As you have seen from the stats, every pair contributed to good wins for all three teams. I was especially pleased to see a comfortable win in the A team against a Staffs team who have turned us over in recent history. Not only that, with all our players 32 or under, that must be the youngest team that’s ever been put out in the Midlands League. I’m sure it bodes well for exciting times ahead for the county.
Each four in the A team had two big sets (the 1st and 3rd) and managed to close the match out despite a disappointing final set with a double swing on one board restoring some degree of respectability for the team. Well done to all, especially Cope and Piper and Jones and Murphy on their debuts for the A team.
In the B team, Smith and Wilson dominated the 8 here with a devastating performance. The other three pairs were perhaps a little off-form against a fairly average Staffs side. A shame to drop a victory point there, but still leaves the county in a strong position at the top of the League.
The C team continued their imperious form with an emphatic 20-0 win. Good to see Moss/Clacey playing well on their first outing together for the county (but not their first outing for the county of course). Gidman and Whitehouse also continued their promising form for the county and the other two pairs chipped in well too. Any on to a board-by-board look at how things went.
| Board 1 N/ none |
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A 9 7 
K 5 
K 8 6 5 3 
J 6 4 Board 1
This was a fairly flat start in a very dull set for my four. I opened the North cards 1D (we play a strong NT and a decent flat eleven really should be opened in my opinion). Bryony responded 1H and West found the obvious take-out double. I now passed to show my minimum and East bid a rather reluctant 2C. What do you do now as South? Personally, I like double here as North/South shouldn’t really sell out to 2C with the balance of the points but partner chose a conservative pass. West judged well to pass and I couldn’t see any particular reason to keep the auction open. 2C made an over-trick in the end after I didn’t lead trumps early enough. In our match, Luke and Michael decided to let the opponents play in 2D which made after a trick slipped somewhere in the defence. A sloppy start for us there and the biggest swing in our four in an extremely dull set.
Great decision by Sheehy and Rowland here to protect against 2C and buying the contract in 2D. Making it too went well with team-mates 3C tick. Great stuff.
A shaky start in the other A team mini-match as 2H doubled seemed to slip through at Murphy and Jones’ table. Fortunately the rest of the set was somewhat better as they helped the county rack up a big lead in the first set. When Cope and Piper just collected a quiet 50, that was imps out.
| Board 2 E/NS |
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Board 2
Another part-score hand here. Bryony opened a diamond and West found the obvious take-out double. I decided to raise to 2D rather than bid 1N but East piled in with 2H which made 9 tricks fairly comfortably. At the other table, South opened a weak-nt and was allowed to play there. Our boys took a safe-line to defeat the contract (probably mindful of the previous board) and so another trick went by the side for another small swing out. Still – not one to set the pulses racing there!
Nothing too exciting going on elsewhere. Moss and Clacey racked up a nice 180 and Currie and Murray enjoyed collecting 300.
| Board 3 S/EW |
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Board 3
This one was pretty amusing as my counterpart and I both found the same “masterful” bid. Bryony opened an aggressive 3D and West doubled. I decided to bid a “clever” 3S here to suggest a lead when the opponents bid the normal 4H… at least they always seem to outbid me! Instead, 3S was where I got to play. The defence were a little loose here and allowed me to get away with 8 tricks when best defence should be more profitable. Still, same thing happened at the other table. Obviously, I’m not as clever as I thought at the time.
Rob Procter writes that they were a little sucked in here by the pace of the opponents bidding. The auction was:
1C 1S P P
X 2H end
Apparently there was considerable thought going into each of the opponents bids and they felt that it would be unwise to push them into more profitable areas. A bit unlucky.
Still, top marks here to Sheehy and Rowland for the incredibly surreal:
2D 2N P 3C
P 3N P 4H
P P 5D 5H
P 6H X end
Well – I have no clue what was going on, but I do know that 1100 is almost always a good score…. Good stuff.
| Board 4 W/All |
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Board 4
This was the most talked about hand of the day – despite it not being very interesting at our table. The opponents had a bit of a cuebidding fiddle at slam but played just in 4H in the end. They then took a safe line for 11 tricks by playing the trumps from the top. Luke rolled in 12 tricks for a small gain. Their relay auction had uncovered the fact that 6H wasn’t a great contract but not that 6D was a lot better.
The big question of course is what you do if you are in slam. Several pairs were in it but only one managed to bring it in. I’m very grateful to Alan Wilson here for doing extensive analysis on the hand and I reckon I’ve exchanged about 20 e-mails with various players on the subject and I know that it has been posted on at least one online bridge forum. It would be an easy slam to talk about if you’re in 6D but no one actually got there. A typical auction gets you to 6H as East on a club lead.
Ideally you want to see whether the diamond finesse is working before deciding how to play the trumps. If the king is onside, you could then afford a safety-play in trumps by cashing one heart and then leading up to the jack (best play for one loser in the suit). If it is wrong, you need to play the hearts from the top and drop a doubleton queen. Obviously seems obvious to take the finesse first, right? Well – perhaps not. With a 9 card diamond fit, there is a strong possibility that there might be a diamond ruff even if the finesse is right. Every declarer except one managed to go off by taking this line. The only successful declarer was Ed Jones who demonstrated his outstanding “nose” for evaluating what the opponents would do. After Andrew Murphy had bid Drury as a passed hand, the big diamond fit had never been revealed in the auction and Ed decided that the opponents wouldn’t spot a diamond ruff, even it was there. Backing his “nose”, he crossed to the king of clubs and put the diamond queen on the table. When this was covered (a mistake, surely?). He then took the safety play in hearts to make his contract when hearts are 4-1. Mis-play or great table-presence? Who cares – 14 in to the good guys!
Mind you, Rob Procter tells me that their opponents found the line for 12 tricks without pausing for thought… good job they were in 4!
The biggest tale of woe came from Whitehouse and Gidman’s table. They got to 6N on a non-spade lead which should be cold. Unfortunately – a disaster when the safety play in hearts was missing. Unfortunate in the extreme…… well, not really – 20-0 was always in the bag, but at a personal level, I’m sure they’d hope to make it most times. In fact this was a dreadful board for the C team as Currie and Murray also reached the slam.
| Board 5 N/NS |
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Board 5
A normal enough game here. West has a great hand here. I opened the North cards 1D and Bryony bid 1N (2D would be inverted here else that would be a sensible choice). West bid some Ghesthem variant showing both majors and East bid game in hearts. This made 11 tricks fairly easily when we led a club. This was an imp to us when Luke and Michael somehow made 12 tricks. The only excitement on this hand was at Cope and Piper’s table where the director was required to express an opinion. North had opened 1D as at our table and South chose pass over Bryony’s aggressive 1N. West then bid 2N which was systemically 19-21 balanced. East converted to 3N and West bid a suspicious 4S. The director ruled that bidding 4S was based on UI of East failing to alert 2N (which they thought was the majors obviously) and ruled that declarer would risk going three off to make the contract and so adjusted the score to 3N-3. A good decision and difficult for Staffs to argue with (especially as the director was from Staffs!). A welcome break for the A team there.
Rob Procter was wondering whether he should find the ace of hearts lead to beat 4S after a poor auction. He didn’t really believe that declarer could possibly be 34 in the majors after an auction of:
1D P P 2N
P 3D P 4S
3D is not a good call, imo and I can hardly blame Rob for missing the crucial defence.
| Board 6 E/EW |
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Board 6
I showed a semi-constructive raise to 2D here and made 9 tricks for a flat board…. Snore. Best defence can possibly hold this to 8 tricks as the spade suit is frozen. Another push at any rate.
Smith and Wilson demonstrated here how to defend 3D properly – a purely passive defence restricts declarer to just 8 tricks giving them a nice gain on the board. Jones and Murphy went one better by taking 100 out of the board.
| Board 7 S/All |
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Board 7
We were really lucky here, I think. What do you do as South when North opens a strong nt. I’m a simple soul, I’d have just banged down 4H but Bryony took a more conservative view of the hand and resigned herself to play in 2H unless I broke the transfer. Fortunately not only did West protect with 2S, but Bryony had passed 2H in tempo, so I didn’t feel too bad about bidding 3H with my eminently suitable hand for hearts. Bryony now re-evaluated her earlier pessimism and flattened the board in 4H. I’m a little surprised East didn’t bid 4S but I guess he didn’t want to hang partner for protecting. Some people were pushed to 5H on the board which can make on careful play. Obviously the danger is losing a trick in hearts, diamonds and clubs. However, the clubs can go away on the diamonds if the opponents can’t establish their club trick. To succeed, then declarer has to ruff a spade to the table and run the HJ. Now West can’t ever get on lead to play a club through. This type of avoidance play should be relatively easy to spot and thanks to Nick Smith for some good analysis here. He reckons that you have a 66.67% chance of keeping West off lead as you’re ok if West has K7, Q7, T7 or K9 but not if he has KQ or QT. This line allows you to test for diamonds 3-2 before falling back on the club finesse. In fact in their mini-match, the opponents found the heart game whereas a spade part-score bought the contract at the other table.
Amusing tale from Alastair Gidman here. He opened 1S and North decided to bid 2D over that. As such, hearts were never mentioned and apparently the Staffs played had a bit of a go at his partner for not wandering in with Jxxxxx hearts. Hm – don’t think that’s the problem on the hand! When Moss and Clacey got safely to 4H that was a fine swing in.
Same thing happened in the A team – Cope and Piper made a safe 11 tricks in hearts and Jones and Murphy bought the pot with 3S. Good stuff – no chance that Ed or Andrew are passing that hand with 6 good spades!
| Board 8 W/None |
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Board 8
We passed this one out. Team-mate didn’t – 3rd seat 1H opener and Drury kept them in a nice safe 2H making exactly.
Top work by the other A team four. Both sides found aggressive openings to collect 90 at one table and 140 at the other. It’s a bidders game!!
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