Oxfordshire vs Staffordshire September 2008 Board 17-24

Board 17 N/ none	K 5 3 K T 6 5 2 K K 7 6 2
9 8 4 4 A J T 9 8 2 Q J 4		Q 6 2 9 7 3 6 5 4 3 A T 8
	A J T 7 A Q J 8 Q 7 9 5 3

Board 17
Have to be on your toes here to beat game. If East finds a diamond lead, it looks automatic for West to switch to a club. However, on a trump lead against 4H. There are chances….. there are two options here. Sneak through a diamond to the king or play for spades 3-3 with the queen in the slot to discard it on the club. As usual in this type of situation, I spurned the legitimate line and tried a diamond to the king. When this was ducked, I was home after correctly guessing the spades. At the other table, a trump lead was also found, but declarer ended up running the jack of spades round to the queen. Now a diamond switch and club back saw the defence take it two off for a nice-game swing in.
Well done to Nick Smith here for rising with the ace on the first round and putting a club through. Should always get it right, but it certainly slipped through at some tables. Declarer had already erred by drawing all the trumps which should allow the defence to get it right, I think.
This board caused some controversy in the C team match. There was some debate on the explanation of a bid which led to an unfortunate lead allowing 3N to make. The ruling was that 80% of the time, given the correct explanation it would be a 10 imp swing and 20% of the time it would have gone off for no swing. I’m sure Currie and Murray can provide more details if requested… I don’t seem to have the precise sequence causing the confusion to hand.
The C team match continued to form when Moss and Clacey rolled in game and Gidman and Whitehouse defeated it. I’m not sure whether they took a legit line or tried to sneak a diamond though. Whichever it was, I’m sure Greg spent a long time playing it….

Board 18 E/ NS	A Q J 3 J 9 7 5 4 A J K 6
K T 8 5 2 K Q Q T 8 5 2 A		9 A 8 2 6 4 3 Q J 9 7 3 2
	7 6 4 T 6 3 K 9 7 T 8 5 4

Board 18
At our table, West opened 1S in third seat. North has an unsound choice of what to bid and I went for 1N in the end, which was flawed but not absurd. East bid 2C (non-forcing) and West patterned with 2D. Figuring my beautiful hand hasn’t yet been shown, I bid 2H now which ended the auction. Makes fairly comfortably, losing 3 hearts, a club and a ruff. Still, when team-mates could open 2N as west to show a poor-preempt in a minor, North felt they had to act and protected with 3H. This contract doesn’t make and another swing in was netted.

Board 19 S/ EW	A J 6 4 2 Q 6 4 5 2 J 4 3
K 9 5 T 7 2 A K Q 3 T 6 5		7 K J 8 5 3 J T 8 6 9 7 2
	Q T 8 3 A 9 9 7 4 A K Q 8

Board 19
This was my favourite board of the day… not because of our table. I played in 4S on the lead of a heart and wasn’t too hard-pressed to make 12 tricks from that point. What I liked was the action at the other table, when a swing was conjured out of thin air. Michael kicked off with two rounds of diamonds and on the second, Luke casually dropped the jack of diamonds. When Michael persisted with another diamond, Declarer had to decide what to do. He should probably work it out and ruff low but the false-card didn’t seem to have crossed his mind and when he ruffed with the jack of spades, lo and behold a trump loser had materialised. I know that the contract went off at some tables on the lead of the diamond jack overtaken by West for the same pseudo-trump promotion but what I like about the play is the importance of care with every card. There are lots of opportunities such as this to slip in no-cost false-cards that can often be overlooked and I’m always pleased for it to be spotted and successful. Another swing in and our good set was progressing nicely.

Board 20 W/ all	A 6 K J 9 7 8 3 T 8 7 5 3
K J 8 7 3 T 4 Q T 6 4 J 2		Q T 9 2 Q 6 3 K 2 K Q 9 6
	5 4 A 8 5 2 A J 9 7 5 A 4

Board 20
Nothing much to this one – tight defence against 2H held it to tick for an imp gain when team-mates picked up 9 tricks. Dull hand really. At least at our table, Jones and Murphy managed to roll in a part-score the other way for a nice gain. Same story in the B team where Gascoyne/Quainton and Smith/Wilson both rolled in the part-score.

Board 21 N/ NS	Q 7 J 5 J T 6 5 2 J 9 8 5
J 9 2 T 9 7 6 3 A K Q 9 7 -		A K 6 5 4 K Q 4 3 A K Q T
	T 8 3 A 8 2 8 4 7 6 4 3 2

Board 21
Well there were quite a few people in slam here… in fact every pair. 6H is the best slam certainly and is much, much better than 6S which needs the SQ to drop. Unfortunately every slam made – spades, hearts and no-trumps so there was no swing in any match. Our opps were in 6S, team-mates were in 6H after a long relay auction. I know who had the better auction even if I don’t understand it!

Board 22 E/ EW	J T 7 3 8 2 J 8 6 2 K 8 7
Q 2 K Q 9 K 5 A Q T 5 3 2		A 9 6 5 4 T 6 3 A Q T 7 4
	K 8 A J 7 5 4 9 4 3 J 9 6

Board 22
Routine game here – provided that you guess the clubs correctly. Our opps played a club to the ace and then another club after I’d led a heart. They had the entries then to establish the clubs for yet another flat board. Unfortunately at two tables, declarer went awry by playing a club to the queen (a club to the ace or to the ten works) and then misguessing later on, so bad luck there to Andrew Murphy and Andrew Lintott. Although… I think they will feel they should have made it. Good fortune for Gascoyne and Quainton and Sheehy/Rowland here for defeating that one.

Board 23 S/ all	A A J 9 7 4 8 7 5 A J 3 2
K 6 3 Q J T 6 2 K T 9 8 6		Q J T 9 8 5 4 K T 8 2 9 7
	7 3 2 Q 6 5 A K 4 3 Q 5 4

Board 23
Our opps got to 4S here after we’d got to 4H fairly quickly. This was an easy double – a trump lead is devastating for the defence but the normal lead of a top diamond gives North a bit of a problem after the obvious trump switch. I rather feebly cashed out when a diamond back is a stronger defence. Declarer can always get out for one off if he guesses the play right, but in reality two off is a more likely outcome. A bit soft from mere there – and went well with Luke and Michael’s 200 from defending 4H. Michael admits that the defence didn’t go well at all and a strip-squeeze was on the cards. Fortunately, the opponents were less aware of it than our boards so rather tamely cashed out for one off. The imps were certainly flowing in our mini-match at this stage.
Once again, Smith and Wilson enjoyed a present from the opponents here. An unwise double of 3S and a non-trump lead allowed 730 to be racked up quick-smart.
A slightly comical story at Procter and Robinson’s table here as in attempting to net the maximum against 4SX, it accidentally made. I won’t reveal the defence but it was quite amusing !!
The Lintotts enjoyed netting 800 from 5H only to discover it was flat with Mike and Rob’s 790 – an unusual push that one…

Board 24 W/ none	7 6 5 J 7 A T 5 3 2 A 6 4
J T 9 8 4 2 A 2 J 4 J 7 2		A K Q 3 K Q 5 4 3 8 7 6 8
	- T 9 8 6 K Q 9 K Q T 9 5 3

Board 24
Yet another dull board in our mini-match. A normal enough 4S made 10 tricks at our table and 11 at team-mates. How do you get to 5C which is cold? I have no idea.
An instructive tale at Gidman/Whitehouse’s table. A 2S opening fetched an enquiry and they subsided in 3S when Ogust didn’t give them the information they wanted.

What I want to know is – what on earth happened at Cope and Piper’s table? +100 on that board doesn’t seem likely at all.