Blyth Valley Bridge Club

With the Summer holidays Anna and I made our comeback to live bridge, with an afternoon session in Walberswick. 

On our first board I had a tricky 1NT. I needed two tricks from a suit of 

♦ KQ65

♦ 98

I led up to my honours and the Queen held. Pleased, I returned to hand and led up to my other honour. West played low again. At this point I should have realised that East held the Ace of Diamonds (and had made an excellent duck the first time). Because there's no way that West would have ducked twice, as no one ever ducks twice. That's the lesson I learned here. 

Luckily, Anna was on top form. Once, when I was dummy, she delayed drawing trumps to set up her side-suit. This paid off well when trumps split 4-1 and the side-suit 4-2. Her score of 4♠+2 was a top.

I made another error misreading the defenders, and one bidding bodge.
With the hand below, I opened 1H. Anna bid 1S. Your bid:

♠Axx ♥Axxxx ♦Kxxx ♣x

This is the perfect hand for 2♠, a rare three-card raise. My hand would be a nice dummy with a singleton Club, and Anna could surely scramble eight tricks in Spades cross-ruffing.

But I bid 2♦ and went one off.

Anna may not remember the hands but reminds me that I delayed the start of the penultimate round, when I very generously made two cups of tea for my opponents.