Blyth Valley Bridge Club #2

This week Anna and I were on our Summer Holidays in Suffolk. We were also here for Easter holidays, and in fact that was the last time that the two of us played together at a bridge club. On Tuesday we returned to Blyth Valley Bridge Club, and were greeted again by the friendly locals. Several people recognised us, and I was impressed that the scorer Ron knew that we'd come first last time we were there (read my report here).

We weren't at all worried about the results, just happy to be out and about playing bridge together. Perhaps because of this relaxed attitude we did quite well, and even the boards where we could have done better still seemed to get a good result. For example, on one I raised Anna's 2♠ to 3♠ just in case she might want to bid game. She didn't, and went one off in 3♠, but this was still an OK score as others were going off in 4♠.

Twice we got a top score for making 4♥+2, which shows the benefit of not bidding a risky slam; making 6♥ would have got us no more matchpoints. For example this deal, with no one vulnerable:

♠ A x ♥ J x x x ♦ T x x x x ♣ x x ♠ x x ♥ A K Q x x ♦ ♣ K Q J x x x

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

East opened 1♦ and Anna has a tough decision as South. Other possible bids are double (strong hand), 2♣ (longest suit), 2NT (showing Clubs and a Major). Instead she decided to show her good five card major with 1♥. When I showed a bit of support she went straight to 4♥, and played there. On the expected Diamond lead she could draw trumps and lose just the one trick in Clubs.

What helped our relaxation was that the baby (being looked after by Nana) was doing OK. I got more or less hourly updates, and had to excuse myself to look at my phone between rounds. A trial run earlier in the week had not gone well, so to demonstrate the little monster really was OK I was sent a photo message of her smiling.

In general we all played quite briskly. One exception was where I was very slow on this deal:

♠ A Q x x x ♥ x x ♦ x x ♣ Q T x x ♠ K T x ♥ A T x x x ♦ K J x ♣ A x

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

Two questions:
1: What would you have bid as North on the second round?
2: How would you play 3NT on the lead of the ♥K?

Anna was faced with the bidding decision, and decided to stretch a bit and double, which showed 10+ points.

I therefore played the hand in 3NT. On the ♥K lead I figured that West had a lot of Hearts (and Diamonds) so the Spades were probably not going to be breaking. I wanted to finesse East, but didn't have any entries to do that. So I ducked the ♥K, and ♥Q, and West now reluctantly lead a Spade for me. That now gave me five Spade tricks along with two Aces, up to seven tricks. I didn't want to cash all my Spades in dummy yet as didn't know what to discard, so played another Heart for West to win and be endplayed. She cashed the ♦A and played another Diamond round to my ♦KJ giving me my eight and ninth tricks.

At the break I went to check with the babysitters, while four teas and four biscuits were collected. After I got back I was left with the last one, but it was a Honeycomb Club so I wasn't too disappointed.

In the second half I lost my concentration a bit, and at one point Anna sat down at a new table as East, and I sat down North. We still played fairly well though, and sometimes managed to steal the odd trick for a good score. I can only think of one time I definitely bodged, when the trump suit looked like this:

	♠ K 7 4
♠ Q J 8		♠ A
	♠ T 9 6 5 4 2

South was declarer with Spades trumps. He lead up a small Spade, and I eagerly played the ♠J, which went to the King and Ace. Clearly I should have played low, then (if declarer still played the King) we would have got three trump tricks.

Here's a photo when I asked everyone to show me their cards so I could write about it on the blog (then decided not to include that hand):

At the end we left promptly to go and see how the baby was, walking through the village of Walberswick and getting a little ferry in the rain.

It was another very enjoyable afternoon at a friendly Club.

Scottish Schools Bridge Championship

Last year I took two teams of four to this event (see here); this year I was delighted to add a Primary 7 team who had previously done well at the Glasgow Minibridge Championship (see here).

Following their recent domination of the event it made sense for it to be hosted by Hutcheson's Grammar school, and John Di Mambro did a great job converting a lecture theatre into a ten table room. He even threw in a hot lunch, and we had Horst Kopleck directing the event. Around the room the atmosphere was great, as the kids were competitive while also being friendly.

My teams have now been playing for nearly two years, and I noticed a definite improvement since last year, both in cardplay and in the bidding where we were much more focused on the game bonus. I was particularly impressed that after each board the pupils were able to reflect on what might have been. For example, after making 1NT+5 someone asked me "Should we have bid 6NT"? (No, but you should have bid 3NT). Someone else said to me afterwards they thought that "Shape was more important than points" and next time they had a void they were going to bid game.

The main error was the same as with all beginners; a temptation to win all your Aces and Kings without trying to bid extra tricks, especially when you are feeling the pressure. Kids hate the idea of deliberately losing a trick.

My Senior team of 16 year olds have a lot of potential, but unfortunately for the last few months haven't played much bridge due to the distraction of their National 5 (GCSE) exams getting in the way. I was a bit worried when I asked someone on the train how many points you need for a game, and he replied "All of them, at least 9000", then when pressed admitted he didn't know what a game was. I was therefore extremely surprised when I went to watch at their table. One of them opened 1♣ and when the other replied 1♦ this was alerted as showing Hearts! "Do you play transfers?" asked the bewildered opposition. The advanced bidding systerm was not a success, as they finished in 4♣-4 and was quietly dropped after lunch.

I've only taught very limited bidding, with12-14 1NT and the rest natural, but it normally got to the right contract. We only struggled with strong hands, where my advice is simply to bid game in one go. At one point today one player overcalled 1♦ with 20 points (we've no other way to bid it), which was passed out and resulted in four overtricks. "I had 20 points!" said the overcaller, "next time you should bid more!". "Next time you'll have a different partner" was the reply.

Slam biding is also still to come. As far as I could see no one in the room got there on this board, although they all played it for 13 tricks.

I like to think Anna and I would have bid at least 6♥, and 7♥ is possible with some special bidding agreements.

When they read out the top three I was surprised our S1/S2 team of girls had finished third (our of ten), and even more surprised the P7 team second. All of the kids did well, coping with playing 24 boards and learning a lot.

Buchanan Congress Pairs 2016

This is the third year in a row I've entered this event. In the last two years, with Anna, we narrowly failed to qualify for the final, and I narrowly failed to arrive on time (report here). This year I was playing with John Faben, who in previous years had done very well playing with Norman McGeagh, finishing 2nd overall and 1st overall.

Things started well when we both arrived thirty minutes before the start time, to fill out our System Cards. The main point of interest is that we play Puppet Stayman in all situations when it's appropriate, and many when it's not. Therefore, in the section on the bidding card for General System, I'd just written Puppet Stayman, which I regretted when somebody picked up our card and asked what system we play. It was like the time in the University Championships when my partner Jake and I wrote Post-Prandial Slump on our System Card, and an opponent asked what it was and when it applies (after lunch).

With the Puppet Stayman agreed the rest of the system fell into place. John made me agree that "2NT in competition is never natural" which is perhaps a good idea, but since we hadn't agreed what it was (only that it wasn't natural) this caused some confusion during the day, when 2NT bids were alerted, asked about, then explained only as "not natural".

On the very first board, at favourable vulnerability, I was dealer with this rotten 11 point hand:

♠ K ♥ 92 ♦ KJ86 ♣ A97643

I opened 1♣, and regretted it 30 seconds later when John leaped to 6NT, doubled and off two. But on the very next board he played a quiet 2♦ with two unexpected overtricks for a top score, so in the strange world of Matchpoints we broke even on the round.

We bid Puppet Stayman wherever possible, and scored a triumph here:

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

John opened the South hand 1NT (12-14, may contain a singleton) and I had the weak North hand. I bid 2♣ which asks for a 5-card Major. I knew that if John had one, ideally Spades, we'd be in at least a 5-2 fit, which is no worse than a transfer, and if he didn't have a five card Major we'd play in 2♦, as happened here.

2♦ went well as with the perfect layout of trumps declarer lost just one Diamond, two Spades and two Clubs. It scored 80%, just losing to the couple of North-South pairs making made more tricks than they should have in 1NT.

John was declarer most of the time, which suited me fine. The first time I was declarer I overbid my strong hand, trusted my ♥Kx was a stoppper and ended up in a dicey 3NT. My stopper was not a stopper and it went four off vulnerable. This turned out to be a reasonable score when we realised they could make 4♥ there way, on limited points. We were all a bit surprised when we saw the traveller for that one.

The hand I regret the most is one where we got 60% and bid a Grand Slam. My bidding is somewhat embarrassing here but I'll show it anyway:

Danny John W N E S - 2♣* 4♥ 5♥ - 6♦ - 6♥ - 6♠ - 7♠ - -

I had the nice North hand and when John reached for the Stop card I expected him to be bidding a weak 2♦. Instead out came 2♣! West wasted no time bidding 4♥, an excellent bid. My ♥A is a massive card and I thought about just bidding 7NT, but I was keenly aware that John might only have 16 points and a very distributional hand following his comments on my previous post here. So I bid a very confusing 5♥. John did what he could to make sense of this and bid 6♦, then I threw him again by bidding 6♥. He got that I was looking for another suit and bid 6♠ which I raised to 7♠.

7♠ made when the trumps were 3-1 (it can go down if they are 4-0) but of course 7NT makes too. The 4♥ bid helped me know that John had virtually all of the missing high cards (as West has at least ♥KQ) but still worried that John could have a hand like he does but missing the ♦Q or ♦J, in which case 7♠ makes and 7NT goes down.

Of the 14 North-South pairs 3 were in 7NT, 2 in 7♠ and the rest in small slam (and one in 5♦).

With the top half of the pairs qualifying for the final we knew it was going to be close. We finished on 52%, but that was only good enough for the top runner-up spot, and a place in the Consolation Final. Worse than that, in the final round before the break the pair we were playing defended incredibly slowly (and accurately) so we were last in the queue for lunch. We had some sandwiches then went to Kelvingrove park to look at the hands.

The top qualifiers were John Di Mambro and Ronald Gaffin with 62%.

In the Consolation Final we had a few good results, but also seemed to get a lot of things wrong. Once I opened 2♥ with a poor suit and John had a void. I lost five trump tricks and went two off. The hand below shows a notable bodge:

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

This time North opened a weak 2♥ before me and I had the 20 point East hand. I considered a light 3NT or a heavy 2NT but decided for a double. When it came back to me in 3♥ I doubled again, and this time John bid 3♠. I should be able to tell he's got a very weak hand as he would have voluntarily bid 3♠ the round before if at all possible. But I bid 3NT anyway, and he wisely corrected to 4♠, which still went two off. I've read somewhere that novice players tend to overvalue good hands and undervalue weak hands; that was certainly me here.

4♠-2 was worth 17%, as John outplayed the pair in 4♠-3.

Looking at the hands now maybe I can blame John for not bidding 4♣ over 3NT, which certainly would have worked here.

In general I was guilty of not bidding directly enough, and we both made mistakes in the play, such as playing to give partner a ruff even though you know he has no trumps. This is only marginally better than playing to get a ruff yourself when you have no trumps. We did manage to generate a few positive swings, such as when John supported my Spades (at the four level) with ♠84 which lead to the opponent reaching a hopeless 6♥.

My final featured hand is a seemingly routine 3NT, played by South.

John was on lead and found the normal Club lead, which gives declarer time to set up the Hearts and after a Club finesse come to nine tricks. However, whenever 3NT was played by North it went down, as East found a Diamond lead. This seems reasonable enough, and it's just a swing based on luck of who is declarer. But the hand record shows that 3NT makes on any lead. How do you make 3NT on a Diamond lead? It looks like the defence have four Diamonds and a Heart.

The answer, which I worked out while walking home, is that declarer must play Diamonds herself. The defence do get their four Diamond tricks but West is squeezed so much that if she wants to keep her Heart guard she has to give up an extra tricks in Spades and Clubs, letting declarer get to nine tricks with only two from Hearts.

Overall, I estimated we got 55%, which turned out to be accurate. We were the East-West pair due to sit out on the final round, so went home early, after waiting for the Tournament Director to inform of us a ruling from earlier. The top pair in the Consolation Final were Kathleen Craig and Bob Innes with 62%. In the main final, the top three were:

1	Horst Kopleck & Ricky Finlason	68%
2	Jim McMenemy & Paul Maiolani	65%
3	Iain Taylor & Andrew Symons	58%

So, curiously, after his success of the last two years John was unable to repeat that when playing with me. I can only think that's because he played a lot worse this time :)

Danny misses out

Last Monday Anna went to play at Buchanan Bridge Club with Heather, while I dutifully stayed at home with the baby. Afterwards Anna brought home a copy of the hand records "so Danny could point out what I did wrong".

As I looked pored over the scores, one immediately stood out. I've never seen a hand before where declarer took zero tricks!

Anna had the monster South hand. She said that she considered opening 2♣, but the hand isn't strong enough (I think you're supposed to have 16+ HCP). The other option is 1♠, which is very unlikely to be passed out, but you'd be upset if that did happen when you've ten top tricks. She opened 4♠, which is a wide ranging, though not normally this strong. West overcalled 4NT, showing minors (for us it's any two-suiter). North was very disciplined and passed, but so did East! I guess she thought that since 4♠ could be weak the 4NT was natural. When it got back round to Anna she of course passed 4NT too, expecting to make loads of Spades tricks.

In fact, North lead out nine top Hearts, then found the Club switch so Anna took the last four. None for declarer. 4NT-10, vulnerable, was a great score for the defence. However, as you can imagine, this deal produced a wide variety of scores and +1000 was not the top score. One pair (Norman) go to 7♥, which made when East didn't know what to lead. Everyone playing in Spades made 11 tricks as West was able to cash two Diamonds.

Overall, Anna and Heather did very well, finishing 2nd out of 12 pairs. But with careful scrutiny I did manage to find one hand where they could have done better. How would you play 3NT here, when East leads a top Club?

You have eight top tricks, and are looking for a ninth, without letting East back in. After winning the third Club declarer made the natural play of a Heart finesse, leading up to the ♥J. When that lost West played a top Spade, which declarer won and now it's crunch time. You've already lost three tricks (two Clubs and a Heart) and if you finesse Hearts again by leading the ♥9 and that loses to West that's four tricks lost already, with the ♠Q still to come. So declarer played Hearts from the top, hoping they were 3-3 or the ten dropped, and when that failed she was doomed.

In fact, a better line after winning the ♣A is to play on Spades immediately. You finesse twice, and even if it loses twice (as it does here) you have still set up an extra Spade winner, which along with your eight top tricks gives you the contract. This is aggregate scoring, so no prizes for overtricks. The only thing that could go wrong with this line is if East has both the missing top Spades (which is unlikely since she didn't overcall 2♣) in which case you can decide to switch back to taking the Heart finesse.

So a missed opportunity. I like to think if I was playing we would have made this contract, and kept all of the other good results so came 1st overall (I'm assuming of course I wouldn't add any bodges, which is unlikely).

Chicago at Home

This week Anna and I hosted two other members of our Glasgow League team for an evening of bridge. Anna and I played only one match for the team this year (and played it poorly) but have kept in touch as we secured our place in the second division.

We played Chicago scoring. On most of the hands the contracts were low and the number of tricks taken by declarer was even lower, but there were a few high points. In fact, there were more slams bid than games.

Early on we had a misunderstanding which didn't get resolved to the six level, when Anna finally converted my 6♣ bid to 6♦ and I realised she actually had Diamond support. I'd mistaken her earlier jump-raise as a splinter, but as she pointed out after the hand "you don't splinter in partner's suit". Heather and David agreed. As it happened my dodgy slam still made, on a finesse, for a lucky gain for the home team.

Since our guests weren't drinking tea Anna and I had extra to compensate, and we were both enjoying our third mugs when we blundered into another slam:

No Vul E deal ♠ K Q x ♥ Q T x x ♦ J T x x ♣ A x ♠ x x x x ♥ J x x ♦ J x x ♣ K x x 12 9 5 17 ♠ A x x x ♥ x x x ♦ K Q x x x ♣ x ♠ x x ♥ A K J ♦ A ♣ K Q T x x x x

David Danny Heather Anna W N E S - 1♣ - 1♦ - 3♣ - 3NT - 4♥ - 6♥ - - -

Anna opened the strong South hand 1♣, natural, and I replied 1♦ (with a weak hand I would have replied 1♥). Anna now jumped to 3♣, which is technically not forcing but I'm unlikely to pass. I bid a heavy 3NT, and was glad when Anna reached for another bid. I was expecting 4♣ or 4NT, and was surprised to see 4♥. Seeing as I had underbid so far, and never shown my Hearts, I seized on this second opportunity and immediately plonked down 6♥.

Then Anna explained to the opponents that her 4♥ bid wasn't natural, it was a control showing bid, presumably agreeing Clubs with herself. Her 4♥ bid could have been just a singleton or void, but as it happened she had a very strong control in Hearts.

West cashed the ♠A then switched to a Diamond which Anna won. I then watched with increasing relief as she played the ♥A, ♥K and then the ♥J. Just for good measure the Hearts also split, so she could claim after one round of Clubs.

This was another lucky escape. 6♣ also makes, as does 6NT.

On the final hand I had one more bash at the six level, our third auction to slam without using Blackwood at all. Controls weren't the problem here, just tricks. I've rotated the deal so declarer (me) is South

All Vul S deal ♠ A T x ♥ A T x ♦ K Q 9 8 7 ♣ T x ♠ x x x x x ♥ K x x x ♦ T x x ♣ x 13 3 11 13 ♠ K J ♥ Q x ♦ A J x x x ♣ 8 x x x ♠ Q x x ♥ J 8 x x ♦ - ♣ A K Q J 9 x

Heather Anna David Danny W N E S 1♣ - 1♦ -; 1♥ - 3NT - 6♣ - - -

I opened the South hand 1♣, without having decided yet what to rebid. Anna responded 1♦ and I considered 3♣ (not enough points) or a bold 3NT (not enough tricks). I stalled with 1♥, then when Anna bid 3NT overcompensated by leaping to 6♣. Anna is at the lower end of her range for this bid (13-18), and has lots of wasted points in Diamond opposite my void (I could have seen that coming) but the slam still has some play.

West lead a small Spade, and I played low. If this ran round to my Queen I'd have a decent chance of setting up Diamonds for one loser. Unfortunately East won his ♠K, and so I needed the rest.

I have two Spade tricks, six Clubs and one Heart, meaning I need three tricks from the Diamond suit. My plan was to lead a low one from dummy, and if East had the ♦A (but not the ♦J) he might be tempted to play it to try and take the setting trick. That didn't work as East just played the ♦J, which I ruffed. I was fixated on trying to drop the ♦A so crossed to dummy again and ruffed another Diamond; no luck. In fact once the ♦J is gone a better line (which works here) is to try and drop the ♦T in three rounds, by leading a high Diamond on the second round. This also requires the ♦A onside, which it is, so would have been glorious.

Overall Anna and I had the run of the cards, and bid to some interesting contracts. Surprisingly, given that it's her who hasn't played much for six months it was me who bodged in the bidding a couple of times, but I made up for that with some excellent defence and home made chocolate biscuits.

Blyth Valley Bridge Club

During our week's holiday in Southwold we managed not just one but two trips to a local Bridge Club, a triumph with a small baby to look after. Our second trip was to Walberswick, where a good turnout of nine tables met in the Town Hall. This time we were extremely prompt, and had plenty of time at the start for some chat, mostly grumbling about the Parish Council and commenting on what a glorious sunny day it was.

Today was a return to traditional duplicate, meaning Anna and I would be playing together. Our system was mostly the same as the local standard, except for they played Strong Twos whereas we play Weak Twos, and weak jump overcalls.

Early on I made a bodge, when defending a 1NT contract and Anna lead the ♠J and I had the ♠KQ2. I fumbled around a little while then decided to overtake, which ended up costing an overtrick, which could be costly at Matchpoints. Then we had a bidding misunderstanding, staying out of game with 27 points. I said to Anna "Why didn't you raise if you were maximum?" and she said "Yes I know stop going on about it" but after that things picked up and we got a series of good results.

Here's one where we could have done better, but I'm not quite sure how we could have bid it differently:

All Vul W deal ♠ J x ♥ x x ♦ K T x x ♣ A Q T 9 x ♠ x x x x ♥ Q x x ♦ J x x ♣ J x x x 10 4 11 15 ♠ x x ♥ A K J x x x ♦ x x ♣ K x x ♠ A K Q x x ♥ x x ♦ A Q x x ♣ x x

W N E S 1♠ - 2♣ 2♥ 3♦ - 4♦ - 5♦ - - -

I opened the South hand 1♠ and Anna replied 2♣, then East weighed in with 2♥. This didn't bother me too much as after partner's 2/1 I was planning to make a game forcing bid anyway. Anna raised my 3♦ to 4♦, which is probably forcing though we hadn't agreed it, so I raised to game anyway.

When dummy came down I was glad we had avoided 3NT, but saw straight away that 5♦ would likely depend on the Club finesse, which would likely fail, as indeed happened. In fact by the time it came to take the Club finesse I was so convinced it would lose (as East must have points for the overcall) I actually played the ♣A, which didn't work either. 4♠ is the place to be, but not sure how you get there.

At the break I volunteered to get the tea, and had a Gold Bar. Anna had a Mint Club.

After the break there was a brief hiatus when we all realised that with nine tables there was no need for the East-Wests to skip, so we moved back one table. Anna and I had shaken off the cobwebs now and were scoring well. In defence I drew declarer's trumps to beat 1♠ by three tricks, vulnerable. Buoyed by this I made a terrible 4♥ overcall at favourable vulnerablitiy with ♠x ♥ KJ98xxx ♦ Kx ♣xxx and hit partner with a weak hand with no Hearts at all. Four off undoubled wasn't too bad, but Anna quietly advised that next time 3♥ would be enough.

Although it covers no one in glory this was probably the most interesting deal

EW Vul N deal ♠ x x ♥ A K Q x ♦ A Q J ♣ A J x x ♠ x x ♥ x x ♦ T x x x ♣ T x x x x 23 0 12 3 ♠ A K Q J T x ♥ J x x x ♦ x ♣ Q J ♠ x x x ♥ T x x ♦ K x x x x ♣ x x

W N E S 2♣ 2♠ - - x - 3♦ - - 3♠ - - 4♦ - -

Anna opened the big North hand 2♣. East overcalled 2♠ which I think is a good idea, as it's always good to interfere with the opponent's strong auctions. Anna and I hadn't discussed interference to 2♣ so I just passed with my weak hand. For the record, we have now agreed that responder's bids are 'natural' including a double for penalties, so my bid was correct by that logic too. Anna doubled as takeout, and I showed my Diamonds. She then astonished everyone by passing, having made a game forcing opening. But looking at the North hand she knows that no game is likely, so it's a reasonable bid. East then pondered for a bit before bidding 3♠, which is madness vulnerable when the opponents are happy to play in a part score. I should have doubled this as South to make life easy for partner - I have a relatively good hand in defence with three trumps and a King - but felt sure she'd double anyway so passed. To my surprise, she bid 4♦, passed out.

The defence begain with two Spades and after another Spade I had to ruff high in dummy, so ended up losing a trump trick too. Those were my only losers though so 4♦ made. Considering that North-South don't have any obvious game that might have been an OK result, but not nearly as good as beating 3♠x by at least two tricks (three on a trump lead).

My final featured hand showcases some surprisingly accurate bidding.

NS Vul W deal ♠ K Q J ♥ A K J x x x x ♦ x x ♣ J ♠ x x ♥ x ♦ A K Q 9 8 x x ♣ K x x 15 12 8 5 ♠ A T x x x ♥ Q x x x ♦ x ♣ Q x x ♠ x x x ♥ T ♦ J T x ♣ A T x x x x

W N E S 1♦ 1♥ 1♠ - 3♦ 3♥ - - 4♦ - -

The Australian gentleman sitting West opened 1♦ and Anna with the big North hand overcalled 1♥. East bid 1♠ and I passed. West now decided to rebid 3♦, which I think makes sense. Anna pondered for a bit then bid 3♥. I was still not going to raise her and 3♥ was about to be passed out, until West came back with 4♦. When this came round to me I thought about doubling, as I know Anna has a really strong hand (she now looks at the vulnerability on nearly every board) and I have a singleton in her suit (good for defence) and an Ace, but on the other hand West is advertising a lot of Diamonds.

Against 4♦ Anna lead a top Heart, then paused. Declarer has eight top tricks, plus a certain ninth in Clubs, so any false move could give the tenth trick and give away the contract. On another layout a low Heart for me to ruff might promote a trump trick, but here Anna went for her singleton ♣J. Declarer played low from dummy and I thought about overtaking this to give a ruff, but decided it wasn't necessary (and could backfire if partner had a doubleton Club) so played low, and eventually came to two Club tricks anyway. With careful defence we beat the contract by one.

If East-West somehow get to 3NT it needs very careful defence to beat it. Again there are eight top tricks and if the defence are too aggressive they could set up a Heart for dummy, or if they are too passive declarer can get a ninth trick in Clubs. The only winning defence is for North to start with Spades, so the defence get two Spades, two Hearts and a Club.

After 21 boards there was a vote as to whether we should play one more round. Everyone voted yes, except Anna I who had a babysitter waiting (Nana and Grandpa), so we played three more boards. On the first our opponent went down not drawing trumps in a cold contract; unlucky that the side-suits had split 6-1 and 5-1, allowing Anna and I to take a flurry of ruffs for 4♥-2, where drawing trumps lets him make 4♥+2, as his wife pointed out to him.

As the club has no website we may never get the result, but it was a very enjoyable afternoon in some fine company.

Southwold Bridge Club

Last week Anna and I were on holiday for a week in Suffolk. We'd previously visited the Sole Bay Bridge Club in Southwold, but that meets in the evenings so isn't possible any more; with a baby we need more careful planning. So while the grandparents looked after the little one we went to the afternoon game at Southwold Bridge Club. We were a bit apprehensive as it was to be Rubber Bridge which we'd never played before, but when we turned up it was in fact a Bridge Drive with random deals and Chicago scoring (which we'd also not played before).

We arrived five minutes late, but thankfully there was a half-table already so we were welcome to make up the numbers. As I was informed, "when it says 2pm most people get here by quarter two". Within four hands we found ourselves 1700 points down, as our opponents quickly bid three games then we went off in a hopeless vulnerable game.

It took a little while to get used to all of the shuffling and cutting that comes with not playing duplicate, and it was strange to think that each deal would be played only once. Our bridge instincts were fairly good though, and I'm not sure there was much we could have done to avoid that bad start. Then we moved round the room changing partners each round, and things picked up. In fact the worst round for both Anna and I was when we were partnered each other.

Here's a nice little deal from when we were opponents.

No Vul S deal ♠ A K x ♥ Q x x x ♦ x x x ♣ x x x ♠ J x x ♥ x ♦ K J T x x x ♣ K J x 9 9 7 15 ♠ x x x x ♥ K T 8 x ♦ x ♣ A x x x x ♠ Q x x ♥ A J 9 x ♦ A Q x ♣ Q T 9

W N E S 1♥ - 2♥ - - -

Playing a Weak NT and four-card majors, I opened the South hand 1♥. North made a modest raise of 2♥, which I passed. Although we have 24 points between us and an eight card fit we have two flat hands, so we've done well to stop at the two level.

West lead th ♦J, which gave me an extra trick. Surely the contract is in the bag now? I crossed to dummy with a Spade, and lead the ♥Q, covered by the King and Ace. In order to lose no Heart tricks I now have a choice of either playing the ♥J to drop the ♥T or crossing to dummy again for a finesse. I played the ♥J, which didn't work out well. I can still make the contract easily by continuing with trumps, but I was foolishly thinking about trying to make maximum tricks so decided to 'eliminate Diamonds' and cashed the ♦A. This got ruffed, and the defence still had a 2nd Heart trick to come, along with another Diamond and three Clubs. Somehow, I had gone down.

Playing in an individual tournament like this was a novelty for me, and a slightly different challenge. Whereas some people sat down with a flood of questions about agreements, I decided to say nothing and play it cool, as did most of my partners. This actually worked fine, and we didn't have any misunderstandings. It's actually quite nice having virtually no agreements. I was also able to bid fairly quickly, as I resigned myself to making awkward decisions quickly, as this deal shows:

No Vul S deal ♠ x x ♥ 7 ♦ Q T 9 x x x x x ♣ A K ♠ Q x x x ♥ A x ♦ K x ♣ J x x x x 9 10 4 17 ♠ J x x x ♥ T 9 x x ♦ J x ♣ Q x x ♠ A K x ♥ K Q J x x x ♦ A ♣ x x x

W N E S - 2♥ - 3♦ - 3♥ - 4♥ - - -

South opened a traditional Strong Two. I had the freakish North hand, and needed to come up with a reply. I'm not too familiar with the proper responses to Strong Twos, but thought that bidding Diamonds couldn't be far off. North rebid 3♥, and I had a choice of games to bid. I was worried about too many trump losers in Diamonds so just bid 4♥, passed out. South made eleven tricks by drawing trumps (losing two tricks), then setting up the Diamonds.

The club was very friendly, and they were fully supportive of us leaving the kid behind (especially the men). By the end of the evening I had recovered to above zero points, but was a long way off the 4,000 points required for winning. There were also some random 'spot prizes' from the Compere Doug for happening to be opposite the piano, but we didn't win those either. However, we did have a lovely afternoon away from our baby.