At the address there was a buzzer outside, but no one answered it. We sat there until four elderly gentlemen came past us and opened the door. "You'll lower the average age by twenty years." one of them said.
Sunday is a quiet day, and there were only 2 1/2 tables. As our hosts all lived locally, they graciously let us sit out last, so we could get away sooner. All of our opponents played Strong NT and Five Card Majors, and referred to our Weak NT and Four Card Majors as Acol, even though I think in the UK if you said Acol that would mean a Strong NT and Strong Twos. On the first table our opponents agreed that they were playing Michaels. I think this jogged something in Anna's memory, as on the very first board she got dealt the hand below, and an opponent in front of her opened 1♣.
♠ AQJxx ♥QJTxxx ♦x ♣K
Anna eagerly overcalled 2♣, which I alerted as Michaels. We play Michaels as either Weak (8-) or Strong (15+) so really a hand like this should instead overcall twice, but maybe it is best to just treat it as Strong and show the two suits straight away. After 2♣ Anna drove the bidding to 4♠, much to my dismay as I had a three count with only two cards in the Majors.
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I briefly considered passing Anna's 2♣ bid, but of course that's ridiculous, especially as West has bid Clubs. I bid 2♠, as I much prefer Spades. Anna then showed her big 6-5 hand by bidding 3♥, which I corrected back to 3♠. Anna then raised this to game, maybe thinking because I'd bid Spades twice I actually had some good Spades.
4♠ has four immediate losers, and I'm very likely to lose control in trumps. West cashed the ♣A and ♦A, then cunningly switched to a low trump. I thought there was no way I could draw trumps and enjoy my long Hearts, so should just take my tricks where I could get them, and went up with the ♠A to ruff a Heart. In the end I scrambled to seven tricks, for 4♠-3, the same result as the other table. Actually, Spades were 3-3 with the ♠K onside, so maybe I could have set up the Hearts.
Since this was a Matchpoint night with only five pairs, each board was only compared with one other table, so it was effectively BAM scoring. However, on the next Board, my highlight of the evening, I think we would have got a very good score against a field of any size.
I have a terrible hand but am inspired by the double fit to bid boldly:
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Anna sitting South has a poor 16 count. It would be a good candidate for a Strong NT, but since we play weak NT she opened it 1♦. West had an easy double, I was sitting North and with only two points made a swift pass. East came in with 2♣, and Anna then stuck her neck very far out with 2♠. She does have the points for a reverse, but it's an awful looking hand. Plus since I've passed already, the 2♠ bid isn't really a reverse, it shows a much stronger hand. A reverse is bidding something like 2♠ opposite a partner who has 6+, here she's bidding 2♠ opposite a partner who's promised nothing.
But Anna wasn't the only one feeling bold. West competed with 3♣, and I quickly came in with 3♠. I think this is fairly safe, as I've no defence against 3♣ and have a bit of a double fit for Anna, in Diamonds and Spades. The danger is that it looks like I've got a better hand than I do, but luckily everyone passed 3♠. West lead a Club, and I put down my miserable dummy, to some amusement.
In 3♠ Anna has four Aces to lose, so there's certainly not going to be any overtricks. The opening Club lead went to East's Ace, and she continued Clubs. Anna now needs to draw trumps, and so wanted to get to dummy. She crossed to the ♦Q, which held, and lead a Spade up from dummy. This went to the ♠T, ♠J and ♠A. West tried the Ace of Diamonds, then played another trump. With the very lucky Spade position declarer only loses one Spade, and she later guessed Hearts (based on West's double), so there was only one loser in each suit.
3♠ made exactly, so rather than being a sacrifice, it was +140.
This won us the Board, but we lost a lot too, and finished on 47.5%. Although given that there were so few pairs playing, another way of looking at it is that we were one Board away from coming last, and two Boards away from winning.
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