Glasgow League Division One: Civic vs Rowan

Last night we were at St. Andrews to play a team called Civic. Me and Anna sat down against Bill and Ileen.

Things started badly, when on all of the first three boards we had chances at game, but unfortunately played the partscore hand in game and the two game hands in partscore. Our next chance at game came when we had 25 points but no Heart stop, so wisely stopped in 3♣. However, this was the layout of the Heart suit, with West on lead:

	♥ J x x
♥ K Q T x x		♥ A x
	♥ x x x

To beat 3NT West needs to lead a low Heart, which never happened, so where it was bid 3NT made.

That turned out to be all the good cards we had in the first half, and our opponents went on to rack up a series of games against us. At the half way point Team Rowan was about 2000 points down. The damage was softened by some nice gingerbread cake.

In the second half the contracts were low, until we got to the 'slam hand' (rotated so Anna is South and I'm North).

♠ A K Q ♥ A Q J 8 5 4 ♦ 9 ♣ T 9 3

♠ J 9 4 ♥ 7 ♦ K 8 6 ♣ A Q 8 6 5 4

1. Looking at just North and South, what contract would you like to be in?

Me and Anna ended up in 6♣. It was not a success. This was the full deal and our terrible auction:

No one vul W deal ♠ A K Q ♥ A Q J 8 5 4 ♦ 9 ♣ T 9 3 ♠ 6 2 ♥ 9 6 3 ♦ Q 7 5 4 3 ♣ K 7 2 16 5 9 10 ♠ T 8 7 5 3 ♥ K T 2 ♦ A J T 2 ♣ J ♠ J 9 4 ♥ 7 ♦ K 8 6 ♣ A Q 8 6 5 4

Danny Anna W N E S - 1♥ - 2♣ - 2♠ - 3NT - 4♥ - 4♠ - 5♣ - 5♥ - 5♥ - 6♣ - - -

Surprisingly, all of these were natural bids. I opened 1♥ and Anna replied 2♣. Fine so far. I then went for a three card reverse of 2♠, despite having a perfectly good 3♥ rebid available. My addled thinking was that my hand would be a good dummy for Clubs, and if I rebid 3♥ we can't get to Clubs. Anna bid 3NT. I didn't fancy that with my singleton Diamond and six Hearts so bid 4♥ to play, and now the wheels came off. Anna quite reasonably corrected to 4♠, and since I knew that was a 3-3 fit I escaped to 5♣. Unfortunately it didn't end there; Anna corrected me back to 5♥, and I went for 6♣. This was passed out.

Before the opening lead the opposition asked a flurry of questions about the auction. We couldn't tell them much, as we'd just got into a muddle and don't have agreements for bidding on after 3NT like this. West kept asking me what I guessed my partner's bids meant. I was a bit uncomfortable guessing but said that I thought Anna's bids could be cuebids or could be natural. East asked me at what point we'd agreed Clubs. I said not until the 6♣ bid!

West lead a Spade, then on seeing dummy reserved her rights, presumably because she thought she'd been misinformed. The only thing I can think of that could be misinformation is that during the explanation I was asked about my shape and said that my bidding had shown six Hearts and four Spades

2. Was I wrong to say this?

Perhaps she reasoned that since I also supported Clubs I must have a Diamond void, so she'd been deceived out of leading a Diamond. Anna won the Spade lead and immediately finessed Clubs, losing to the ♣K. West still didn't lead a Diamonds, instead playing another Spade. Anna drew the remaining trumps. She now has a chance to make the contract if she can set up the Hearts, which needs them 3-3 and a good guess as to who has the King. She went for the straight finesse, which lead to two down.

Note that the other way to play 6♣ is to try and ruff Diamonds, which makes whenever you have no Club losers.

The other two tables I talked to afterwards managed to play in 4♥, which is good going as 3NT goes down on a Diamond lead. 5♣ also makes.

Anna and I obviously lost a game swing for our team on this hand, but pulled back some points with good defence later on, then on the very last board Anna bid and made our only game.

In the end Team Rowan lost by about 1600 points, for a 5-11 defeat.

East Swiss Pairs 2014

Last year I played in The East of Scotland Swiss Pairs with Kris Nyugen from Edinburgh and we finished 11th (read my report here). This year I was playing with Anna. One thing stayed the same though. Just like last year I was part of the the last pair in the room, jogging in at a minute past one.

Since we live in Glasgow now we left quite quickly afterwards to drive home, and in my hurry I picked up two copies of the hand records from the first half. Hence I'm going to focus on the early deals.

In Round One we played in a slow and measured way. We bid conservatively and took no risks, apart from two wild moments (out of six boards).

Non-vulnerable, this was Anna's hand. We play standard Acol.

♠ A K Q J 8

♥ K J T

♦ 8 6

♣ A Q T

1: What do you open?

Anna went for the usual 2NT opening. We're not too strict about this bid and it could even include a singleton. I raised her to 3NT which was passed out, or so I thought. Then Anna pointed out that she hadn't actually passed yet, and still had a bid. After some thought she pulled out 4♠, which surprised everyone. She was worried about the Diamond suit. This was the full deal.

Danny Anna W N E S 2NT - 3NT - 4♠ - - - -

South lead a Heart. Anna now has ten top tricks (five Spades, two Hearts including a ruff and three Clubs). This is one more top trick than in 3NT, so ought to be a good score. However, lots of people made ten tricks in 3NT, getting their extra trick either in Clubs or Diamonds. Anna could have got her eleventh trick here, but guessed to play for Clubs 3-3 rather than the ♦A onside so only made 4♠=. I think this hand demonstrates how tricky Matchpoints is.

After this board I thought we must have been doing badly so pre-empted wildly on the last board of the set. This had no effect as the opponents calmly bid 5♥ over me and made it. In fact we hadn't done as bad as I thought, and we scored 8/20 VPs, and moved just slightly down the field.

In Round 2 came the Deal of the Day, with big decisions for all four players. With nobody vulnerable my left hand opponent dealt and opened 1♥.

♠ 7 2

♥ K 6 4

♦ A

♣ A K J 6 4 3 2

2. What do you overcall with this hand?

I decided I was too good for 2♣ so doubled planning to bid Clubs next round (which for us shows about 16-18 and a good 6+ card suit). It was only when the bidding got back round that I thought of 3NT. This was the full deal and auction at our table:

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

After my double East was restrained in not bidding her eight card Diamond suit, and in fact was restrained throughout. Anna has the perfect hand to respond 1NT to my double (8-11 points, Heart stop), but curiously chose to introduce her three card Spade suit. This proved to be a tactical masterstroke, as the opponents can actually make 6♠ but were cut out of the auction by her unusual bid. Perhaps out of frustration West jumped to 3♥. I was now all set to bid my Clubs, but remembered about 3NT and bid it with some confidence. I've got seven top Clubs (probably) the ♦A and surely a Heart on the lead.

Unfortunately East thwarted me by leading a Diamond. I played the ♦Q from dummy hoping West would have to play the ♦K. He played low so embarrassingly I had to overtake my winning Queen with the singleton ♦A. With the surprise Club support in dummy I've eight top tricks. I thought about crossing to dummy and leading a Heart through West to try and steal a ninth, which probably would have worked as he wouldn't expect me to have so many cashing Clubs. If however he did rise with the ♥A though he could then lead a Diamond back, and the defence would take seven more Diamonds and the rest in Spades, for a rare 3NT-8.

I decided instead just to run all my Clubs, which would lead to one down at worst or make if someone messed up the discards. I think West presumed I had ♦AK because he threw his remaining Diamond and in the end I was able to safely set up my ninth trick in Hearts, and actually finished on 3NT+1.

We collected 13/20 VPs for this round and moved up the field a bit.

In Round 3 we persisted with our counter-intuitive matchpoint strategy of bidding minor contracts wherever possible. This worked out well, as we missed a few doomed games. I had a little decision when dealer with this hand.

♠ 2

♥ 8 7 4 3

♦ A 7 6 4 3 2

♣ 4 3

It's worth noting that if you were playing reverse bridge (lowest card wins the trick), this would be a 2♣ opener. As we were playing normal bridge I passed. Anna opened 1♥, a natural bid showing a four card major.

3. What do you respond?

I think that you'd be mad to pass as you have an excellent hand in support of Hearts. I bid 2♥, and felt quite comfortable when Anna raised to 4♥. Then, having passed throughout, one of the opponents went into a long think about sacrificing over 4♥. I'm glad he didn't, as it was a double fit hand:

Anna Danny W N E S - - 1♥ - 2♥ - 4♥ - - -

Against 4♥ North lead the ♠A then switched to a Diamond. Anna won the ♦A while also unblocking her ♦K, and went on to make the obvious eleven tricks. I think if South did bid 5♣ I might well have bid again.

We won this round with 17/20 VPs, and moved up to Table 5.

For lunch I had a scone:

In the second half we continued to bid calmly, declare averagely and defend generously. I have no records or memory of the hands so can only say we finished in joint 9th place, good enough for the 1st Bronze Prize:

Well done to Yvonne and David Wiseman on an emphatic win. Full results here and photos of the winners here (though this SBU News page might have changed by now).

Glasgow League Division One: Rowan vs Phoenix

Last week Team Rowan suffered a 15-1 loss to Team Phoenix from Hamilton.

On our table we played against Alan and Martin. It was an exciting set of boards, and I think we gave as good as we got.

Board 2 NS vul East deal ♠ A Q J x x x x ♥ x ♦ Q J x ♣ A x ♠ x ♥ A Q T x x x x ♦ A x ♣ J x x 14 11 6 9 ♠ x ♥ J x x ♦ x x x x ♣ K Q T x x ♠ K x x ♥ K x ♦ K T x x ♣ 9 x x x

Danny Anna W N E S - - 4♥ 4♠ 5♥ 5♠ x - - -

After two passes it came round to me sitting West. I would normally open this hand 1♥, but being third-in-hand I decided to mix things up with an immediate 4♥ bid. North bid a prompt 4♠, which I thought would probably end the auction. However, Anna chipped in with a 5♥ sacrifice, South weighed in with 5♠ and it was back round to me. I remember reading somewhere that if you choose to pre-empt with a good hand you should be prepared to double later on. I didn't really want to double 5♠ but with my two Aces felt I ought to give it a go.

Against 5♠x Anna led a Heart, and I was surprised when my ♥Q held the trick - Anna must have supported with only three Hearts. I was slightly worried about dummy's Diamonds so switched to a Club. Declarer took the ♣A, drew trumps in just one round then played on Diamonds. I snapped up the ♦A and we got our Club trick, for one down. "Great defence partner!" Anna said, with her eyes, while actually writing the score down silently.

That ought to have been a good board for us as 5♥ goes down as long as the defence find a Diamond switch. However, when Christine was declarer in 5♥ it went down when she gambled on North having a singleton ♥K so lost a trump trick, and when Heather & David were sitting North-South declarer managed to squeeze home in 5♥. Overall a bad one for Team Rowan then.

On to the next, where I rolled the dice again.

Board 7 All vul South deal ♠ x x ♥ x x ♦ J T x x x ♣ A K Q x ♠ Q J T x x x x ♥ J x ♦ x x ♣ x x 10 4 11 15 ♠ 9 ♥ K Q x x ♦ A Q x x ♣ x x x ♠ A K x ♥ A x x x x ♦ K x ♣ J x x

Danny Anny W N E S 1NT 2♦* x 2♥ x 2♠ - - -

South opened a weak 1NT (even though it's got 15 points if I've remembered the hand correctly). I had the seven card Spade suit and was planning on opening a weak 2♠, reasoning that the seventh trump made up for the weak hand. Over the 1NT I thought I should still bid, so overcalled 2♦ showing a six card major. North doubled and Anna bid 2♥. This would normally be pass or correct, but after the double I don't know it means. South doubled this and I now got to bid my 2♠, passed out.

There's a certain five losers of the top, so to make it I've just got to get rid of the Diamond loser. I tried to do this by setting up the Hearts but once I realised they were 5-2 it became tricky, so I banked on the certain Diamond finesse. This was a 'marked finesse', as by the time I came to finesse South had already shown 12 points, and in the auction North had doubled 2♦ to show Diamonds. I was shocked when the finesse lost. Maybe I miscounted South's points.

I hoped it would still be a good score for us, as the opponents have 25 points between them. North-South can make 3NT if they manage to force a couple of Diamond winners, to go with the other six top tricks, before the defence get into Hearts. 3NT made on Trish & Christine's table (where Team Rowan were defending) and went down on Heather & David's table (where Team Rowan were declaring). So another bad one for the team.

At the half way mark I expect we were quite far down. Tom & Raymond went to chat with their pals from Hamilton, while Anna lingered by the tea and coffee, waiting for me to make here a cup of tea.

Here's one I bodged:

Board 15 NS vul South deal ♠ Q 6 x ♥ J x ♦ K x ♣ J T x x x x ♠ A K T 9 8 4 ♥ x x ♦ x ♣ A Q x x 7 13 6 14 ♠ J 7 x ♥ x x x ♦ A J T x x x ♣ x ♠ x ♥ A K Q x x x ♦ Q x x x ♣ K x

Danny Anna W N E S 1♥ 1♠ 2♣ 2♠ 3♥ 3♠ - - 4♥ 4♠ - - -

After South opened 1♥ I overcalled 1♠, and North made a very light 2♣ bid. This makes my hand slightly worse with the Club finesse likely to fail, but I felt was strong enough that when Anna supported me with 2♠ I could bid 3♠. When South bid 4♥ I bid 4♠ without really thinking - it was one of those nights where both sides just seemed to keep bidding.

When dummy came down I was glad Anna was full value for her 2♠, and game looked decent. I planned to get five trump tricks, four Clubs (with three ruffs in dummy) and the ♦A. The only danger was that when the defence got their ♠Q they could play another trump to cut down my ruffs, in which case I'd have to rely on setting up Diamonds. I didn't consider the lucky Club position making the ♣Q a winner.

North lead a Heart and South took the first two tricks and played a third Heart. I ruffed with the ♠T, and North shrewdly threw a Diamond. I started my cross-ruff, and got two Club ruffs in dummy before North took his ♠Q. He played a Club through and I had to ruff high in dummy to stop South over-ruffing. All this ruffing high had weakened my trumps and I ended up with my ♠4 in hand losing to North's ♠6. In fact on this layout once the ♣Q becomes high I don't need so many ruffs so can draw one round of trumps and make it.

I should say I played this hand painfully slowly, and apologised to everyone afterwards. And on the other tables? Christine managed to make 4♠ for Team Rowan in the West seat, and it was also made by the opposition East-West pairs. So due to my bodge another bad one for Team Rowan.

My final board is a big one, where me and Anna got very carried away:

Board 18 NS vul East deal ♠ Q J T x x ♥ x ♦ Q x x ♣ A x x x ♠ K x ♥ Q x x x x ♦ A K x x x ♣ x 9 12 9 10 ♠ x ♥ A K J x x x ♦ J T x x x ♣ x ♠ A x x x x ♥ x ♦ - ♣ K Q J x x x x

Danny Anna W N E S - 1♣ 1♥ 1♠ 4♥ 4♠ 5♦ 5♠ 6♥ 6♠ - - 7♥ - - x - - -

Anna dealt and chose to pass the East cards. I think this was perhaps a mistake, as it caused her to bid like mad later on to 'catch up'. South opened his freak hand 1♣ and I overcalled 1♥. Although I could have bid 2NT to show a two-suiter we only do this for weak or strong hands, so with my middling hand I have to bid twice (if possible). North bid 1♠, Anna came in with 4♥, and South bid 4♠. I could have passed this, but was determined to show my second suit and maybe direct the lead so bid a natural 5♦.

Things took off now, and we bid the double fit all the way up to 7♥. No one knew who was sacrificing and who was bidding to make. I wanted to double 6♠ to stop Anna bidding on as I thought we could beat it, but was worried if I doubled my ♠K would get finessed. Anna did go on and pull out 7♥, and it was up to North to end the madness by doubling.

Once the defence took their two tricks against 7♥x my main concern was whether or not they could have made 6♠. Unfortunately, when I drew trumps the Hearts were 1-1, meaning in defence of 6♠ we would have got one Spade and one Heart (but no Diamonds).

7♥x-3 cost us 500 points, which was bad considering they were going down in 6♠, but a good sacrifice against their 4♠ game.

On the other tables Trish & Christine sitting East-West defended 6♠x-1 for +100 and David & Heather sitting North-South judged very well to defend 6♥-2 and also collect +100, so overall I think the other pairs saved us. There was of course also a fourth table for Team Rowan featuring Tom & Raymond, but they remain tight lipped about their adventures.

Overall it was regrettably a big loss for Team Rowan, and I fear we are still without a win in Division One.

Glasgow League Division One: Rowan vs GUU

Anna and I missed the first match of the season, but we had an inkling it didn't go well when nobody mentioned the result. For the second match we were at home to another good team. It was good to see everybody again at the Buchanan club. We still lost the match, but at least picked up a few points in a narrow defeat.

There was one slam hand, which was bid at three out of the four tables:

Dealer West All Vul ♠ x ♥ x x x ♦ Q x x x ♣ A J x x x ♠ J T x ♥ Q 9 8 x x x ♦ x ♣ Q x x 7 5 10 18 ♠ x ♥ K J ♦ K T x x x x ♣ K T x x ♠ A K Q x x x x x ♥ A x ♦ A J ♣ x

Danny Anna W N E S - - - 2♣* - 2♦* - 2♠ - 3♣ - 4NT* - 5♣* - 6♠ - - -

Both me and Anna were close to opening bids. I decided I was too weak for 2♥, don't know why Anna didn't open 2♦. As it is we both passed so our opponents, Bob McKinnon and Ian, had an unopposed auction to 6♠. The 4NT bid was Keycard in Clubs, so I guess South didn't know if his partner had the Ace or King of Clubs and couldn't go on to investigate a grand slam (which could very well have been laydown).

I lead my singleton Diamond and felt pretty hopeful about getting a ruff, but alas not to be. My lead gives away the 12th trick straight away, but in fact with the Diamond finesse working slam is always there, and even has chances if the finesse fails if you have time to set up a Diamond trick by force.

I think with interference it's quite hard to get to 6♠. From Team Rowan Trish and Christine missed the slam when West opened a multi 2♦, South bid a direct 5♠, and North passed.

At the half way point we were about 1400 points down, not too bad.

As for Anna & I, we played OK. We had one hiccup due to miscounted points, and one 3NT I could have made but didn't (and only realised this morning I could have made it), but otherwise we did fairly well.

My highlights were when we got to a robust 5♦, in preference to an ugly 3NT, and Anna brought it home. Then she started chuckling playing 4♥ when she realised she'd blocked the Club suit. It didn't matter though and we got a good score for that one too when the opponents could have sacrificed in 4♠. They were obviously deterred from bidding on by my earlier brisk double of their 5♣ contract (which thankfully went one off).

The other highlight was when Bob, who'd been quiet as dummy, suddenly slammed his fist on the table, on top of the Ten of Diamonds. I'd been in a dwam and didn't know what was going on. I thought he was trying to straighten the card, then he explained that a little ant had been walking across the table.

My lowlights were when Anna kept opening and rebidding the suit I was very weak or void in, and I had to ponder whether to plough on or do the sensible thing and pass. This happened three times. Once I passed it out and despite the misfit we missed a game. Then I passed it out and we played a 6-0 instead of a 5-3 fit. The one time I bid on it turned out Anna had opened 1♠ on a weak 10 count and was now desperate to pass, but I kept making forcing bids until eventually we subsided in 3♥, which luckily still made:

Dealer South Love All ♠ x x x ♥ A x x ♦ x x x ♣ A Q x x ♠ x ♥ K Q 9 8 x ♦ Q x x x ♣ K x x 10 10 10 10 ♠ A T x x x x ♥ J x ♦ A x x ♣ J x ♠ K Q J ♥ x x x ♦ K J x ♣ x x x x

Danny Anna W N E S - - - 1♠ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♦ - 3♥ - - -

North lead the ♣A, so I just lost a Club, Heart and Diamond for 3♥+1. Where East opened 2♠ it made once and went down once.

In the second half of the match our table was fairly flat. Heather and David had a good card and so our final deficit was 940 points, which still translated to a 6-10 loss. Plus two points for turning up!

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championship - Day Seven

To close the week of bridge the final event was the Open Pairs. I signed up to play with John Faben. In advance we'd agreed to play whichever system the winners of the main event used. When the Chairman's team prevailed this meant playing Hackett-Hackett, downloadable here. You might notice that the link there is for their 2005 system. We noticed this too but only after it was too late, so that's what we ended up playing.

The main features are:

Strong NT

Four card majors, open them even with longer minor if weak

Three weak twos, could be five cards and 3-10 points

2/1 game forcing

Standard count and attitude

There was also lots of other stuff that we quickly gleaned from the convention card, and agreed to play even though we didn't really know what we were doing. This included: four suit transfers, mini-splinters, South African Texas openings, Puppet Stayman, Kokish after 2♣, a funny defence to a 1♣ opening, various ways of showing two suited hands. It was foolish to try and play this unfamiliar system, of course it was, but we figured we might as well have a go, even if this was the highest standard I've played in for a long time and was costing us £40 each for the days play.

Besides, it couldn't go worse than last time me and John played together. That was at the New Melville Congess (report here) where we'd agreed to play a ridiculous mish-mash called Puppet Culbertson. I actually felt pretty confident with the Hackett's convention card. If it was good enough for the Hacketts (nine years ago), surely it was good enough for us?

The format was eight rounds of fix boards, matchpoint scored then converted to VPs. I'm not sure how they did the conversion, but you could to pretty terribly and still get 1 or 2 VPs, as we found out.

Round One - 14/20 VPs

I thought we played really well here, beating Norman Levitt and David Shenkin. I was sharp as a tack. On the first board defending 3NT declarer ducked the first Spade trick to me, and rather than just banging on with the Spades I shrewdly switched suits and we ended up with three tricks in defence and a very good score. Then John robbed them blind in 4♠, stealing a vital overtrick for a top board. Can you work out how he got 11 tricks here, declaring 4♠ as East?

Danny John W N E S 1♠ - 1NT - 2♣ - 2♠ - 3♠ - 4♠ - - -

South lead the ♦K, and his partner gave count. John cleverly ducked this, and when South continued with a low Diamond he was able to win in hand, draw two rounds of trumps, then finesse Diamonds and get his Heart away. Ducking the first trick is vital; if he wins then later tries to set up a Diamond winner it will be too obvious and the defence will switch to Hearts. I have to say if I was declarer I wouldn't have thought of ducking, I would just be thinking "Brilliant, 10 tricks".

That hand is also notable as it was my first ever 2/1 auction. After East opened 1♠ I had to reply 1NT, then when East rebid 2♣ I showed Spades and we were away.

For comparison, the Hacketts only made 4♠ there, and Jun Nakamura-Pinder and Phil Morrison got a gift when they sat North-South and their opponents only bid up to 3♠

Our only small losses in this set were when the opponents bid up to the normal contract and made the normal number of tricks, which always seems to get the declaring side about 60%. At the end of the round we scored 14/20 VPs, and moved up to Table 10. That proved to be our high water mark.

Round Two- 2/20 VPs

I didn't enjoy this match much. Our opponents, Tracy Capal and David Sherman, had their game faces on and beat us soundly. It was one way traffic, and I was standing in the middle of the road getting run over by it. I got hammered off three doubled in 3NT, then came the low point of the day:

Danny John W N E S 1♥ - 1NT - 2♣ - - -

When 2♣ got passed back to me I thought about coming back in with 2♠. I knew that South had denied four Spades and North wasn't bidding Spades, but I was too scared so I passed. Of course me and John had a massive Spade fit, and even if we play in 4♠-1 that's better than letting them make lots of tricks in Clubs. Declarer somehow made ten tricks, possibly due to me throwing the ♦9 in an over-enthusiastic signal, but it didn't really matter.

For comparison, the Hackett's were North-South and defended 3♠ making, and Jun & Phil were also North-South and defended 4♥-1 (I expect it was put in wrongly into the Bridgemate and it was actually 4♠-1. Some people can't cope with being North)

Despite averaging only 30% of the matchpoints we still bagged 2 VPs for our pitiful efforts.

Round Three - 8/20 VPs

I thought we'd won this match against John Large and Tadgh O'Mahony, but the scorecard disagrees. The opponents missed an easy slam by playing in 3NT, which is worth mentioning as in the bidding an opponent said "Never knowingly underbid" before making four overtricks. Then we missed a bad 6♠, because after John opened one of our very dodgy Weak Twos I didn't think slam was likely - I blame the system.

The crushing low point was this doozy. Our first absolute zero of the event. It's an interesting hand, as John blames me but I think it was entirely his fault:

Danny John W N E S 1♦ - 1♥ 2NT* - 3♠ 4♦ 4♠ 5♦ - - x - - -

My bidding was exemplary. John opened the South hand 1♦, and I replied 1♥. East then came in with 2NT, alerted as strong with the other two suits. West bid 3♠, and now I felt I was obliged to show Diamond support. East bid the obvious 4♠, then John with his flat 4333 hand with 12 points decided to press on to 5♦. This was doubled and to be fair to John he took all the tricks he could, scoring 5♦x-4 for minus 1100.

For comparison, the Hacketts played in 4♠+1, and Jun & Phil also defended 4♠+1. Out of 45 tables we were the only North-South pair declaring the contract.

We scored 8 VPs here to fall below average, and get catapulted into the second room, where we would remain for the rest of the day. Thanks John. My dream of getting to play against the top players was in tatters, and I now only dreamed of lunch.

Round Four - 18/20 VPs

Despite my crushing hunger we came roaring back, against Sam Malkani and Ian McClure. There was one hand where I held five Spades and was secretly pleased when the opponents got up to 4♠, and even happier when they got up to 5♠ and went one off. This was the most interesting deal of the set:

Danny John W N E S - 3♥ 3NT x - - -

I've got an easy 3♥ bid, then North looked at his running Clubs and bid 3NT. I might have bid 4♥ as East, but John was worried about losers in the minors so doubled instead. Against 3NTx he lead a top Spade, and I discouraged. He then lead the ♦J, which was ducked (I should have overtaken it). He then played a Club, which declarer won in dummy and decided to take full advantage of being in dummy to lead up to his ♥K, fully expecting me to have the ♥A. He was a bit surprised when John won this trick, and if John had somehow realised exactly what had happened we could have taken another six Heart tricks. Instead John cashed two Spades then exited with a Diamond and the end result was a normal 3NTx-2.

This turned out to be a good score for us. The Hacketts did even better by playing 4♥+2, and Jun & Phil defended 3NT very poorly to take it only one off. I believe that after cashing a Spade East continued weakly with the ♥6.

We scored a splendid 18 VPs in this match, to take us fractionally above half way at the break. There was a meagre 30 minutes allotted for lunch, barely enough time for a bean wrap.

Round Five - 1/20 VPs

After lunch we had a post-prandial slump that Jake Corry would be proud of.

Our opponents were Harry Smith and Bob McCall. They judged well to get to two games most people missed, then I went on the tilt and decided to bid one more and suffered 3♥x-3. The part of the Hacketts' system we were struggling the most with was not opening a weak 1NT; as it meant we ended up later overbidding all these weak balanced hands.

I tried to level my tilt and bid this next hand sensibly, but somehow things got worse as we missed the slam. Who should have done more?

Danny John W N E S 2♠ x - 3♠* - 3NT - 4♥ - - -

Such was the high standard that we were one of only five pairs to miss the slam. The Hacketts bid to 6NT+1, Jun & Phil to 6♥=.

Round Six - 10/20 VPs

Like Alan Partridge we bounced back, slightly. To begin with I played 2NT-1 with a nine card Spade fit then we doubled them in 4♥ and misdefended, but got it all back with a tremendous slam auction. At least one third of John our system discussion had been about Kokish auctions (see here), so I was delighted to be able to open 2♣ on a monster hand. Unfortunately it all went haywire after that.

Danny John W N E S 2♣ 2♦ x - 3♣ - 3♦* - 4♣ - 4♦* - 5♦* - 6♣ - 7♣ - - -

I opened 2♣ and North immediately got in with a 2♦ overcall. John doubled this, which maybe to him showed Diamonds but I didn't know what he meant. I bid 3♣. I could have bid 4♣ to set them as trumps but thought we might still play in a major. John bid a useless 3♦, then when I bid 4♣ a useless 4♦. By this point I was a bit worried he might actually want to play in Diamonds, so I was a bit nervous about bidding 5♦ myself. My thinking was that I wanted John to be able to cuebid in Hearts or Spades, so by bidding Diamonds that lets him cuebid. He thought that since I couldn't cuebid myself he'd sign off in 6♣. I thought he probably had ♦A and guessed I might have an entry into his hand so had a punt at 7♣.

After seeing dummy I claimed immediately. For my fragile ego this was a massive boost.

For comparison the Hacketts got a great score when their opponents (Alan Mould and John Matheson) overbid to 7NT, and Jun & Phil made 6♣ against the eventual winners Andrew McIntoch and David Bakhshi. Jun & Phil were obviously doing well by this point, but not well enough that Jun still took the unnecessary Heart finesse and only made 12 tricks!

Round Seven - 14/20 VPs

A more relaxed match against Steve Bailey and Frances McKeon. The best board was where I felt pretty pleased to make 3NT+1, then afterwards realised I had been dealt ten top tricks.

Danny John W N E S 1♦ - 1♥ - 2NT - 3♣* - 3♦* - 3NT - - -

For comparison, at both the other tables Declarer made 11 tricks.

We won this match to take us up to 67 VPs, from seven matches. That means we needed to get 13/20 VPs from our last match to finish average.

Round Eight - 0/20 VPs

Unfortunately though, we got a drubbing and got zero. Many low points to choose from. I could mention the hand where John forgot what the contract was and tried to get a ruff against 3NT. "What an odd lead" said declarer as John rattled off his Ace doubleton.

But instead my featured hand is the final deal of the event, where I went for a mad punt and that backfired too.

Danny John W N E S 1NT - 6♠ - - -

John opened his hand 1NT and I've got the nice West hand. I could have bid a 2♥ transfer, 3♠ slam invite or 4♦ Texas transfer to Spades. But it was the last hand of the day and I was tired so went for an immediate 6♠. I like to bid this way with a void because if the opponents don't know your hand you might get a favourable lead and make a bad contract when you shouldn't. Also, my 6♠ bid cleverly shut North out of the auction. North lead the ♣K and when Hearts split I had 13 tricks without needing the Diamond finesse.

Although it was good that 6♠ made it was actually such a good contract that everyone was in it, and lots were bidding and making 7♠. I blame John for failing to find the obvious raise, especially as we had previously discussed that any slam auction where we weren't missing a keycard we would raise Six to Seven. We decided this during the afternoon as on this set of boards it seemed that the grand was always making, and it would have worked well here too.

On the other tables the Hacketts bid to only 6♥ and Jun & Phil did something horrible and only got to 4♥ defended 4♥ [Edit - I missed they were North-South for this set]

And the overall positions? Me and John finished 66th= out of 90 pairs. Not a great effort. Jun & Phil were up to Table 2 at one point but fell away, still finishing in a decent 29th=. And the Hacketts? They were playing the same system as us, so (barring minor differences in quality of play and defence) ought to have about the same score. However, they finished in 4th and were close to an overall victory. But of course they were playing their 2014 system, me and John were lumbered with the defunct 2005 version so no wonder we did so poorly.

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championship - Day Six

I was at home on Saturday as Jake Corry took over my Vugraph duties. The final of the main tournament was won by the Chairman's Team (Paul Hackett, David Bakhshi, Jason Hackett, David Mossop, Justin Hackett and Andrew McIntosh), beating Wales. England took the Silver over India. Having a team in the knock-out stages that wasn't eligible to win any medals slightly messes up the draw, and I think the England team can feel a bit hard done by to have drawn the Chairman's team in the semi-final, which for my money was actually the highest quality match. However, as Cameron Small (I think) of the England team told me, England actually only very narrowly won their Quarter Final against the strong Scottish President's team, so really in the knock-out tournament stages it's all a bit random.

In the TransNational Teams, where after an extensive round robin only the top four went into semi-finals. In the final the Scottish President's Team (Sandy Duncan, Irving Gordon, Derek Sanders, Stephen Peterkin, Liz McGowan, Sam Punch) prevailed over Canada.

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championship - Day Five

Just back from commentating on the two afternoon session of the semi-final. In a very close and high quality match The Chairman's Team (captained by the Commonwealth Bridge president Paul Hackett) narrowly defeated the England team. In the other semi-final Wales defeated India. That means that Wales have already won the Gold medal, as the Chairman's Team are not a Commonwealth nation so can't get Gold.

I watched Justin and Jason Hackett of the Chairman's Team against Ben Green and John Holland of England. It was good doing both sessions of the same match, as I got to know the players' systems, in particular their carding methods. This helps you work out what low card they have played when it's all going a bit fast.

As there were just two tables we were in a smaller side room and the atmosphere was very different. It was so quiet players were whispering, and often the only sound was me frantically typing away.

It took a while for the match to settle. There was some sort melee in the Closed Room, and then complaints about the low light. At one point Jason said he couldn't go on, so the players picked up the table and all carried it to where they thought it would be a bit lighter. I had to pick up my table and follow. Then a guy from the hotel turned up with a lamp, and crawled under a side table to plug it in. It was a massive disco light, aimed at the ceiling, and nearly blinded me when he turned it on. I missed some of the play as I could barely see.

Then came my commentary low point. With 900 people watching a mobile phone went off. "Someone's phone is ringing." I reported. "Players look at each other accusingly. South denies it was him. Whose phone is that?". Then I realised it was mine. I had it on vibrate but in the silent room the vibrating sound was very audible. I tried to brazen it out and do nothing, but it kept vibrating, and jostling a bag of Mini Cheddars in my rucksack. Eventually I got up to turn it off, and apologised to the players.

For this match my expert commentator was Michael Rosenberg, who is a world expert on the analysis. That meant I could leave the bridge up to him, so I could focus solely on reporting the play, player's reactions, cardigans, drinks and general discussion. It was like being a radio commentator, but instead of speaking you have to type as fast as you can.

My table finished early and with the match poised at 35-35 I went through to the physical Vugraph Theatre, to watch the final few hands along with the crowd. Although the audience here was only a handful of people, it felt like a lot of pressure on the players as their every card was scrutinised by the live crowd.

Apologies for the low resolution photos:

Vugraph coodinator Sandie Millership and two of the victorious Welsh team

Nervous moments watching the end of the match