Return to Buchanan Club

John and I made a return to face to face bridge on Monday with a most welcome game at the Buchanan. It's been over a year since either of us played a real match, and it was great to be back at the club. It was still light outside and with a cool breeze, perfect conditions for bridge!

As usual, John and I handicapped ourselves by playing his system (or maybe it's oringally his partner's Frazer's system). It's not a bad system, but is fairly unfamiliar to me. I spent much of the week before reading it, and even made a couple of online quizzes to test my understanding. On the second board I bid 3♥ to show a Club singleton, which to my surprise John alerted as a Diamond singleton!

Despite the misunderstanding I ended in a reasonable 6♥. In fact, without the misunderstanding I may well have ended up in 7♥, and six was high enough. The small slam made exactly for 73%, as most people were in it.

In my featured deal below we made a lot of tricks

=	John Danny W N E S - 1♣ - 1♦ - 3♣ - 3♠ - 3NT - - -

I had the big East hand and opened 1♣. John replied 1♦, and I thought about a speculative 3NT but went for the more sensible 3♣. When John rebid 3♠ I went for the NT game.

I got a Heart lead, and immediately looked to the Club suit. If Clubs are 3-2 I just have to lose one Club, and if one defender had exactly Queen-Ten then I can win all the Clubs. Even if they are 4-1 without an honour dropping I still have a good chance of nine tricks (four Spades, three Hearts, two Clubs). Is there any benefit in leading low to the Jack? I couldn't think of any, so played Clubs from the top and waas rewarded with all 13 tricks.

We got 77% as although nearly everyone played 3NT, some made only 12 tricks.

HighSchoolOfGlasgow vs Lithgae Players

Last night my team of ex-school pupils suffered another loss in Division 1 of the SBU Bronze League.

This was surely the unluckiest board:

Defending 4♥ West made the normal looking lead of the Queen of Clubs. This caught his partner's ten, and declarer was then able to pick up the Clubs and make the contract. On another lead there are at least five losers.

Conceding 4♥= was a doubly bad result as East-West have an easy Spade game. I've encouraged East to bid more next time and weigh in with 3♠.

On the other table our North-South pair did well not to push too hard and wisely sold out to 3♠, which made with two overtricks.

Overall we lost the match 24-53 IMPs which translates to about 4-16 I'd guess.

HighSchoolOfGlasgowJuniors vs Aardfap

It's school exam season, which meant I only had two Juniors available for my team this week. Phil and I stepped in to be the other pair. In this match we had the pleasure of playing against Peter Edmond's Bearsden Improvers Club. Peter is also a former HSOG maths teacher (like Phil) so it was a true reunion.

I like Phil's style, as like me he is always on the lookout for a possible game and slam, and together we bid pretty aggressively. This produced some very good results, though this is not one of them:

On both tables East opened 4♥. This is definitely not my choice, as you might miss slam, or your partner may sacrifice when in fact you have lots of defence.

Phil had the big South hand and took the reasonable decision to double. He got to response he didn't want, 4♠, and had to pass.

In 4♠ I got the expected ♥A lead. How do you play it?

In fact the best option is to duck this trick, throwing a Club or Diamond from dummy. Then when East continues Hearts (as he surely would) you can ruff it, draw a couple of rounds of trumps with the Ace-King, finesse Clubs and run winners. The defence just gets that one Heart at the start, and two trumps. It needs a lucky layout in Clubs (and Spades 4-2 oddly) but works here.

It's an interesting deal in that the winning play relies on ducking, in a suit contract, which you don't see often.

This duck did not occur to me at the table. I was just trying for as many tricks as possible, and planned to ruff two Hearts in dummy. The problem with this is that each time you ruff a Heart you have no entry back to hand. I finished on 4♠-3. On the other table East-West pushed on to 5♥, which South gratefully doubled and beat by two tricks.

Despite the 14 IMP loss on this board, we scraped home to win the match 50-45.

Sole Bay Bridge Club

Anna and I are on holiday in Suffolk and took advantage of the trip to visit the Sole Bay Bridge Club again. This was our first time playing here in a while, and it is always very enjoyable. There was a nice atmosphere and a brisk 21 boards. We mostly got good results but three times I tried to be clever, and three times it backfired.

The first time was when I thought for ages, and finally decided it was safe to duck my winners in the hope of setting the contract two. To my surprise declarer then took the rest! Well done Jenny and Alan. In my analysis of the hand I'd forgotten that the ♦A was still out there, what a blunder.

Then I had this promising hand:

♠x ♥x ♦Qxxxx ♣AKxxxx

First to bid, no-one vulnerable. I probably should have opened 3♣, but decided to pass. Then Anna bid 1NT and I considered several options (including minor suit Stayman) before passing. I definitely should have transferred to 3♣ now.

Anna had a rough time in 1NT, the Clubs did not come in and it was 1NT-2.

My third bodge was in a competitive auction. I pushed on to 4♥, thinking the opposition would surely be making 4♣. It went one off (fine), but I think 4♣ might have been failing too. Everyone else played 3♥=, so I suppose we have to say well bid to Vivien and Linda for pushing us too high.

Despite my off-night Anna did well and we finished with a winning score of 64%.

Here's an interesting hand:

Love all S deal ♠ Q T ♥ x x x ♦ K Q x x ♣ A K x x ♠ x x x ♥ x x ♦ A x ♣ Q T 9 8 x x 14 6 14 6 ♠ K ♥ A K Q x x ♦ J T 9 x x ♣ J x ♠ A J 9 8 x x x ♥ J x x ♦ x x ♣ x

Anna Danny W N E S 3♠ - - -

It was a simple auction at our table; 3♠ passed out. I agree with the 3♠ opening bid; you'd like stronger Spades but it's a decent seven card suit with a singleton.

North is close to a raise. You have three Heart losers but it's likely that partner has shortage (not today though). You expect about four losers (one Spades, two Hearts, one Diamond), so at Teams might bid an optimistic 4♠. Here North did well to pass.

With the East hand I was thinking about a double of 3♠. If partner inevitably bid 4♣ I'd just have to pass. But North looked like she had a good hand so I chose to pass, and was glad I did when I saw such a good dummy.

In defence to 3♠ Anna lead a Heart. I took three top tricks then a Diamond for 3♠=. Anna was quick to notice that if I switch to a Diamond after winning my the first Heart then we can beat it, as Anna can then throw her small Diamond on a top Heart and get a Diamond ruff for the fifth defensive trick. I have to admit this never crossed my mind.

I think if Anna leads the Ace of Diamonds, a fairly normal lead after the pre-empt, we might have found the winning defence. One table did as the result was 4♠-2, but another table presumably lead a Club and conceded 4♠=. A two trick swing on the opening lead.

HighSchoolOfGlasgow vs Acuity

With the Peggy Bayer last weekend three of our team were busy catching up on University work, so the reserves were brought in for this league match against last season's champions. I played with Kevin, and Harry with Phil Moon.

As the host of the match I was responsible for the setup, so take full blame for accidenally leaving the barometer on, meaning we could all see the scores. I also take the blame for this one:

Expecting a Heart stopper of something like AQx, I went for a surpise Spade lead. Declarer collected the next ten tricks, and as the hand revealed itself I realised that partner must have had the Ace of Hearts all along. Perhapas it's time for an agreement of what it means when we double their cuebid in our suit, then Kevin can double 3♥ when he has the Ace like this.

I also take responsiblity for making an ever so slightly light overcall on ♠854 ♥AQ985 ♦74 ♣J76 , leading to conceding 5♦x. Because I'd left the barometer on, I could see that we'd just lost 26 IMPs.

We pulled it back though. Kevin and I bid aggressively to keep them out of a few games (which Harry and Phil made), and defended well to beat a few games (which Harry and Phil made). My favourite hand though is a rare part score, played at the other table:

The 2♠ overcall is borderline but it finds good support and with 1NT making could lead to a gain. There look to be five inescapable losers - one Spade, one Heart, two Diamonds and a Club. If the Heart Ace is onside you can throw a Club from dummy, but that fails here. Harry played on Diamonds and eventually set up the suit when they split 3-3 and could throw two losing Clubs from hand. Of course the defence had plenty of time to switch to Clubs and foil this plan, but never did, so the hard work paid off and Harry made 3♠=.

We won the match by 78-33 IMPs and will climb back up to about mid-table.

Peggy Bayer 2023 - Round 9 Scotland vs England

First, team photos from today:

Scotland Peggy Bayer (U21)
Jamie Day, Michael Kennedy, Harry Stuart, Al Duncan, Kevin Ren

Scotland Junior Camrose (U25) team plus NPC Alisdair

I am now away from the event (work Monday morning) so followed this last match on my phone on a replacement bus service somewhere in North-West England. 

With another new face, Tamsin Munro was promoted to our U21 team it was an untested quartet hoping to upset the runaway leaders England in the final match. 

We got off to a great start, as did Scotland U25, also playing against England. The final result in our match was England 47 IMPS, Scotland 45 IMPs. Not bad turnover for 16 boards. Could we have won? Who knows, but a great result. The final standings are therefore

For those 99 Victory points we beat Northern Ireland three out of three times (just), Ireland twice, and England no times (nearly at the end though).

In the U25 Scotland heroically held on to beat England in the last match and end the event on a high. Their final standings:

Playing each team twice, Scotland scored one great win against both England and EBU Juniors, and surprisingly the only team they didn't beat was Wales.

As the players have dinner and prepare for the closing ceremony, here are some of my reflections on the whole event.

Great to play in person. I met a few people I've seen online who knew me by name but had never met me. I was starstruck by seeing Sally Brock. Many of the Juniors I've seen in online matches and were very friendly. There is definitely a community of adults working hard to promote Junior bridge.

The standard was not as high as at the European Junior Championships. No big surprise there. But as Michael on our team said, that meant that we could actually win a match which was nice.

The bridge all went very smoothly. Well done to the tournament directors and anyone else working behind the scenes. The only hiccup was that at one point we were scoring 16 board matches on a 12 board victory point scale (using last year's spreadsheet). It was me who noticed this and pointed it out, even though it cost my team some fraction of a victory point. 

The hotel had perhaps taken on more than they could handle and struggled somewhat with the meals, with the hardworking staff having to work extremely hard to serve everyone. The first dinner was in fact not even finished before the bridge began (I got a lemon meringue pie and Ireland pocketed one each for later but most didn't get dessert).

Scotland showed some promise for the future. Our U25 team I would say need to be more disciplined in the bidding. They forgot their system a few times or bid on inappropriate hands and punted far too many slams. But they have a huge amount of talent and can beat good teams. The U21 team was disciplined in bidding, and I think have the most to learn from more solid declarer play and defence. As non-playing captain they were very easy to manage.

England did the right thing fielding a weaker team - their U16 played in the U21, and still won it but had a few close matches (and famously lost to Northern Ireland, and nearly to us at the end).

I have just been sent a message about a hand to feature on the blog, but that will have to be for another time, I'm signing off now until next year.

Peggy Bayer 2023 - Round 8 Scotland vs Northern Ireland

In the last round I watched with Wayne Somerville and along with most of the bridge following people in the lounge we noticed that Northern Ireland had taken a lead against England. Miraculously, they held on for a famous win.

Now Scotland, usually the underdogs, were Northern Irelands next targets. I'm pleased to say we've gone from underdogs to being a team-to-beat, at least in the Home Nations.

With Kevin & Michael heading home early (and me on a train back too), our group of five players was down to three for the last two matches. Not quite enough for a bridge team. Tournament Director Gordon Rainsford allowed us to field a substitute player from the U25 ranks. This however makes us 'playing without standing', ineligible for the trophy, both as they are over-age and by using two different players our squad is up to seven. 

This didn't matter too much as we are also ineligible to win by being a long way behind England. 

Against Northern Ireland our ringer was Antone Huang, a skilful cardplayer but maverick overbidder who I'd enjoyed watching on Vugraph but was more anxious about having on the team.

Given that most of our team have similar bridge backgrounds (i.e. they went to my school bridge club), and play simple systems, we have had no bidding misunderstandings at all as far as I know. Certainly people could have bid better, and missed opportunities, but no out-and-out calamities.

As ever though, the plays the thing, and I'm scratching my head as to how we went down in 5D here:

Queen of Hearts lead. The contract went two down, which must only mean you were left with some Heart losers at the end.

We bid two no-play slams, and were in trouble, but came through in the final board here:

Playing 3NT, our West got a nice Queen of Hearts lead. There are now two Hearts, four Clubs, and a Diamond finesse gets you up to nine.

A routine Spade lead puts 3NT at least two down, as happened on both tables in the England-Ireland match. On our other table North bought it in 2S, one off.

At the end of this match we won 50-43 IMPs for a narrow win.