SBU Bronze League 12 - Week 1

This season I've bitten off more than I can chew and am looking after two teams in the SBU Bronze League. Last night they were both in action. My team of players who left school last year can look after themselves and recorded a fine win in Division 2. I was playing in the new team of younger Juniors who have entered the league in the lowest Division 5. Based on last night, where we played fairly well but lost 18-2, I think we are going to struggle.

I partnered the most inexperienced player, who goes by the username iscucumber. She ended up being declarer 7 out of 16 boards, including three in a row. She lost the plot on the last one (2♥-3, making on the other table), but did very well apart from that.

This board was my favourite:

We play a very simple system, which worked well for us here. After partner opened 1NT I could reply 2♣, natural.

East led a Heart. I immediately set about trumps, taking five tricks there plus four Hearts for 2♣+1. This looked like a great result, until I realised that actually with Hearts and Clubs splitting we could make 4♥. On the other table our team-mates successfully got to 2♠ by West, but some strange things happened and it went one off, for a flat board.

Rowan vs Hamilton

In our first league match of the season it became apparent that the children now go to bed a little later, and the 7pm start time was pushing it. We had to have a break after four boards so Alex could get a bedtime story. Then, as I was in the middle of a tricky 6♦ contract, I heard a little voice say from downstairs "Have you even taken any tricks yet?". It was Zoe, watching Anna's screen.

As it happens, I took all 13 tricks:

In the auction Anna's 1NT rebid showed 15-17, and my 2♣ was Checkback Stayman, asking for extra length in the majors. I was hoping for a Heart fit, but when Anna bid a negative 2♦ I knew that with short majors she was likely to have at least something in Diamonds, so felt fairly confident bidding the slam. In fact we could easily have hand a grand slam on if she has the perfect cards.

In 6♦ I got a Heart lead. Prospects are good. I drew trumps in two rounds and now the contract is secure. I think the best line for an overtrick is to test if the Club Queen drops, then if not try the Spade finesse. That led to 6♦+1.

On the other table they stopped in 5♦+2, after some good pre-emmpting in Spades from our team-mates Colin and Sheena Hamilton.

In the other match Jill and Barbara had no problem getting to 6♦+1, and on the fourth table the contract was the rather shakier 6♥=.

Now here is a pair of hands the indicate quite a gulf in the bidding style of my partner and I:

I have responded to Anna's takeout double with a free bid of 2♥, despite only having four Hearts and a bad hand. Maybe I should have said nothing. Later Anna bid 3♥ and I had to play it. Against ruthless defence from John Wilson and Kenneth Crooks the defence took the first eight tricks fro 3♥-4 (only good thing is one other table played 3♥-5).

It's unlucky to go four down, but we have certainly overcompeted with 3♥.

Compare with this deal from our recent Scottish Cup defeat:

This time I've made a takeout double, but Anna has still passed, with a much better hand than the one I bid 2♥ on in the deal above.

Overall we lost the league match 13-3.

Scottish Cup Round 1

Last Saturday Anna and I made a return to the Scottish Cup. We last played in this event in 2015, and lost a nailbiting first round match by just two IMPs (see here). This year we teamed up with my former pupils Kevin and Michael, who have plenty of time on their hands before starting University in about October.

Our opponents were a strong team headed by Finlay Marshall and Patrick Home. It was to be a step up for all of us, not least in the number of boards, 32 in a row, starting at 730 pm. This represents a particular challenge for Anna and I, as one child goes to bed about 715 and the other about 830. At one point while dummy I went through to read Zoe as story and she said "you look very red-faced", but overall I think I handled the pressure well.

However, the match started poorly with a nervous 3H+2, before our opponents judged well to stop low and made 1NT (they were Norman Lazonby and Alastair White - who I have since learned are not as experienced as Finlay and Patrick, but are Scottish Senior Chess players and certainly played a good game against us). Our team-mates went off in 2NT, before things settled down.

Most of my declarer hands were very simple, and I played them swiftly. But this one was a challenge:

Anna's 2♠ bid showed a good Diamond raise. When it got back to me over 3♠ I thought I actually had rather a good hand, with good trumps, good Clubs, and nothing wasted in Spades, so ventured a natural 4♣. Looking back, maybe I should have passed, giving Anna the opportunity to bid 3NT. Over my 4♣ we had a rather uncertain auction but thankfully stopped in 5♦, which at least had some play.

I got a Spade lead to the Jack and Ace then a Spade return. It's tempting to let this run round and make dummy's Queen a winner, but actually that would be my second loser with at least one more to come. I worked out my only chance of making it was if the Club finesse worked, and the Heart finesse worked, and Hearts were 3-3 allowing me to discard the third Club from dummy. So overall not a great contract. I played for this line but got the timing wrong (drew trumps instead of taking the Club finesse when I had the chance), and ended in the wrong hand at the end. I was releived with the Club King was offside, as 5♦ was unmakeable, but I should have played it better.

On the other table East doubled instead of overcalling 1♠ and North-South got to 3NT. On the Spade lead this isn't guaranteed, but declarer guessed correctly to take the Heart finesse and made overtricks.

The team conceded a few game tight game contracts, which I put down to good declarer play by our opponents, and lost the first half 19-61.

In the second half this hand featured my second major blunder:

Patrick Home decided to open his hand at the one level, then insisted on Hearts up to 4♥. Anna led a Club, which declarer won in hand then played Spades. The defence started well, as I took the Ace of Spades (ducking gives the contract) then returned a Diamond (before declarer gets to discard it on the Spades). Then the crunch came as declarer led the ♥J from dummy. I paused, then fatally covered. This means the defence gets only one trump trick and the contract makes.

There are some layouts where covering gains a trick, but not many. And, crucially, we needed two trump tricks to beat the contract (which I knew), and ducking gives us the best chance of this. I was convinced that declarer had the ♥AK from the bidding, and didn't envisage this hand at all. For my money, if you're going to bid like that you might as well open 4♥, but perhaps I need to update my thinking. On the other table Michael opened 3♥ and played there, for a game swing away.

In the second half Kevin and Michael generated a few gains. Once they made 4♠ with four top losers (gaining one on the lead), then came this deal:

They've both bid to the max to get to a decent 4♠. Assuming one trump loser you have eight top tricks: 5 Spades, 1 Heart, 1 Diamond, 1 Club. You can ruff a Club for the 9th, and the Diamond finesse looks the obvious bet for the 10th. In fact, establishing the long Diamonds could generate plenty of tricks.

Michael got a ♣K lead. I might have ducked this, (hoping for a trump switch), but he took the Ace and returned a Club. East won and tried a trump now. West did well to withhold the King. Michael took a Diamond finesse and West now couldn't continue trumps without giving a trick. He tried a Club, and Michael was now able to set up the Diamonds (Ace and ruff high in hand) and still had an entry. In the end he lost just one Club, one Diamond, and one trump. Well played for 4♠=.

On our table North opened 1♠ (this pair like to open light - Finlay has explained that both this and Board #10 had two Aces so too many controls for them to open a Weak Two), and I overcalled 2♣. Anna and I navigated to 3♥ which I played rather casually for two off, but still a 10 IMP gain (Finlay says his pass and Patrick's 3♦ were both close decisions, else they might have got to 4♠ too)

On the final board we caught them in 4♥ and doubled for +500, a nice 14 IMP finish. This was the full board:

(Finlay took the blame for this one, though actually 4♥ isn't a terrible contract it just fails on this trump split)

However, overall still a 38-54 loss in the half, leading to 57-115 overall, a fairly sound beating.

Anna and I both had slumps in the second half, and as a team we lacked a bit of precision in play and defence, but still a satisfying match and a good evening's entertainment.

Sole Bay Bridge Club

Having written about bridge, and watched a lot recently, it was now time for me to have a go myself. A humbling exercise. Anna and I had the pleasure tonight of playing at the Sole Bay Bridge Club in Southwold. There were four tables, playing a good standard.

There were a couple of hands where we could have done better. Once I had a nice five trumps in defence and thought we were sure to beat their 3♦ contract. I was (quietly) rubbing my hands with glee. However, when declarer ruffed I fell into the trap of over-ruffing. I have read that "You shouldn't over-ruff unless you can see that it will gain you a trick" but I couldn't help myself. That led to 3♦= and a bad score for us (well played to the declarer Gwen Webb).

The other hand was when I was declarer in 2♥, dealing with a 5-1 trump break of my own. I knew what I needed to do - ruff in my own hand and scramble my way to eight tricks. But I guessed a Spade finesse wrong and went one down (well done the defence of Doug Kemp & Anthea Marriner).

Finally here is a joint-effort where Anna and I missed out:

♠ J x x x ♥ Q T 9 5 x ♦ x ♣ K x x ♠ x x ♥ J x ♦ A x x x ♣ x x x x x 6 5 14 15 ♠ K T 9 ♥ x x x ♦ K Q J x x ♣ A J ♠ A Q x x x ♥ A K x ♦ x x x ♣ Q x

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

East opened 1♦ and I had the South hand. I made a 1♠ overcall. West bid a competitive 2♦ and Anna a pre-emptive 3♠, which I passed. Although I have a maximum hand at matchpoints scoring I think pass is clear, especially as Anna could be very weak.

West led the Ace of Diamonds and when I saw the singleton Diamond in dummy I knew I was going to make a lot of tricks. West switched to the Jack of Hearts which I won in hand. Although I feared a Heart ruff I thought East was such a strong favourite to have the trump Ace it was worth a finesse first. I crossed to dummy by ruffing a diamond, then successfully finessed trumps. If I could draw trumps I would then be able to run the Hearts and discard my losing Clubs. However, the King did not fall under the Ace.

So, I tried a sneaky manoeuvre in Hearts. After winning the Ace-King-Queen I still had the winning Ten-Five in dummy. I called for the Five from dummy. East didn't fancy ruffing in with her winning Spade, so I threw one Club, then another one on the Ten of Hearts. I now had now Club losers, so eleven tricks, just losing a Spade and a Diamond.

Unfortunately, 2♠+3 was still not a good score, as a couple of pairs were in 4♠= (well done John Price & Di Pulman, Gwen & Roger Webb).

Fortunately, we got enough boards right to finish with a winning score of 63%.

European Youth Teams Championship - Match 16/17 vs Latvia/Israel

Could we overhaul Ireland and finish second last? Our first match today was against Latvia, who for a while were close to us at the bottom end of the table.

I spent the day at Efteling theme park, and while this match was being played I was on a rollercoaster. It started in the dark, went up a little bit, then came crashing down. That was similar to our scorecard, as we first raced into an 18-0 lead.

It's very rare for us to get a gain from directly outplaying out opponents, more often they come from a divergence in the auction. The board below produced some huge variation, with contracts ranging from the one to seven level, with most of them doubled.

South (Michael) was spared the decision over what to open the bidding when his North (Donald) opened 1H. East came in with 2S and Michael started with 3D. When partner bid 3NT, Michael passed. I would have bid 5C. Not often you get a 0-0-7-6 hand. Here partner has a double stop in the majors plus entries, so 3NT made.

On the other table North also opened 1H, but this time East passed. South took the low road, passing, and North had a rather tough time playing 1H. It would have been a fun dummy to table, though rather useless in 1H. Two off and 11 IMPs to Scotland.

When we came crashing down we hit the ground hard, including an attempt to make a grand slam missing the Ace of trumps. It didn't work out. 

Round 16 Victory Points: 0

Total VPS so far: 40.91 (18th place, 2.4 IMPs behind Ireland)

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For our final match we needed to produce a result against Israel. 

Although bidding is the thing players worry about, and spend most time discussing, it shouldn't be the priority. I've had many Juniors tell me "the play's fine, I'm just not sure about the bidding". They all need to improve their play.

In fact, given that this is our last match, some team awards. The best play goes to Donald, best bidding Michael, best performing pair Lydia and Jack, and most improved Tamsin and Jamie.

Here are two missed opportunities from this final match:

Well done the pair who got to 6C, played by South. If I tell you that every finesse works and trumps are 2-2 it seems easy, but I can see how you could run into problems. Suppose you get a low Heart lead from West (the 3). What's your plan?

The Heart lead is annoying, but you can't avoid the Heart finesse so have to take it. It wins. Since you are worried about a Heart ruff you next play Ace of trumps and another, accepting that this may mean you go down if trumps are 3-1 and Hearts 4-1 (as you can't ruff out the Hearts). Otherwise you are home.

I don't know what happened, but presumably the Scotland defender was talked into a losing line (the sneaky low Heart lead from K3 maybe), and took only 10 tricks.

Next a challenge for East-West

Well done getting to 6S. West was declarer and got a Heart lead. How do you play it?

The key thing is what to do with your Clubs. You could take a finesse (a 50/50 shot), or try and ruff them out (much better). If you draw two rounds of trumps and they turn out to be 2-2 you are home (unless Clubs are 5-1). If trumps split 3-1 you need to stop drawing trumps after only two rounds, and start ruffing Spades high. It's therefore good technique to win the first Heart in dummy (so you have the King of Hearts entry back to hand).

Here trumps are 2-2 so it shouldn't be a problem. The Scotland declarer went down, which I guess would be taking an unnecessary finesse (North had Qxxx in Clubs), or maybe playing three rounds of Clubs before drawing trumps and ruffing low in dummy and getting overruffed.

Either way, I'd like to give the declarer the same contract in a year or two and see if they make it then!

Unfortunately the 0.58 Victory Points we achieved here was not enough to overhaul Ireland. Well played to them! (And France, the overall winners of the U26)

Round 17 Victory Points: 0.58

Total VPS so far: 40.91 (18th place, 2.4 IMPs behind Ireland)

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European Youth Teams Championship - Match 13/14/15 vs Poland/Ireland/Turkey

In our first match we were soundly beaten by Poland, the scorecard a barrage of Polish scores against nothing our side. A couple of times Poland bid a good minor slam, more often we were missing game. 

A constant theme has been our players undervaluing distributional hands, and being strict point-counters rather than trick-counters. But we are getting better. In the last match before I left I was delighted to see Tamsin upgrade her hand with ♣AKxxxx and get straight to 3NT. We need more judgement like that.

Our East opened a weak NT. East transferred to a minor and played 3♦. Not much can go wrong in the play and declarer took 11 tricks.

On the other table of course Poland were in 5♦, making the same 11 tricks.

On another day West taking the low-road might have been a winning choice, but I think on balance the hand is worth at least an invite to game. The key thing is to count tricks, not points. Or, to put it another way, if East has just a couple of good cards then game is good, and when you need so little from partner to make game you should probably bid it. We've not discussed it but I think the way to do it would be for West to transfer with 2♠, then when East bids 3♣ you jump to 4♦. This must be both minors, as with just one you could make an immediate strong 3♣/3♦ bid over 1NT.

Well done to table-topping France who got to the top spot of 6♣.

Round 13 Victory Points: 0

Total VPS so far: 32.58 (17th place)

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Next up was the big one - our match against Ireland. The 20 Victory Points on offer was sure to provide a bumper haul for one team, or maybe both of us if it was 10-10.

Ireland raced into the lead when we played 4H on a 4-3 fit, then we got some back with this good effort from Jack and Lydia.

West (Jack) opened a weak 2S and East (Lydia) bid an immediate 4H. This was passed out (well done Jack not bidding 4S). On their card it says that a new suit from East is game-forcing, but when you know the final contract is going to be 4H, why bid anything else? (They don't play splinters, so 4H must be natural).

4H went very nicely for 11 tricks. The Irish East-West, and many other pairs, played 3S.

Most of the action was in the Open Room. Jack and Lydia bid not one but two grand slams. 

I didn't say they made two grand slams, It's easy to find several places where this auction could have gone better. East could begin with a game forcing strong 2D response, then it would be clear when she bids 6D it's to play. Bidding RKCB after the 2H bid means Hearts are trumps, so is a bad idea. Better would be fourth suit forcing, or a forcing jump to 4D. West could have passed 6D, which was surely natural since they didn't have any other meaning for it. Finally East could have bid 6NT instead of 7D (knowing that partner had the Ace of Clubs).

I agree with the rest of the bids though :)

The Irish had a more straight-forward auction where East leapt to 6D earlier on. This is exactly the sort of hand you should jump to slam with, as partner is never going to support you with all those Diamonds, although maybe it's worth doing Blackwood to see if you can play 7D.

Sweden joined us in this hand on 7D-1, showing it can happen to anyone.

Next, came a happier outcome:

East (Lydia) opened a game-forcing 2C. This seems reasonable to me, in that partner only needs the King of Diamonds to make game good. On the other hand, when you have such a distributional hand like this it's very unlikely that a 1C opening will be passed out, so that would probably be my choice.

I'm not sure what West (Jack) thought when partner opened 2C. He made a positive response of 2S, then when East bid 3C jumped to 7NT. If that was his plan he might as well have bid 7NT the first time, which would have been even more stylish.

There are exactly 13 top tricks (without requiring Spades to split or the Diamond finesse). That's my kind of grand slam. Well done you two!

The Irish played 2C+5. Just kidding. They played 6C, along with the majority of pairs.

In this high-scoring encounter Ireland prevailed 50-44, with the result in the balance even on the final board (a further 6S slam was available to Jack and Lydia). Well played to the Irish four of Isabel Walsh & Sheila Burke and Aileen Armstrong & Andrew Newbold.

This is our highest scoring game, but feels like a loss (which it was). We now slip behind our biggest rivals.

Round 14 Victory Points: 8.33

Total VPS so far: 40.91 (18th place, by 1.5 VPs)

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We now need to gain a few more VPs than Ireland in the last three matches to overtake them. It didn't happen here though, as we were trounced by Turkey by an astonishing 133-10 VPs.

Whenever our East-West pair made a game Turkey made a slam. When our North-South pair went one off in game Turkey made it. This was the most surprising:

North opened Our East overcalled 2C. The bid is obviously far too weak for an overcall, especially vulnerable. It's costly if you get doubled, but can also cost in another way, as I expect happened. Getting two level overcalls up to strength still needs more work!

The Turkish South got to 5D. A low Heart was led from East. I don't have the play records but assume West took two Hearts. After this declarer can place the King of Diamonds with East, to make up his vulnerable two-level overcall (East can't have KQJ of Clubs else he would have led one). So he played for the drop. The alternative possibility is that West for some reason didn't take his top Hearts, after which the natural line for declarer would be to play the Ace of Diamonds then try and set up the Spades, also leading to success.

Well done Donald and Jamie getting to 5D, which goes down on the normal line of finessing Diamonds.

So a 20-0 loss but Ireland didn't get any victory points either so we remain 1.5 VPs behind going into the final day.

Round 15 Victory Points: 0

Total VPS so far: 40.91 (18th place, by 1.5 VPs)

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European Youth Teams Championship - Match 11/12 vs Bulgaria/Germany

I'm now in Amsterdam with the children so no blogging today. However, I received this from Alisdair, a report on the start of Match 11 vs Bulgaria:

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Today is my first full day with all the Captain duties to myself. I was there for all of Saturday, but the competition rules meant that Danny had to submit the lineup for the Netherlands match on Friday night, even though it was played on Saturday morning. Once the Italy match was underway, I went right ahead and enthusiastically submitted my lineups for the next three matches - forgetting that Sunday has only two, and we're good up to Monday morning now. Three mornings in a row where Jamie and Tamsin are playing the morning match - twice with Jack and Lydia as team-mates. Oops! I was prepared to go to the Director with my begging bowl and ask if I could change the lineup, but the team unanimously assured me that what we had already was probably the right idea.

The team are still in good spirits despite the fact we are still seeking our first win. Donald needs to be constantly reminded that we didn't actually "win" against Hungary. We socialised on Saturday night playing anything-but-bridge (although lots of card games were involved). I couldn't get the hang of all of them, but I won all the "chips" at Texas Hold Em'. (Scotland players and coaches do NOT gamble while on International duty; the chips were returned to the board game from whence they came). I found out Danny had schooled the team at the same game a couple of nights previously. Coaches have to show their worth somehow! The players' tendency to raise All In without so much as a pair revealed a lot about their bidding habits!

Conversation at Breakfast was upbeat as we pored over the Bulgarian convention cards and I gave some pointers for competitive auctions. Alas, we were not off to a good start. Board 2 was one of those boards where our pairs did little wrong, but are just not experienced enough to achieve the optimum result:

After a strong 1NT Opener from East, Lydia and Jack found their 8-card (6-2) heart fit, and their better quality 5-3 spade fit never got a look in. They rightly believed that Slam was a possibility, but investigated in the wrong major. They quickly found a missing Key Card as well as a missing Queen of trumps, and stopped in Game to notch up +650. At the other table, a Precision 1 Club opening allowed the Bulgarian pair to discover the spade suit, and they went to Slam in the correct Major. An 11-IMP setback was not the start we wanted.

Still, this team has learned nothing if not resilience this week, and they came storming back two boards later.

Unfortunately, we don't get Play records, so we rely on the players' recollections to report how it happened (and we can't ask until after the match). Quite often, all memory of the cardplay is flushed from their brains the moment they leave the playing area. 

What we know is that our East-West Lydia and Jack got to a good - but tight - four hearts contract. It should make, but there is plenty opportunity to go wrong. Fortunately, our Declarer didn't and +620 was a good start. It got better: Tamsin came in with her spade suit at the 2-level over the Bulgarian's Stayman. Her counterpart had bid 3 when her LHO already knew of the heart fit, making 4H an easy bid. Here, I can only assume Tamsin's opponents had a misunderstanding about what the double of 2 Spades was, and Tamsin happily made an overtrick and collected +870 for a 16-IMP swing.

For the third match running, we had taken a lead early on, but far too early for me to have legitimate hope that we would still be ahead at the end of the match. Still, Jack and Lydia did their best to give me hope on the very next board:

The two main "bridge" topics of discussion at breakfast came together here, as Lydia and Jack had to deal with a Precision 1 Club Opener and compete. They had agreed what their double of the 1 Diamond relay was, and I thought they might use it here, but no: A direct 2 Diamonds bid was the choice. This was raised, the Bulgarians competed in hearts, and the eventual contract was 4 Diamonds Doubled. -100 was an excellent result considering a vulnerable Game was available the other way. Unfortunately, Tamsin (South) was not as forceful with her hearts as she should have been, and allowed her partner to play in 3NT rather than 4H. At first glance, it looks like he has plenty of tricks. But not if East ducks the Ace of hearts! This blocks Jamie out of dummy, and is why it was crucial to play in 4 Hearts which would have made. -200 scored for -7 IMPs, and thoughts once again turned from "Can we actually win this one?" to "Can we at least score some VPs?" On the face of it, not an encouraging thing, but this is a very inexperienced team that are gaining a lot of valuable experience. To have a glimmer of hope for three consecutive matches is not something that would have been possible at the start of the competition. As Tamsin said to me yesterday: "I've learned more in the last two days than I have done in the last two years". Comments like that, from a teacher's point of view, justify the team's participation in full.

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The final score was 25-51 IMPs.

Round 11 Victory Points: 4.16

Total VPS so far: 26.77 (17th place)

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Match 12 against Germany was a cracker. The four of Donald-Michael and Jack-Lydia lost 37 IMPs on the first four boards, but followed that up with several good ones to lose 40-57 IMPs.

This board caught my eye:

In the Closed Room Jack made our normal weak 2D opening. The German North doubled. Lydia could have come in with 3D here (showing a few Diamonds), but passed. The German south bid 2S, and played there.

With the trumps and Clubs both behaving declarer has nine top tricks - in fact ten with the Heart Ace onside. Jack led the Seven of Clubs, solving that suit for declarer, and he cashed out for nine tricks.

On the other table the German West had a natural 2D available, but went for 3D. North (Donald) also doubled this, and South (Michael) bid and played 3S. 

This time the lead was a small Diamond, giving declarer no clues. Since only eight tricks were made I presume we got Clubs wrong. Hard to say without the play record. It certainly looks easy seeing all four hands, but then it usually does. Sadly for us the German declarer in 2S made nine tricks, and the Scottish declarer in 3S made only eight. 

But that was only 5 IMPs away, we got them back and more doubling the Germans in 7C, to finish with our closest result yet.

Round 12 Victory Points: 5.81

Total VPS so far: 32.58 (17th place)

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