good 6NT, but East found the killing Diamond lead - a low Diamond in fact. Declarer naturally went up with the Ace and finessed Hearts, going down two. Bad luck.

Overall we lost the match by about 2700 points for a 4-12 loss.