Faben vs Stevenson

This was our last match of the season, a rearragement with big implications for the league. With the Division 1 table very tight, depending on the result we would finish between third and seventh, out of ten teams.

I was well prepared for the match, as it started at 1930 and I thought 1900. The first few boards John and I got off to a great start, defeating 3NT then making our own 4♥. But as so often happens when you play good people, the exact same thing happened at the other table.

Then we got our first break, when the opponents bid to 6♠. I was feeling pretty pleased with my ♠JT63 and in fact there were more problems for declarer, and it finished two down for +11 IMPs. John and I kept a pretty good card, except for two misadventures. I pushed a bit hard resulting in 4♥-1, then we both overbid on this one:

I'm not sure why I opened the bidding. Perhaps because I was quite pleased with making a good 2♠ on the board before? I wonder if I overbid following a good result, and underbid following a bad one.

My 1♥ opening was not a success. John chose exactly the wrong moment to be optimistic and bid 2♣, which for us is game forcing. There's now no recovery, and 4♥ was the best we could hope for. We avoided 3NT with no Diamond stopper, but still had to lose three Diamonds, and when North cleverly lead a fourth round of Diamonds I was down two, losing a further two tricks in trumps.

I should say North was Liz Commins from England, and her partner was David Stevenson. This was very exciting for me, as he wrote the excellent Law & Ethics letters page in Bridge magazine, which was my favourite bit, hearing his no nonsense put-downs "I've very little sympathy for either side...".

To compound our losses on the board above our team-mates (Paul and Gints) played in 1NT by South. On their table East sensibly passed but South opened, so not a good board for opening light.

The last board of the first half was our highlight:

John's 1NT rebid shows 12-14, after which my 2♠ was natural and game forcing. After John bid 2NT I nearly signed off in 3NT, but thought I was worth one more go with 3♦. 4♦ then set Diamonds as trumps, and the redouble I think showed the Ace of Hearts. At this point I tried to sign off in 5♦, but John recognised the power of his hand (great controls) and raised me to 6♦.

I got the ♥K lead, and assessed the prospects. I have 11 top tricks (6 Diamonds, 1 Heart, 2 Clubs, 2 Spades) so need one more. This could come from a Spade ruff if trumps are 2-2, a long Spade if Spades are 3-3, a high Spade if the Queen or Jack is doubleton, or a Spade ruff even if neither trumps or Diamonds split if the hand with the long Diamond also has the long Spade. So overall, prospects were good.

I drew one trump then played two round of Spades. When North split her honours I was home, though with trumps 2-2 I'm always making. The other table played 5♦+1 so we got +11 IMPs, and ended the first half up by 22.

In the second half I confess to having something of a slump. I tried to avoid it, but it came anyway. Not sure if it's because Anna dragged me up Dumgoyne in the morning, I'd just had my second vaccination, it was getting late, or just not used to playing lots of difficult boards (probably that one). We had three boards in the middle where the opponents bid a slam, we overbid a slam, we missed a slam. An expensive trilogy. This was the opposition slam, which impressed me with the speed of the play:

After the transfer the 3♠ was a super-accept, based on three good trumps. This was enough for West to drive to slam. John found the best Spade lead, and looking at my hand I thought it might be down. I have a sure-trump trick to come, and the King of Spades too? Sadly not. Declarer rose with the Ace of Spades, played off two top trumps, then used the Diamonds to discard Spades. 6♥=.

We lost the second half of the match by 20 IMPs, to hang on for a 2 IMPs win. This gives us just enough Victory Points to vault up the table to third place, a good result seeing as we only averaged about 11/20 per game.

Congratulations to Gipson on winning the league (again?)

Faben vs Outred

John and I had quite a good game here. On Board 1 we had a mix-up defending against their Strong Club opening. I made a 'natural' 2♣ overcall, which actually showed the majors:

John's accidental psyche of 2♥ kept them out of their best fit, and left me in 2♠. It went three off. This was a good result against their making 4♥. The nice thing about playing in the SOL is that if 4♥ was making the other way you can be pretty sure our team-mates (Derek and Alex) bid it, and indeed they did.

Later I mistakenly passed John's forcing 3NT:

3NT made comfortably enough. The other table got things right in getting to 6♥, but went two off for an undeserved 11 IMP gain.

Apart from these happy accidents there was some good play and we were up at the break.

In the second half this was the most exciting board:

Over their Weak 2♦ John bid 4♦, alerted as the majors. I was on the same page here, and knew he had a big 5-5 hand. I felt quite bold jumping to 6♠, but maybe I didn't do enough. John had a think and then passed. He's got the ♠AK, and I've got the other three Aces, so it was an easy thirteen tricks and 6♠+1.

On the other table the auction started the same but Charles Outred bid 5♦ with my hand. Vi responded with 6♥ and Charles bid 7♠, making. This meant an 11 IMP loss for Team Rowan.

Overall we hung on for a narrow win.

SOL4: Faben vs Maiolani

We lost this match by about 12 IMPs. I think there were two boards where I gained IMPs for the team (a double of 4♠, and a risky 3♥ vulnerable overcall) but several where I lost some. This was the low point:

With a massive hand I didn't mind coming back in with 4♣. I was close to bidding 5♣, and so was John. A Spade was lead. My first thought on seeing dummy was "We've missed 5♣". I tested trumps and when they weren't 3-2 I knew what to do; set up the Diamonds straight away. However, something went wrong. I left two trumps out instead of just one, and they were the ♣QJ in West. That meant after clearing the Diamonds I couldn't draw trumps and get back to the East hand. I ended up one down.

I've looked at this hand quite a lot since. The easiest way to make it is to draw three rounds of trumps, and leave just one out. On this layout I actually do best to start on Diamonds straight away (before drawing trumps), and maybe that's what I should have done.

The other table got it right and made 3♣+2. On their table South didn't overcall at all - a missed opportunity as North-South make 4♠ I think.

My other bodge was this one:

John's double showed at least four Hearts, but that still wasn't enough to convince me to go to 5♥. You can see that I've made the right decision to defend 4♠. John led the King of Hearts, I encouraged, and he played a low Heart to my Ace. I took it as suit preference and switched to Clubs. John won and returned a Diamond. I got back in with the Ace of Spades and it was decision time. I was convinced that John had ♣AQ and that it didn't matter which minor I played. So without too much thought I played a Diamond, and now John got endplayed and declarer escaped for -2.

4♠x-2 was +300. On the other table South opened 1NT and after a 2♥ overcall North bid 2♠, East 4♥ and South had no choice really but to bid 4♠. This wasn't doubled but went three off, holding our gain to 4 IMPs. If I get the defence right instead it's +8 IMPs.

SOL4: Faben vs DShenkin

A disappointing game for me tonight. I think I made a lot of 40% decisions. These are obviously poor decisions, but I think I was unlucky that they all seemd to fail. Starting with the positive, here's a board where I lost IMPs to good declarer play. Can't argue with that:

They've stretched to bid 3NT so we've a good chance of beating it. I led a safe Diamond and waited for our tricks to come in. We couldn't stop declarer setting up the Clubs, but he's still a bit short. Three Clubs, three Diamonds, one Spade and one Heart. On the last Club it's crunch time. I have a hand full of winners, two Hearts, a Diamond to come, and my King of Spades. I threw a Diamond, and John had already thrown one, so declarer promptly crossed to his hand and took two more Diamond tricks.

If I bare the King of Spades, declarer surely finesses and goes down. My counterpart on the other table did exactly that. So it's well played by their declarer (Martin Diamond) and their defender (David Shenkin), for a well earned 10 IMPs.

There were four more game swings their way, all of which involved competitive high-level auctions. This was the most embarrassing, where I conjured an extra loser:

John's 2NT shows a good raise, after which 5♥ is clear with nothing but trumps. This got doubled.

It looked like five off, for -800. Losing two Spades, two Diamonds and the Club finesse, which I thought was sure to fail.

West cashed the top two Clubs, but was then afraid to lead a Diamond away from the King, so continued trumps. Could I take advantage? No. I finessed Clubs, but in a muddled attempt to confuse the opposition played the Nine and Jack on the same trick. I was assuming the Club finesse would fail and didn't want West to switch to Diamonds. But when the finesse won, I've not blown too many high cards, and couldn't win the fourth Club. So it was 5♥x-2, rather than 5♥x-1.

The other table had pushed to 5♠-1, so the board was already lost. But going off an extra trick meant -12 IMPs, rather than -9 IMPs.

That was my low point. Our partnership low point came on this board, where John had the misfortunte to weigh in at exactly the wrong time.

John's 4♥ shows some sort of very distributional two-suiter, and weak as he didn't bid before. When East doubled this I foolishly weighed in with 5♣. It was only when John corrected to 5♦ I realised he obviously had the other two suits. I corrected to 5♠, which was a much worse trump suit.

I realised 5♠ was going to be bad, and it was damage limitation. I played to keep trump control and set up the Diamonds, which I achieved, but only after I'd lost a lot of tricks for 5♠x-5.

Our new team-mates Alex Adamson and Derek Sanders made a solid 4♥, but that was largely irrelevant opposite our -1100 and we lost 12 IMPs.

There was another board where I had 20 points and propelled John into an awful 4♥, but I think that's enough rue for now. We lost the match by 33 IMPs to collect just 3 VPs.

On the plus side my team of High School of Glasgow pupils playing in the SBU Bronze League are doing well.