Oxfordshire County Teams-of-Eight Match Reports

Oxfordshire vs Notts, February 2009, Boards 1-16

2009-02-22T10:57:00.012Z

We were somewhat light of players for this away match against Notts, but the county had a reasonable day. The C team were back to their usual ways, winning 20-0 for the 5th time out of 7 this season and securing the league title with a match to spare. All pairs contributed well to the victory with Murray and Currie having a particularly good card. The A team also had a solid 18-2 victory placing them 3rd in the league, but a little adrift from the leaders. Proctor and Robinson lead the way with a massive card while the other 3 pairs had a relatively quiet day.

Unfortunately the B team slipped to their first defeat of the season, losing 14-6. The leaves us level on VPs at the top of the league with Derbyshire whom we play in the final match of the season. This will no doubt be an interesting head to head show down as the Oxfordshire team strive to retain the title from last year. Thanks especially to Gillian Lonsdale for stepping in at the very last minute and producing a good card playing with John Slater. The other three pairs were perhaps a little off-form against a fairly average Notts side.

Any on to a board-by-board look at how things went.

Board 1 N/ None

A Q J 7 5 4 3 2

Q 8 6

T 6

A K T 9

J T 5

Q J 8 7 4

J 8 6 4 3 2

K 6

A K

9 5 3

Q 7 5

9 8

9 7 4 3 2

A K 2

A tricky bidding decision on the first board of the day. Both 4 and 4 make, though it is not clear if either East or West should bid after a 4 opening by North. Many say that a 4 opening is a transfer to 4 ! If your style is penalty orientated doubles then I would stretch with the East cards, while if it is takeout orientated then I’d be happy to pass and reopen with the West cards.

In the B team both Clacey and D. Lintott found a 4 overcall but unfortunately the Lintotts pushed on to 5 which went 1 off. Of the 4 tables in the A team match, only our opponents managed to compete and I managed to find the winning action for this board of 5 sitting South to limit the damage. The C team also saw a swing out when one Notts pairs managed to complete.

Board 2 E/ NS

T 8 3 2

T 8 4 2

K 2

J 4 3

J 9 5

K 7 6

Q T 8 7 6

9 7

A Q 9 3

9 5 4 3

A K Q T

A K 7 6 4

J 5

A J

8 6 5 2

4441 hands are notoriously difficult to bid and this hand caused some problems for EW pairs. Several pairs played in 4 which is a poor spot - you need trumps 3-3 and a reasonable diamond position. I've heard several tables start with the auction 1 1 2.

Clacey bid 3 over 2 and played there but drifted one off. John Williams made a 3 game try over 2 which propelled them into the non-making game. [A takeout double seems more natural over 2.]

At our table the auction went
1 1 2 P,
4 P P 4,
X AP.
Nathan presumed I had a heart void given the auction and his holding of 4 low so decided we might have a cheap save, though I’m not convinced the vulnerability is right for this. This should be 800 but I managed to get out for 500 when the J scored an unexpected trick.

Well done to Proctor and Robinson, the Lintotts, Brown and Keep and Gidman and Whitehouse for judging well and playing in the making diamond partscore.

Board 3 S/ EW

8 7 4 3

Q 4 3

A 7 3

A 7 6

Q J T

9 8 5

J T 9 8 4 2

9 6 2

K T 7

Q 5

K 8 4 3 2

A K 5

A J 6 2

K 6

Q J T 5

A dull 3NT. NEXT

Board 4 W/ All

9 8 6 3

K 6 4

J 8 7

K Q 5

K J

A 3

A K T 4

A J 8 6 4

5 4 2

J T 9 8 7 5

Q 9

T 3

A Q T 7

Q 2

6 5 3 2

9 7 2

After a strong balanced opening by West most played in 4, though several settled for 3. This was a swing in for the A team when one Notts pair didn’t bid game. In the B team Moss took a sub-optimal line to go off but the other mini-match balanced this out when another Notts pair missed game. Unfortunately for the C team both Oxfordshire pairs played in 3

Board 5 N/ NS

A 2

A K T 9 8

J T 4 3

J 7

K 4

6 4 3 2

Q 5

K T 9 5 2

Q T 7 6

A K 8 6 2

Q 6 4 3

J 9 8 5 3

Q J 7 5

9 7

A 8

5 makes with careful play here and a few ventured there but were unsuccessful. Robert Proctor describes how this hand should be played:
“The first step is to reason that the contract is only likely to be possible if clubs are 2-2 and hence to play a club at trick two after the opening heart is ruffed. If oppo return a club, diamond or spade the contract is cold provided the second round of clubs is played and the diamonds are no worse than 4-2. If a heart is returned, this must be ruffed and the diamonds set up while there is still an entry to dummy in clubs. Hence it was necessary to play a club to the king irrespective of who held the ace of clubs. This line therefore depends upon an opponent with a doubleton diamond not having the CJ. This turns out to be the case and so the contract makes. I don't think there is a line which is solid against all 2-2 club breaks as it is not possible to draw trumps before the diamonds are set up.”

There was a swing in for the A team when Webley and Wilkes collected 300 off of 5X with Williams and Wilson making 3+2.

Board 6 E/ EW

A J 9 4

5 2

9 8 6 5 3 2

K Q 5

K Q T 7 5

6 4 3

7 4

Q 6 2

8 6 2

A Q J 8

Q T

A J 9 8

K T 9 7

A K J

T 7 5 4 3

8 of the 12 tables played in 2+ most going one off. A few players sitting South competed [I made a takeout double over 2S transfer completion] and located their diamond fit. Flower and Stead defended 3-3 for a positive swing in the C team.

Board 7 S/ All

A Q 7 5

K Q J 6

A J

Q J 4

J T

A T

K Q 6 5 3

A K 3 2

8 6 4

9 8 7 4 3 2

9 7 2

K 9 3 2

T 8 4

T 8 7 6 5

A lot of NS pairs over-bid this hand getting to 4. After 1D X P 1S 2C despite holding a 20 count North needs to avoid putting game on the table here opposite what could be a yarbourough. The hand has soft values in CQJ, the DJ may well be wasted, and there may be no entry to partners hand to take the required finesse. Well done to Piper and Angus, and Webley and Wilkes for avoiding this trap and bringing in 3 . Malcolm describes how they picked up 1100 out of 5X
"West opened 1C Precision, X by Jo showing the major followed by a pass (or was it 1H?). I jumped to 2S putting up a barrage (or so I thought), 3D from West, and 4S by Jo, and opponents went recklessly on to 5D"

Board 8 W/ None

K 9 4 2

A 7 6

A 4 3

A T 9

A 8 6

K 4 2

T 7 5

Q 6 3 2

Q 5

Q J 9 8 2

K J 7 4

J T 7 3

J T 9 8 3

K 6

8 5

9 tricks is the limit in (or ) for NS. A few pushed on to game which requires you to play both majors for one loser. Murray and Currie managed to roll in 4 after the defence failed to establish their club trick and it disappeared on the hearts.

Board 9 N/ EW

T 9 7 5

A K T 9 8

8 5 2

Q J 2

6 4 2

Q T 4 3

9 8 7 6 4 3

J 4

Q J 8 7 5

9 6

A K T 5

A K Q 8 6 3 2

9 3

A K J 7

The first of 3 slam hands for NS, though only one Oxfordshire pair and one Notts pair managed to find it. I suspect many were put off by the 1 opening by East, myself included. At Murray and Currie’s table Jo opened a keen 1NT sitting North there was no way Malcolm was going to miss this one. The auction should probably start
P 1 X 2, 2
after which South should go slam hunting and find North with the necessary heart control.

Board 10 E/ All

T 4 2

A Q J 5

Q 8 6

A J 9 6 2

K Q 6

K 9

K T 8 3 2

Q 5 4

J 9 8

T 7 6 4

A J 9 6

T 8

A 7 5 3

8 3 2

7 5 4

K 7 3

A partscore hand here. If West opens 1NT and NS choose to defend they can beat it by 3 on accurate defence. North may have a mechanism to get their 4M&5m into the auction in which case they are likely to play in 2,. 2, requires careful play as you can easily get forced, but with the , Q onside you should make.

The A team gained a small swing when Proctor and Robinson defeated 2, by South., but the c team lost a swing when Gidman and Whitehouse were left to play in 1NT.

Board 11 S/ None

K J 3

Q 9 8 6

5 4

Q 8 5 3

97 6 2

A J

K J 9 7 6

7 4

A Q T 8 5

K T 4 3 2

T 3

7 5

A Q 8 2

A J T 9 6 2

This was a good hand for the county with all 3 teams gaining. 4 makes if you can find it.

In the A team, the Notts EW pair went off in 4, Webley and Wilkes stole the contract in 3 (which they made) and Williams and Wilson bid and made 4. In the B team Slater and Lonsdale competed to 4-1, one Notts EW played in 3 and the Lintotts bid and made 4. In the C team Flower and Stead competed to 5-1, Gidman and Whitehouse picked up 300 off of 5X.

Board 12 W/ Ns

K J 5 4

K 5

A Q 5

K 8 5 2

A T 8 3 2

Q T 4

T 8 3

T 9

J 9 8 3 2

7 6 4

7 6 4 3

Q 9 7

A 7 6

K J 9 2

A Q J

The second slam of the day for NS. At our table West opened 2 (yuk!) and Piper overcalled 2NT. This came to me sitting South and despite knowing we had the values for slam the lack of shape persuaded me select a more cautious quantitative 4NT, which was passed. We were somewhat surprised to gain imps on the board when Proctor and Robinson defended 5-1. Well done to Webley and Wilkes, Slater and Lonsdale, Flower and Stead, and Murray and Currie bidding 6NT.

Board 13 N/ All

T 6 3

T 7 2

7 6

Q 8 5 4 2

A 5

K Q J 4

9 8

A K T 6 3

K J 8

9 6 5 3

K Q J 5 3

Q 9 7 4 2

A 8

A T 4 2

9 7

A rather dull 3NT/4 by EW. A bidding misunderstanding by the Lintotts left them in the wrong contract at the 5 level (clubs) but this was balanced out when Slater and Lonsdale beat 5 in the other B team mini-match. The C team gained a swing when Murray and Currie’s opponents under-bid, settling for 2.

Board 14 E/ None

6 5

A Q T 9 3 2

K T 8 4

A K 7 3

7 6 5 3

K Q 5 2

Q J T 9 4

K 8 7 5

J 2

T 9

8 2

J 4

A Q 9

A J 7 6 4 3

A thin 4 for NS, but EW have a profitable sacrifice in 4. Well done to Piper and Angus, and Flower and Stead for finding 4 while Murray and Currie had to settle for 300 out of 4X. In the B team Clacey and Moss stole the contract in 3 and rolled that in, but both Oxforshire pairs missed game and the Lintotts unfortunately doubled 4.

Board 15 S/ NS

K 4

Q 9 4

Q J T 4

A K Q 4

K J 6 3

A 5

T 9 7 6 5 2

A Q T 9 5 2

T 8 7 5

7 6 3

J 8 7 6

A 2

K 9 8 2

J 8 3

This hand generated some interest. At our table the auction went
1 2 P P,
X P 2NT* P, * Lebensohl style
3* P 3NT AP
3NT denied a stop, but implied half a one as the lead was going through North. After a club lead, I knocked out the DA and West switched to a small heart. Despite the K being onside you should let this run to the A and aim to endplay East to cater for them holding K and A.
Proctor describes the shenanigans at his table:
“The hand that will, I am sorry to say, encourage me to psyche again one day. Lets look at it from North's perspective, holding Kx, Qxx, QJTx, AKQx at red in third seat. His system dictates that he opens 1C which is overcalled 1H and partner makes a negative double. He is starting to wonder about NTs when RHO comes in with an UCB 2C. Now what? Double looks sensible to show the extra values, but he chose 2H. Doesn't this imply better spades? Anyway his partner was there with 2S and now he would like to bid 3H to invite 3NT, when RHO bids 3H. Now surely partner is very weak and he should give in gracefully or perhaps double again, inviting 3NT a second time? However he was convinced that his partner must be very short in hearts and have at least four-card support for one of his minors so he tried 4D which was raised to 5. I particularly enjoyed the look on declarer's face when I led the ace of spades and partner ruffed the second round!”

In the B team Slater and Lonsdale sold out to 2, but Clacey and Moss defeated 3 so the overall result was imps in.

Board 16 W/ EW

Q J T 6 4

A J 8

A J 8 4

K 3

K Q 9 5 4

9 6 2

K Q 7

8 5 2

T 7 3

K Q 7 3

T 9 6

A 9 7

J 8 6 2

T 5 4

5 3 2

Another partscore hand, though NS might find themselves overbidding if South decides to support North’s 1S overcall. Moss and Clacey will be disappointed to let 3NT through.

Oxfordshire vs Notts, February 2009, Boards 17-32

2009-02-20T21:49:00.018Z

Board 17 N/ None

J 6 4 3

J 9 8 7 4

A T 9

J 8 7 3 2

A 9 8 7

A Q 2

Q T 9

Q T 5 2

K 3

K 4 3 2

A K 6 4

T 6 5

Q 8 7 6 5

A few EW pairs over stretched and bid game which is a poor contract. Despite the possibility of picking up the heart suit for no losers with a correct guess, it still have very little play. Well done to Gidman and Brown or Keep for rolling this one home, producing a large swing for the C team.

Board 18 E/ NS

J 9 7 5 3

J 8

A K T

9 6 3

Q T 9 7 4

Q 7 4 3

A K 8

A K Q 8 6

5 3

9 8

J T 5 4

4 2

A K 6 2

J 6 5 2

Q 7 2

If East opens 1 then EW are likely to over-bid here. In fact of the 12 tables in play, only 4 EW pairs managed a positive score. Chris Wilson was one of them when he rolled in 10 tricks in 2NT after the defence led a club, rose with a heart honour when he led towards dummy and never touched diamonds.

Board 19 S/ EW

T 7

A K 6

A 9 5

K Q J 6 2

Q J 8 3

J 4

Q J 4

T 9 4 3

9 4

Q T 9 8 7 3

K 2

8 7 5

A K 6 5 2

5 2

T 8 7 6 3

After the uncontested auction 1-2-2-2 South has a tricky decision – should they bid out their shape with 3 despite the suit quality or is a quiet 2 better. I chose a the latter and subsequently rolled in 12 tricks in 3NT after crashing some diamond honours! 3 is likely to result in North driving to the zero play slam. One Notts pair in each of the A&B teams bid 6 giving our teams a swing in, while the C team lost a swing when Murray and Currie also wound up there.

Board 20 W/ All

5 2

7 4

K Q 7 6 5 4

8 7 3

A T 9 6

A T 8 5

9 8

A T 2

J 8 7 3

A T 3 2

K Q J 9 6

K Q 4

K Q J 9 6 3 2

5 4

This board highlighted some partnership bidding problems as several chose to play in 3NT after heart intervention by South. Clearly you want to be playing this in 4. Our opponents played in 3NT and after a lead to the singleton J declarer managed to insert the 8 when I fired a low one through (West had shown 4 on the auction). 11 tricks quickly followed. Proctor and Robinson sold out to 3X which was a small swing out. William and Wilson managed to get doubled in 4 and rolled home the overtrick. Two B team pairs had 800 on their cards, one each way though, while the C team showed how it should be done with all 4 tables playing in 4!

Board 21 N/ NS

K 8

T 5

Q 6

K Q 9 7 5 3 2

A J

8 7 4 2

A T 5 2

A J 6

Q T 9 5 2

A K J

K J 9 3

7 6 4 3

Q 9 6 3

8 7 4

8 4

6 is cold if you can locate the Q or you can bring the spade suit home for no losers so not a bad spot, though it wasn’t a big surprise to see nobody managed to bid it. If North decides to open a pre-emptive 3 then East has an easy double. I know this happened at several tables, but only Gidman managed to find the winning action of Pass sitting West. I think this is the right choice give then colours and provided a well-judged 800 and swing for the C team. All the other tables played in 3NT.

Board 22 E/ EW

J 7 6

K Q 3

Q J 9 5 2

J 8

T 9

J T

A K 3

K Q 9 7 5 4

K Q 5 4

A 8 7 6

T 8 7 4

A 8 3 2

9 5 4 2

T 6 3 2

3NT EW. [This is another 4441 hand which also generated some problems. I’ve heard a couple of pairs opening the East cards 1 and after the predictable 2 from partner were left rebidding 2 on T87x – yuk. One experienced pair ended in 5 going off as a results of this.]

Board 23 S/ All

A 7 6

7 5

K 7 5

T 9 8 7 5

K T 9 2

T 8 6 3

8 6

A K 2

Q J 5

Q J 2

J T 3 2

Q J 3

8 4 3

A K 9 4

A Q 9 4

6 4

1NT by South was a common spot generally off 1. I managed to sneak this one through after the defence attacked hearts.

Board 24 W/ None

Q 7 3 2

A 9 7 3

K Q 9 8 5

K 8 6

J 6 2

7 6 3

J 7 5 3

A 9 4

K Q T 8

A T 2

8 4 2

J T 5

5 4

J 4

A K Q T 9 6

Quite a few NS pairs played in 3NT and while the J provides an entry to the club suit is does not run. Well done to Webley and Wilkes, Slater and Lonsdale, and Flower and Stead for avoiding this and playing in the making diamond partscore.

Board 25 N/ EW

Q 8 5 2

9 6

K Q 4

K Q J 2

K T 8 5 3 2

8 3 2

A 8 3

7 6 4 3

A Q J

A J 9 7

T 7

A K J T

7 4

T 6 5

9 6 5 4

If N opens a weak NT then he is likely to play there. Clacey led the 7 to the K and after a club to the A he found the correct defence of unblocking the hearts to beat this by 4. At most tables 1NT was let through often with overtricks. A switch to a small heart by West should indicate a K so it is surprising to see most Easts failing to unblock and defeat 1NT.

A couple of Notts EW pairs located their heart fit and two tables found game. 4 makes provided you guess the diamonds right, and unfortunately Webley and Wilkes and Goldsmith and Percival-Price both saw this bid and made against them.

Board 26 E/ All

A Q 7 4

T 8

T 3

K J T 7 4

K 5

A 6 2

K 8 7 6 4

A 6 3

9 8 6 2

K J 9 5 4 3

Q 9 5

J T 3

Q 7

A J 2

Q 9 8 5 2

4 makes for EW, and isn’t a bad spot despite being thin on values. At our table West opened 1NT, Piper doubled the transfer completion and East competed to 3. West was unsure whether this was invitational or just competitive so placed game on the table. The takeout double meant guessing the hearts was not a problem. Well done to the Lintotts and Gidman and Whitehouse for finding this one.

Board 27 S/ none

8 5 2

J 9 5 3 2

K Q 7 2

J 4 2

K J 9 3

T 8 7 6 4

A K 9 8 3

A 7 6

K Q

A 9 3

Q T 7 6

Q T 4

J T 8 6 5

4 is untouchable and the winning line is fairly easy to spot – you make by ruffing two clubs provided trumps are 3-2 or the Q is onside. It was disappointing to see a couple of Oxon declarers go down, I’ve yet to hear how. A couple of Notts pairs elected to play in 3NT which obviously didn’t make. This resulted in a game swing in for the C team, but one out for the B team.

Board 28 W/ NS

Q 9 8 7 4 3

A T 8 5

T 6

A J 4

8 5

Q 7 3 2

A J 8 3

K 8 5

7 4

K 9 6 4

Q 9 7 5

A K Q J 9 6 3 2

K 4 2

It’s difficult not to get excited when you hold 8 solid and unsurprisingly this board generated a swing or two. 4 was the normal spot a few being doubled.

Piper and Angus managed to play in (a fortunate, but not so well judged!) 2+1 which scored well with 5 -2 at the other table. “5H was an undisciplined phantom sacrifice over my undisciplined 5D call” comments Proctor. Moss was faced with a difficult lead problem after 1NT (2*) P (4), P (P) X AP. The selection of A did not fare so well and resulted in a game swing out for the B team. Murray and Currie also managed to roll in 4 after West pitched one too many clubs when trumps were cashed.

Board 29 N/ All

7 5

J 8 4 3

8 5 3

T 6 5 2

9 8

A Q 9

A 7 4

A K Q 7 4

Q T 6 4

T 5

J 9 6 2

9 8 3

A K J 3 2

K 7 6 2

K Q T

A mixture of contracts and results here. A few will overcall 2 over 1 as West, but I much prefer double as your hand is playable in any strain and partner will often pass 2 with game making e.g. holding SA and CJ. There were plenty of 200s on the cards both positive and negative. Webley and Wilkes will be disappointed to concede 3NT and this resulted in a large swing out for the A team. The B teams also lost a swing on this partscore hand, but the C team gained one.

Board 30 S/ none

K 4

A J T 5

A 7 2

A 7 5 2

Q J 8 7 5 2

K 8 3

J 9 8

T 9 6 3

9 6 2

T 4

K 9 4 3

Q 7 4

K Q 6 5 3

Q J T 8

NS in the slam zone again, but most failed to show off their bidding skills. 6 is better than 6 as you don’t require the diamonds to break. After a WJO in spades West is faced with an interesting lead dilemma against 6. From the South seat you are making 6 provided a) the diamonds break and b) one of the two finesses work. However if West leads a heart or a club there is a chance it is a singleton. A game of psychology develops – do you lead a heart from Kxx (assuming you know the A is with N) to encourage declarer to reject the winning finesse or lead a club hoping declarer will take a losing finesse!

Well done to Goldsmith the only Oxon NS to make bid and make slam (6). Everybody else in the B and C team played in game. 3 tables bid slam in the A team. 7 by N was not a good spot at our table, for which I have to take full responsibility for. I’ve since been informed of Piper’s Law which states never bid grand at pairs, teams or aggregate (I won’t interpret your bidding as a grand try next time!) This was flattened by Proctor and Robinson who defeated 6 after declarer ducked the singleton club lead. Webley and Wilkes located the better contract of 6, but went one off after a heart lead - unlucky.

Board 31 E/ NS

Q 5

J T 7 2

K 9 6 5 3

Q J

A 9 8 7 4 3

A 4

K 6 3 2

K 2

Q 9 8 5 3

T 7 4 2

9 8

J T 6

K 6

A J 8

A T 7 5 4

3 and 2 were popular contracts here, neither of which make but
2 often scraped home. To beat 2 you need to lead trumps to prevent the club ruff then the defence should arrive at 3 club tricks and one in each of the other suits. A small swing in for the C team here.

Board 32 W/ EW

A 4

9 8

8 3

A Q J T 5 4 3

K J 9 8 3

K Q J 6

A 7 6

Q T 7 6

T 7 3 2

T 4 2

K 8

5 2

A 5 4

K Q J 9 5

7 6 2

It takes a diamond lead to beat 3, though many NS pairs over competed, several playing in 5. The common defence to 5 started with a spade lead round to declarers A. Declarer plays on diamonds and after ducking 1 round West switch to a heart to remove dummys entry. Now if the club finesse works the contract is home. Unfortunately it doesn’t, but at both our table and Webley and Wilkes East exited with the wrong major and 5 made, doubled at Webley and Wilkes table.

At the Gidman/Whitehouse table declarer took the zero play line in 5X of leading a 4th diamond from dummy. Gidman correctly ruffed with 9 preventing declarer from discarding his final loser and then droping the bare CK. Unfortunately Whitehouse over-ruffed and also exited in the wrong major and a club entry to the final diamond let the contract slip through.

Finally I’d like to thank to Alastair Gidman, John Williams, Robert Protor, John Slater, Andrew Lintott and Malcolm Currie for providing commentary which has help me to compile this report and meant I haven’t had to highlight all of my suboptimal bidding decision!

Ian A.

Oxfordshire vs Staffordshire September 2008 Board 25-32

2008-10-19T16:38:00.001+01:00

Board 25 N/ EW

8 5

A T 8 5 4

K T 5

A 8 7

Q 2

A Q J 8 6 2

K Q T 2

K J T 9 6 4

9 6 3 2

5 4

A 7 3

K J 7

9 4 3

J 9 6 3

Board 25
Our opponents got all the way to 3S here which we defeated by one trick after yet more soft defence from me. After the HK lead. Bryony then tried ace of spades and another. Declarer took the ruffing finesse in diamonds and I covered. When he now tried a club up, I could do better by playing a low heart to partners king and we can then take all four heart tricks. However, I just woodenly beat the contract again by cashing hearts from the top which actually blocks the suit for just one off. This was a small swing out when Luke and Michael went 2 off in game on a similar defence. After (1H) 2S (3H), there was no room for anything other than bidding game, really.
Apparently Mike Robinson took a defensive safety play here, still mindful of Board 23 to ensure that there was a risk-free defence to take 3S one off… very wise!
Another double swing in the other A team match. +200 from Cope and Piper to go with Murphy and Jones rolling in yet another part-score. Good stuff.

Board 26 E/ all

K J 4

Q T 9

9 5 4 3

9 6 5

T 7 5 3

4 3 2

Q 7

A 7 4 2

A Q 9 6 2

K J 6

K 8 6 2

A 8 7 5

A J T

K Q J T 8

Board 26
The next few boards were a series of boards where the opponents kept playing in 3S. On this occasion they made a rather fortunate 10 tricks when they divined the spade position. Another small swing out followed when Luke and Michael let them play in 3C which didn’t make. Dull stuff, really.
Do I really need to tell you that, Smith and Wilson’s opponents had another go at doubling a part-score? This time 3HX make 10 tricks for a paltry 7 imps against game bid at the other table. Alan took a decent line here as he didn’t need to rely on the HQ onside to make his 10 tricks. In fact after a double, he suspected that the HQ was wrong, so he ruffed some diamonds and clubs and eventually exited at trick 11 with a club from dummy and discarded a low heart from hand having gone down to KJx at this point. Now the defence was forced to lead away from the ace of hearts (and possibly the queen if he’d held it). Unfortunate that decent technique wasn’t rewarded but I think that 930 was plenty!

Board 27 S/ none

A 5

5 2

Q 9

J 9 8 7 6 4 3

J 9 6 3

K 8

J T 7 4

A 5 2

K Q 7 2

A J 7 4

K 6 3 2

T 8 4

Q T 9 6 3

A 8 5

K T

Board 27
3S again here making 9 tricks at our table and 10 on the other of our mini-match. I’m starting to remember why I’ve not looked forward to writing this report – these hands really were very dull at my table.

Board 28 W/ NS

9 2

9 7

K 4 3

K 9 6 5 4 2

J 8 7 3

Q J 6 4

A 9 8 2

A Q 6 5

K T 3

Q T 7 5

8 3

K T 4

A 8 5 2

J 6

A Q J 7

Board 28
This time, opps got to ….. 3S. However they mis-played this. Bryony led a diamond and declarer ducked allowing me to win my king. I switched to a heart and partner won to return one. Declarer should now plays spades from the top, but instead he took the finesse. I could now get a heart ruff for one off and a nice swing back to us.

Board 29 N/ all

Q 8 5

A 5 2

J T 2

A K 7 2

A 9 7 6 4

J T 9 8 6 5

J 4 3

Q J 9 4 3

K 5 3

Q 3

K T 9 7 6 2

K T 8 7

Q 8

Board 29
Interesting bidding problem here. I thought the North cards close to an upgrade to a strong nt, but settled on 1C in the end. Bryony bid 1S in response and I decided to bid 1N rather than raise to 2S. When Bryony bid 2S here, I decided to bid game rather than pass or invite. Why? Well partner could have made a weak jump shift over my 1C opening and my hand is rather suitable for playing in spades. 4S is actually makeable on a non-diamond lead. West actually led a club and so one diamond loser could disappear immediately on the second club. As West is marked with long clubs now, it is probably right to ruff a club and play a spade up to the queen. This works well on the board as West has a stiff ace. When partner tried a spade towards the king, the game was up as there was now two trump losers. A shame but a guess in truth with only limited information. Irritatingly they were not only in game at the other table of our mini-match but made it. This was made worse in the other A team mini-match where Cope and Piper also stayed out of it, but their counterparts motored their way there. Can people find the DA lead? No – I think.
Currie and Murray were a bit unlucky on this one to go for 800. I haven’t heard the full details though, so can’t make too much of a comment.

Board 30 E/ none

3 2

T 7

J 8 4 2

K 7 6 4 2

K Q T

A K Q 4

Q 9 7 6 3

8 4

J 9 8 5 3 2

A 5

A 9 5

A J 9 7 6 5

K T

Q J T 3

Board 30
12 tricks in hearts – not very interesting. Only one pair bid this slam here – well done to Smith and Wilson. The auction was quite revealing.

1H 1S 4N P
5H P 6H end
Easy game?
Slightly bizarrely, Procter and Robinson managed to do better and defeat the opponents here…… well done boys.

Board 31 S/ NS

A 9 7 3 2

J 9 5

T 6 4

A K

6 5

A Q T 3 2

A Q J 2

J 2

K 8 7 3

9 8 7 6 5 4 3

K Q J 8 4

K 8 7 4

9 5

Q T

Board 31
A rare good board for us all here. Bryony opened 1S and West overcalled 2H. I bid 2N (good four card raise) and East asked about the bidding. When Bryony now bid 3S to show a minimum (I think bidding game is right here with any hand with 6 spades myself), West now found a mad 4D bid. Inexcusable I think (especially in light of the rather ill timed question from East). I bid 4S and East bid 5D. This was doubled and went one off. Fortunately 4S is one off, so all was well here in the end.

Board 32 W/ EW

Q T 9 5 4

J 8 6 5

T 4

8 5

A J 8 7 6

A T 7

J 8 6 5

K 3 2

K 9 4 3 2

A J T 9 2

A K Q 9 7 3 2

K 7 6 4 3

Board 32
To finish – look at that South hand!!! Most of us would just bang down 5D here and see what happens but that wasn’t the case at our table. West opened 1S (could be canapé) and East bid 2H (could be canapé). Bryony bid a quiet 3D, probably expecting to show clubs later. West passed and East now came in with 4C!! I must admit, I’m not sure I would have been able to pass as she did, and especially when West corrected to 4H. Still – all’s well that ends well. A top diamond was led and now East was in trouble. He now tried a top club and then ruffed a club. When he tried a spade back to hand, the roof fell in. Bryony could ruff this with a stiff heart and then play another diamond. Declarer could win in hand but at lost control. He ruffed another club but I could win this and exit in trumps. Declarer was now two off without any option. I had some hopes here but unfortunately not on this occasion. A misunderstanding was to prove costly here. West opened 1H (showing spades) and East bid 2D (showing hearts and not a game-forcing hand). South was in with 5D and West doubled. The problem was that one thought it was takeout and the other (West) penalty. Luke saw a takeout double as East and so simply bid slam in hearts. To make matters worse, South made a Lightner double (!). Oh dear!! That was a swift 800 and a very disappointing end to the match for us. Still, the work was already done on previous boards so we weren’t too disappointed as a four.
At most tables, people overcalled 5D with Bryony’s hand. This was usually doubled and was an easy 500. At Smith and Wilson’s table, the “brave” 6D (!) overcall tempted them into bidding 6S over it.

1S P 4D 6D
?
I think that a forcing pass is the winner myself, but have some sympathy, I guess. Still with a card that good, one can forgive them the odd board!

Anyway, that’s my lot. Well played everyone. Thanks to Michael Clark, Nick Smith, Alan Wilson, Alastair Gidman, Rob Procter, Malcolm Currie, Mary-Ann Sheehy, Andrew Lintott and everyone else for giving me their thoughts on the hands. Sorry once again for the delay in writing this… Of course, I’ll need to recruit a deputy for writing up the Leics match as I’m not going to be playing. Any volunteers?

Oxfordshire vs Staffordshire September 2008 Board 17-24

2008-10-19T16:37:00.002+01:00

Board 17 N/ none

K 5 3

K T 6 5 2

K 7 6 2

9 8 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 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

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

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

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 J 9 7 4

8 7 5

A J 3 2

K 6

Q J T 6 2

K T 9 8 6

Q J T 9 8 5 4

K T 8 2

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

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.

Oxfordshire vs Staffordshire September 2008 Board 9-16

2008-09-22T23:01:00.002+01:00

Board 9 N/EW

9 7 3

K T 8

Q J T 7 2

A 6 3

A 4

A 9 7

K J 3

Q J T 4 2

Q T 8 2

K J 5 4 3

9 6

K J 6 5

6 2

A T 8 5 4

K 5

Board 9
We had a bit of a wobble here. Bryony opened 1D and West overcalled 1N. I doubled and East bid 2H (Hearts and spades with hearts longer). Bryony passed and I had a bit of a think. In principle we play pass as forcing here if 2H is natural, but the fact that 2H showed two suits suggested to me that it shouldn’t be here. So I let it go and was very relieved as it is cold by East. The contact can go off if played by West as North can lead a spade. Phew! Unfortunately, Luke and Michael didn’t get any opposition bidding at all and after West opened 1N, East transferred to hearts……. .one off on the spade lead. Very harsh!
Smith and Wilson were playing similar escapes from 1NX to our opponents and also rescued to 2H (showing hearts and spades with longer spades). I don’t have details of their mechanism in full (Houdini, I’m told) but I’m sure Nick can enlighten you if you’re interested.
Once again there was a chance at Procter and Robinson’s table. The defence started out in a similar frame to ours with the CK lead and a club to the ace. Rob then switched to a spade which declarer returned to Mike’s king. A third spade allowed a diamond discard from dummy and the contract was then cold. Declarer then misplayed by running the heart queen and a club return set up another trump trick for the defence. In fact there was a trump –promotion on the cards but Mike couldn’t actually believe that declarer could get it so wrong!
I hear that Cope and Piper had a similar problem to us in that it was slightly unclear as to whether a pass of 2H following the double of the 1N overcall. I think that their opponents just showed a one-suited escape so all roads led to 670 out for them. Ouch! A shame really as Jones and Murphy’s improbable 170 on the other table probably deserved to gain some imps. How on earth do you make that many tricks?

Board 10 E/All

T 4

K 7 5 4

A 7 6 3

A K 3

K 8 7

T 6 2

K 9 8 5

9 7 4

Q J 6 5 2

J 4 2

Q T 8 6

A 9 3

A J 9 8 3

Q T

J 5 2

Board 10
Routine game here. Nothing to say…

Board 11 S/ none

4 2

A K 9 8 5

A Q T 9 3

K 6 3 2

A 5

J 7 6 2

7 6 4

A T

K J T 9 7 6 3

T 3

8 5

Q J 8 7 5 4

Q 8

Q 4

K J 2

Board 11
I felt very cheesed off here. When South opens 1S, how can N/S not bid game? I chose 4S which has no play. But then again, no game makes. I was very irritated to lose imps when at the other table, North rather feebly settled in 4D despite having a nice 13 count opposite an opening bid and having forced to game. Oh well – well done this time. I must admit, at this point things did seem to be running Staffs way in our mini-match.
Mike Robinson found an off-centre multi opening here which managed to push the opponents into a poor 4H contract. That was doubled and slid two off. I’m not sure I like the multi opening, but it certainly worked there, so well done.
Another annoying swing out in the C team when Moss and Clacey got to the normal game but their Staffs counterpart declined to bid it.

Board 12 W/ NS

K Q

6 5

A T 6 5 3

K 7 5 4

T 7 4 3

T 9

J 4

A Q J 3 2

A 9

A Q 7 4 3

K Q 8 2

T 6

J 8 6 5 2

K J 8 2

9 7

9 8

Board 12
We were defending a heart part-score here. Rather curiously, West overtook the ten of hearts with the queen, giving himself an extra heart loser. That was quite fortunate as it allowed us to defeat it. Flat board in any rate.

Board 13 N/ none

8 4

A T 4

K 9 8 6

A K J 6

9 2

Q 8 6 5 2

Q 7 2

9 8 7

K T 7 6 3

K 9 7 3

T 5

5 4

A Q J 6

A J 4 3

Q T 3 2

Board 13
I’d have been a little irritated if I were our opponents. Our auction to slam wasn’t very convincing at all!
1N 2C
2D 3D
3H 3S
3N 4D
4H 5C
5D 6D
I won’t expect you to know what it all meant! I wasn’t sure. Still, on a spade lead I took the finesse. When it worked, I then took a trump safety play (and was berated by the opponents for it too, oddly). That was a nice swing in when our counterparts couldn’t get past game when Luke’s 1S overcall seemed to cause absolute chaos.
Smith and Wilson hit the jackpot here when their opponents managed to stay out of slam but instead land in 3N. Alan led the three of hearts and declarer held up the ace till the 3rd round. He then cashed all his clubs and hooked the jack of diamonds on the second round…. Oops! With hearts 5-4, Nick observes that the best line is to win the first heart, cross to the ace of diamonds and play a second diamond covering whatever West plays. That gives you 9 easy tricks. Second best line is to play off ace and king of diamonds and if the queen doesn’t come down, fall back on the spade finesse. Should really come in on careful play, I think.

There was a typical swing in the C team match when Moss and Clacey drove to slam (does Joe ever miss a slam?) and Gidman and Whitehouse’s opponents had a muddled auction to 3N which is of course a fortunate make.
In fact, Oxfordshire bid this hand far better than Staffs as only one pair missed the good slam. We always seem to gain a lot when these tightish slams roll in and lose a bucket when they don’t. Are we just more aggressive than other counties? I’d like to think we are just playing better bridge…..

Board 14 E/ none

K 7

A K Q 7 4

K 8 5

5 4 3

A Q J 9 8

A Q J 3

A Q 9 6

3 2

T 9 6 2

7 4 2

J 8 7 2

T 6 5 4

J 8 5 3

T 9 6

K T

Board 14
Tricky hand this. When Bryony and I bid aggressively to 4H, West made a take-out double meaning that East got to play in the dicey spot of 5C. How on earth should you play this? This basically comes down to deciding which King to play South for. If you guess that South has the king of clubs, you can play ace and another spade to get to hand to take the club finesse meaning you can make amazing 11 tricks. Our opponents misguessed and played clubs from the top and eventually slid 3 off. Michael Clark judged extremely well to sell out to 4H at his table and so we had a satisfying gain on the board.
A surreal board once again at Smith and Wilson’s table.

P P 1C P
1D P 2S 3H
P P X P
?
Apparently Alan thought for a long time about passing this one out after the lunatic 3H call. When the dummy hit down with massive trump support they both feared the worst. However, fortunately the 3H bid was so bad, that it didn’t really matter! Nick’s view:

“Alan led S3 to my ace and I made a decent decision to return the S8 rather than a big one. Declarer tried HA and a 2nd one to the 9 and jack in order to lead a D off table. I rose with DA to lead SJ. Declarer decided to pitch a D, as did Alan, so I played another. This time declarer ruffed high, so Alan threw his last D. Belatedly, declarer tried to cash DK, but Alan ruffed and pushed a C through to my AQ. When I led DQ, declarer bizarrely threw a C. If I’d now had a D or a S left, we could no have had a trump promo. Alas, I’d had to make two early discards and only had Cs left, so he got away with three off. Daft game!
Quite!!
Procter and Robinson were also enjoying some strange bridge. Defending 3S, they simply kept leading hearts and declarer managed to throw all his potentially winning diamonds away to give the defence safe exit cards. This led to the contract sliding an improbably 4 off!

Board 15 S/NS

9 7

A Q 7 2

Q 8 6 5 3 2

A 6 4

T 6 4

K 9 7 4

A T 8

5 2

K 9 5 3

A J

K Q J 7 6

K Q J T 8 3

J 8

9 5 4 3

Board 15
Bryony opened 3S here as South. East made a takeout double and West protected with 3N. This was cold. I thought this would probably be a flat board, but at the other table South only opened 2S. Luke and Michael are fairly disciplined in the direct seat and so protect quite light. When Michael took a fairly conservative view to bid an encouraging but non-forcing 3D over Luke’s protective double, he decided to pass. Trumps splitting 6-1 was quite a blow! Happens sometimes when both take players take a conservative view but was only a non-vulnerable game, at least.
A lesson on this one at the Lintott’s table. The opponents opened a weak two and in an attempt to be too cute, they got to 4H instead of 3N. The problem being that the latter contract has the benefit of being cold. Sometimes, the simplest solution of just bidding game gets you to the right spot.
A game swing in the A team when Jones and Murphy got to 3N and their counter-parts could only reach part-score.

Board 16 W/EW

A J T 9 6 5

J 8 7 2

9 8

A 8 7

8 3

K T 9 4 3

K J 2

J 9 5 2

7 4 2

6 5

Q T 5 3

K Q 6 4 3

K Q

A Q

A 7 6 4

Board 16
Another normal game here for a flat board. Need to lead a club to stop it disappearing on the second spade.

Oxfordshire vs Staffordshire September 2008 Boards 1-8

2008-09-22T22:35:00.003+01:00

Finally… I’ve got a chance to write a match report of the Oxfordshire vs Staffs match. Many apologies to one and all for my tardiness. I blame, work, exams and a far too industrious social life. Still, as long as I can remember what happened ok, hopefully this report should fill you in on Oxfordshire’s fine win against Staffs in all three teams.
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

A 9 7

K 5

K 8 6 5 3

J 6 4

Q T 4 3

A 7 4

A K Q 9 8

K 8

J T 8 6 3

T 9 2

T 7 2

J 6 5 2

A Q 7 4 2

Q J

5 3

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

Q 2

K J 6

J 7 4 3

8 7 6 5

K T 8 7

A T 2

A 6

A T 9 4

9 5 3

Q 9 8 7 5

K 8 5

J 3

A J 6 4

4 3

Q T 9 2

K Q 2

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

A K T 6 5

J 9 5

A K 4

9 2

Q J 8

A K 6

5 2

A K Q 8 7

9 3 2

Q 8 7 4 3 2

7 3

T 6

7 4

Q J T 9 8 6

J 5 4 3

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

Q 7 5 3 2

K 6

T 9 4 3 2

A J T 6

J 7 2

J T 8 4

K 5

A K 8 6 3

A Q 9 7 5

A Q

K 9 4

Q T 9 5

3 2

J 8 7 6

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

8 3

A T 7

Q J T 7 2

A 6 3

A K Q J 7

Q 9 8 5 3

K 8

T 6 2

K J 6 2

A 6 4

Q 9 8

9 5 4

9 5 3

K J T 7 4 2

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

Q 2

Q 6 3

Q J T 9 6 4 3

A 9 7

T 9 4

A 7

K 9 8 6 3

K T 8 6 3

K 8 5

K 8 2

T 7

J 5 4

A J 7 2

A J 5 4 2

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

A T 3

A 9 5

K J 8 7 6

A 3

Q J 7 5 4 2

K 7

A 5 4

T 7

K 9 8 6

Q T

T 2

K 8 6 5 4

J 8 6 4 3 2

Q 9 3

Q J 9 2

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

8 7 5 3

A 3

Q 7 5

A 7 6 4

K T 4

8 7 5 2

K 6

K 9 8 2

A J 6 2

Q J 9 6

8 4 3

Q 5

Q 9

K T 4

A J T 9 2

J T 3

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!!

Selection vs Staffs and Lincs

2008-08-30T11:58:00.001+01:00

Here's a list of county line-ups for the next two matches:

Oxfordshire v Staffordshire - Sunday 14th September (away)

A team

Michael Clark & Luke Porter
Chris Cooper (c) & Bryony Youngs
Simon Cope & Nathan Piper
Ed Jones & Andrew Murphy

B team

Norman Gascoyne & Ron Quainton
Andrew Lintott & Dinah Lintott
Rob Procter & Michael Robinson
Nick Smith & Alan Wilson (reserves for A)

Reserves: Nick Percival-Price & Mike Goldsmith

C team

Alastair Gidman & Chris Whitehouse
Greg Moss & Joe Clacey
Jo Murray & Malcolm Currie
Mary-Ann Sheehy & Cathy Rowland

Oxfordshire v Lincolnshire - Sunday 12th October (away - at Leicester Bridge Club)

A team

Michael Clark & Luke Porter
Chris Cooper (c) & Bryony Youngs
Nick Smith & Alan Wilson
Mike Webley & Nigel Wilkes

Reserves: Rob Procter & Michael Robinson

B team

Ian Angus & Joe Clacey
Tim Dickinson & David Southcombe
Denis Talbot & Kathy Talbot
John Williams & Chris Wilson

Reserves: Andrew Lintott & Dinah Lintott

C team

Mike Brown & Clive Keep
David Flower & David Stead
Norman Gascoyne & Ron Quainton
Mary-Ann Sheehy & Cathy Rowland

Reserves: Alastair Gidman & Chris Whitehouse

I'll send some suggested car-sharing arrangements in a few days. As usual, I'd appreciate it if at least one member of every partnership could confirm that they are able to play.

Oxfordshire vs Worcestershire Jully 2008 Boards 25-32

2008-08-07T20:43:00.001+01:00

Board 25

Board 25 N/EW

T 6

Q 8 4

9 7 6

Q T 9 6 4

Q 4 3

7 6 5 3 2

K 8 2

J 5

A J 8 7 5

A Q J 5

K 8 7

K 9 2

A K T 9

T 4 3

A 3 2

How do you play a spade contract here? The auction made this fairly tricky for us… partner opened 1S as East and South found a takeout double. I bid 2S and North found a super-aggressive 3C bid. Bryony's 3S now ended the auction. Unfortunately, the play went a bit awry when she got the clubs wrong and lost a bit of tempo. Still, flat again against 4S-1 on the other table. I'm still not sure what the best line is on a trump lead.

Board 26

Board 26 N/EW

5 4 3

J 8 5 3

Q 5

A Q 8 7

9 2

A 4 2

J T 9 7

K T 6 3

K Q 9 7 6

A K 3

T9 5 4 2

A K Q J T 7 6

8 6 4 2

South overcalled 4S here and that ended the auction. There's not much to the play in the end although spotting the best line is tricky. As you can ruff two diamonds, finesse the club or subject West to a show-up squeeze in clubs and diamonds, you are always safe. The best line? That is much more difficult to assess, I think. The show-up squeeze works if the club finesse is working, so I guess the simple finesse is superior as you will only go one off if it is wrong. You can then pitch a loser on the second club winner.

Some pairs did well here to net a double (which I don’t like). As all lines lead to 10 tricks, that was a bonus.

This was a game-swing out in the B team when the Bygotts opponents overcalled 4S, but Sandra Landy only found 3S which ended the auction. Should you overcall 4S? I think so – a chance missed, there.

Board 27

Board 27 N/EW

A K 3

K 6 2

T 9 5 4

J 8 5

J T 9 8 5

8 7

K T 9 4 2

T 8 7 5 3

K Q 6 3

A 6 3

Q 7 4 2

A Q 9 4

A J 2

Q 7

I thought we'd got South here. He opened 1H and I found a bold (ok, reckless) Michaels Cuebid. North was after a penalty but 3C is fairly ok for E/W a mere 300 on normal lines. South wisely removed to 3N and I kicked off with the obvious club lead. Declarer spent ages playing to trick two here and I was sure we'd got him. Unfortunately when he cashed the queen of hearts and then led to the king, he couldn't possibly get the heart wrong and this was just a boring 9 tricks. Oh well!!

Board 28

Board 28 N/EW

K 9 3

Q 3

J T 9 7 6

J 5 3

K 5 4

K Q 9

7 6 5 3 2

A K

8 7 3 2

A K Q T 8

T 8 4 2

A Q J 9 2

6 5

9 4

Q 9 7 6

This was our worst moment of the day and it was all my fault. I opened a strong-nt. Bryony bid 2C and I responded 2D to deny a 4 card major. She now bid a forcing 3D and I….. lazily bid 3N. On the spade lead, this is just off when I couldn't sneak through a heart. My 3N bid is very lazy and I realise now that I should just bid 3H. This keeps all options open and allows partner to make a slam-try with better hands and correct to 3N with a good spade stop. My wrists are duly slapped!! Playing a weak-nt, N/S were allowed to get into the auction which should be enough to scare N/S out of 3N. 5D is then the top spot and was the normal contract. A rare game-swing out for us on this occasion in our mini-match.

A nice story here from Jeremy Bygott:

“This reminded me of Victor Mollo.

As West, I opened 1D. If partner had splintered with 3S, we would have reached the sensible 5D - no story. However, partner made a limit raise to 3D and passed my 3NT rebid.

North made the obvious spade lead to the J and my K. Needing a trick from hearts, I crossed to DA and led a heart, hoping South would fail to rise.

South found a different way to oblige: she contributed D9 (exposed
card) before correcting the revoke. Now, when North won HA, there was no way for him to cash enough spades - and when South got in, she had to lead the exposed diamond. +400.

And why Mollo?

Because the S***ary Bird, in my position, would have exercised his right to demand a diamond lead! North, having none, would have led a spade, and South would no longer have been subject to penalty... and the Bird would have gone down.”

There was a huge stroke of luck for Gidman and Whitehouse here. The opponents blundered their way to 5D doubled which of course is cold. Strangely on a spade lead, declarer ran it round as he must have miscounted his tricks. So that was a fortunate 1 off.

Board 29

Board 29 N/EW

T 8 7

K T 9 6 2

K 5

Q 7 2

Q J 5

A J T 3 2

T 8 6 3

K 9 3 2

A Q 5 4 3

A J 9

A 6 4

8 7

9 8 7 6 4

K 5 4

This is a fiddly hand to bid and play. Bryony opened 2H and I bid a forcing 1N. Over partner's 2C rebid, what should I do? Nothing looks right and I settled in the end on an aggressive 2N as I didn't want to miss game. Bryony had an easy raise and all I had to do now was make it. The defence was quite soft, in truth. A small spade went to the ace and South returned a diamond which I ducked. North could rise with the DK and continue spades but I always had time now to establish 2 heart tricks for an easy 400. If North doesn't have Kxx diamonds and the spade and diamond are ducked, this contract is much, much harder…. Flat in our mini-match at any rate.

A tough hand here for Acol, a typical experience was recounted by Jeremy Bygott. 1H 1N end was the auction. I think the hand is worth an Acol 2 over 1, myself as otherwise but have some sympathy with the auction. A strong NT opposite 9 is pretty much the worst hand for weak-nt systems (even worse if you’re playing 4 card majors too).

Well done to Cope and Piper here for defeating game. Not at all easy to do – would be interested to hear how they managed it….

Board 30

Board 30 N/EW

Q J 5 3

8 6 4 2

Q 9 2

9 3

K 7 6

T 9

A K J 7

A Q T 7

A K Q 5 3

T 8 6 5 4

8 2

A 9 8 4 2

J 7

K J 6 5 4

We had a bonus result here. Bryony opened a weak two in hearts which seems perfect to me. You'd like a 6th, but with such a pure hand, some sort of preempt seems routine. South now found an aggressive 2S which I dislike. This is a preemptive weak hand and thus doesn't need to bid immediately over a preempt. I bid the obvious game in hearts and was surprised to see North find an equally aggressive raise to 4S. I had an easy double here and we collected 500 with no real difficulty. Shame there wasn't any more in it. At the other table, when Luke and Michael declined to enter the auction, declarer had no way of guessing to take the double club finesse rather than playing on diamonds and so slide one off in 3N for a nice game-swing to us.

At Clacey and Angus’ table, Joe opened a seriously aggressive 1H and South was in with 2H – this steered Ian towards the correct line in 3N of a double club finesse. Well done boys! Wilkes and Webley and Gascoyne and Quainton also managed to land game here so well done to them.

Board 31

Board 31 N/EW

K 9 3

Q 3

J T 9 7 6

A K J

A 6 5 4

T 5 4

A Q 8 3

5 4

Q J 8 7 2

A J 7 6

4 2

8 7

K 9 8 2

K 5

Q T 9 6 3 2

I got to play in 3S after a nice competitive auction. North opened a weak-nt and Bryony was in with 2C showing the majors, knowing that I wouldn't hang her for it as a passed-hand. I couldn't really face letting them play in 3C (which is cold) and so found a matchpoint save in 3S. North did well here to cash one club and then switch to hearts. I couldn't really stop them getting there heart ruff now for a good result for them. Our counterparts were allowed to play in 2S, so that was another irritating part-swing out.

Board 32

Board 32 N/EW

J 8 3

Q T

J T 8

K J 9 6 5

A 6 2

9 7 6

A 6 4 2

Q T 2

T 5

K J 8 5 2

5 3

8 7 4 3

K Q 9 7 4

A 4 3

K Q 9 7

Another dull game here - 4S on this occasion. Someone deal some more interesting boards!! That didn’t stop Murray and Currie defeating it, though. Well done.

So that’s all, except to offer thanks to Nick Smith, Alastair Gidman and Jeremy Bygott for some stories. Hopefully next time it’ll be more interesting (although, we should probably be satisfied with 3 good wins, I suppose!).

Oxfordshire vs Worcestershire Jully 2008 Boards 17-24

2008-08-07T20:42:00.002+01:00

Board 17

Board 17 N/EW

Q 9 8 6 4

9 7 4

T 5

K Q 5

J 7 5 3

8 6 3

K 8 7 6

3 2

A T

K J T

J 9 4 3

9 7 6 4

K 2

A Q 5 2

A Q 2

A J T 8

A routine 3N for South here - I made 9 tricks on a diamond lead as I couldn't risk the contract for an over-trick. Not wildly exciting! What's the best line? Um, win the diamond, knock out the SA and fall back on the heart finesse - it's not exactly rocket science.

Board 18

Board 1 N/EW

9 2

6 2

A 8 6 5 2

9 7 6 2

A K Q J 3

J T 5 3

K 4 3

A K 4

J T 9 7

Q J 5 4 3

T 7 6 5 4

Q 9 8 7

A K T

Our opponents reached the curious spot of 4H here rather than the normal 3N. Still, 3N needs a fair bit of play and well done to those who rolled it in. 4H was hopeless and we couldn't be prevented from making 2 trumps (including a diamond ruff), the DA and a club. Flat board anyway, when team-mates found a reasonable but unsuccessful line in 3N.

At the Bygotts table, a heart lead was the 9th trick. Seems like South needs to lead a spade to give the defence a chance. Bad luck, in any case. Still that was good enough for Cope and Piper to roll home 3N here and were in fact the only Oxfordshire pair to roll that one in – good stuff.

Jackpot for Gidman and Whitehouse here. A 1S overcall from the Worcestershire player was caught – good work! 800 in, a result matched by Landy and Hayes.

Board 19

Board 19 N/EW

A Q J 5 3 2

J T 6 4

A J 6

K 6

9 4 2

A Q 5

K 9 8 3 2

8 7 4

A J 7 3

9 8 2

Q 7 4

T 9

K Q T 8 6 5

K 7 3

T 5

I opened a down the middle 2H here and West found a spectacularly aggressive 3C overcall. Wow - was all that sprang to my mind, I don't like this bid at all!! A flat 12 with no pips and a poor suit? Bryony gave some thought to doubling but settled for passing in the end and this poor contract went two off. Lets just say, don't overcall pre-empts with hands that would open a weak no-trump - my tip for the day :-)

Board 20

Board 20 N/EW

A K J T 8 3

T 3

A Q J 9

Q 6

J 8 7 4 3 2

J 6 5

3 2

9 7 4

A 9 6 5

K Q 2

K T 8

5 2

K Q

A 9 8 7 4

7 6 5 4

I thought this was good judgement from Bryony here. She opened 1S as North and I bid a forcing 1N. Over her rebid of 2C (might be as few as 2), I bid a quiet 2S. I think 4S was a good call here as my auction is consistent with a reasonable hand with 2 spades and a poor hand with 4 spades. Both of these want to be in 4S, I think. A trump lead, led to an easy 11 tricks and flat in our mini-match Game was missed on one occasion – bit of luck for Cope and Piper there, but rather handy imps.

Board 21

Board 21 N/EW

Q 9 2

A 5 2

Q J 6

J T 8 5

A 7 3

J 7 4 3

A 5 3

A K 9

J 6

K 9 8

K T 9 8 4

7 6 2

K T 8 5 4

Q T 6

7 2

Q 4 3

West opened 1H here playing weak and 4, and East found a decent 2H raise which ended the auction. Declarer faffed around a bit trying to eliminate the side suits and force us too open up trumps which allowed us to take our full allocation of 5 defensive tricks. 1N proved to be tough to defend here and so we gained a couple of imps in our mini-match.

Alastair Gidman tells me that their auction started

1H 1N
2N 3N

I think the problem here is the 2N bid – very pushy with a fairly poor strong no-trump.

Board 22

Board 22 N/EW

A K

A K 8

8 7 2

7 6 5 3 2

Q T 3

J 7 6 5

A Q T 9

A J

J 9 7 4 2

Q T 2

J 6 5 3

8 6 5

9 4 3

K 4

K Q T 8 4

One feels we should have got into the auction here, but we didn't seem to have the chance. West opened a weak no-trump and East transferred to spades. We needed to secure a diamond ruff and so when partner cashed a top heart, I signalled for a diamond as soon as I could. Bryony switched to a diamond as instructed but then decided not to risk me holding KTxx diamonds when she got in with a top trump and exited passively. 2S can't be touched of course, fairly irrelevant at imps really…

Board 23

Board 23 N/EW

A K Q 8 4

A T

K 9 4 3

T 3

T 7 3 2

K 9 6 3 2

Q J 8 5

J 6 5

J 7 5 4

A K 9 6 4

Q 8

T 7 6 2

Q J 8 7 5 2

A bizarre hand this which we were probably fortunate wasn't a big swing out. Bryony opened 1S as North in third and East bid a surreal 2S which apparently showed 4 hearts and longer clubs. I passed, obviously and West bid 2H. At this point, Bryony found an aggressive takeout double and I bid 4C as neither of us had realised East had already shown clubs!! Oops - careless of us both there. Still, there was a surprising 9 tricks in clubs, so that wasn't a great disaster. Still, a part-swing out (and the biggest of that set!) as 2S was bid and made at the other table.

Should you overcall 2C here? I say – no way! Should really have a 6 card suit or extra values at those colours.

How do you defend 2SX here? Not so easy – I have some sympathy for Cope and Piper here as I would have chosen to defend too. I don’t have the play to hand, but can see that several plausible defences can see this one sneaking through.

Board 24

Board 24 N/EW

K Q 9 4

A Q 8

A K 9

K 8 7

J 9 6 5 4 3

8 6 4

Q T 3

A 6 3 2

K T 2

Q J T

A 6 5

J T 8 7

7 5 3 2

J 9 4 2

Should South bid over 2N here? I thought not although I can see the rewards could be great….. In this case, my conservatism was rewarded when Bryony found a good line to endplay East and make her 8 tricks. The spade lead probably gave her a tempo, but it was still a nice make. Flat again. Four spades can't be made of course and I don't think there's any way to bail out in 3….

Gidman and Whitehouse had a good result here when Chris found an aggressive 2H opening. The strong balanced hand here simply bid 3N which was doubled and slid off. Worcestershire were a bit unlucky there, I think – but it was a welcome result in any case.

Oxfordshire vs Worcestershire July 2008 Board 9-16

2008-08-07T17:51:00.002+01:00

Board 9

Board 9 N/EW

K J 9 8 6 5

A 6

A K

A 9 3

A Q T 4 3 2

5 3

Q J 9

J 4

K Q J T

6 5 3 2

Q 6 5 2

9 8 7 4 2

T 8 7 4

K T 8 7

1S by west all passed was our unusually unadventurous auction. Let's just say, I didn't really consider bidding with the West cards. Declarer didn't quite get the tempo right here and allowed us to hold him to 7 tricks for an unusual 80. On the other table, things weren’t nearly so quiet. North opened a strong club and South bid 1S which showed 0-4 systemically (I think!). West thought he was worth a double and Michael Clark as North couldn't see much to do except pass in tempo to show no interest in the auction. East now curiously came in with 1N (who knows what that means!) and Luke bid an aggressive 2H figuring that his good shape merited another bid. West now rode to the rescue with 2S which was axed mercilessly by North and netted a handsome 800 and another big swing to us.

I think Smith and Wilson were a bit unlucky here as, following a strong club opening and 1D response, the Worcestershire pair declined to interfere. Obviously a great decision as the cards lie but they can feel a little unfortunate that they didn’t get a chance for a big penalty. 3S was their final resting spot which drifted one off for a part-score swing out in that mini-match.

Jeremy Bygott tells me that their opponent opening this hand a strong 2S. No thanks!

Looks like only one Oxford pair got caught here – bad luck to Clacey and Angus. Still, the colours aren’t exactly favourable to bid when the opponents have found a strong opening at the 2 level….

Board 10

Board 10 N/EW

K 2

9 6 4

A Q J 8 7 5 4

J 9 8 4

K Q 5 4 3

Q J T 5

A 5

T 9 6

A K 8 7

T 9 6 3

Q T 7 6 3

A J 8 7

3 2

K 2

After this hand, I went out to the front and was chatting to Nathan Piper and Simon Cope.

"What happened to you here?" I enquired innocently

"Passed out - didn't fancy opening in 4th. You?"

"Erm - not quite passed out"

Bryony opened 1D as East, first in (we play a strong no-trump). South was in with a spade overcall and I bid a light but sound 2H (forcing), I did have 4 card support after all. North joined in the action with 3C and Bryony raised to 3H. This is aggressive, but reasonable I think. Anyway, South passed and I bid the inevitable game. North wasn't yet done and decided to save in 4S which is "interesting" Partner found an axe and South passed. I thought 4 trumps and a void seemed plenty and passed and North now decided to stand it. An odd decision - it doesn't really look like South has 6 spades, does it?

Anyway - I kicked off with the DQ which held the trick. I now tried a small diamond to get off lead and partner won and cashed another top diamond. Declarer won and obviously had no idea what to do and who can blame him? He next tried a spade up and partner beat the king with her ace. She now tried the HT which declarer won. He now played the CK and the roof caved in. I could ruff this and then play a top heart. He was forced to ruff on table but now only had clubs left. I could ruff the next club, cash a top heart and give partner a heart ruff with her last trump. She then completed declarer's misery with another round of clubs allowing me a trump promotion and the full value 1400.

Probably the most ill-timed comment could be heard afterwards, I'm afraid to say

"I don't think you should have overcalled 1S"

I don't think I should comment on that…..

There was an unusual result here when Keep and Brown pulled out 400 here. Very odd to score up game with a pass-out at the other table!

Board 11

Board 11 N/EW

A T 3 2

K T 8 7 4

K J 6

J 5 4

A T 8 7 4 3

Q 9 7

J 6 2

6 5 2

T 8 4 3

K 8 6

Q 9 5

A Q 9 3

A 5 2

At our table, there was no real excitement. I found a weak jump overcall of 2H after South's 1D opener and North made a mild-sniff towards slam. When South showed no strong interest they simply baled out in 5D. I led the HA and it was clear that the only way to beat this was for declarer to have a club guess. When there wasn't one, Declarer simply drew trumps and conceded a spade at the end. The real problem on the hand was those defending 6D. I've heard that HA followed by a spade lead to the queen and king was curtains for some. Ouch!

Still well done to Wilkes and Webley for finding the correct defence to slam.

Board 12

Board 12 N/EW

T 6 5 3

K 9 8 3

K J 3 2

A J 7 5 4

9 8 2

Q 2

T 8 4

8 3 2

A 7

A T 6

Q 9 7 6 5

K Q T 6

K Q J 6

J 7 5 4

Not wildly exciting at our table here, either. We simply defeated an optimistic 4H by one trick. We've all been in worse but on this occasion, there is no play. Flat board at any rate

After the first set of unending highs, Clacey and Angus weren’t enjoying their second set here when things went awry defending 4H. 620 out wasn’t what the doctor ordered, especially when Cope and Piper had managed to score a plus on the board

Board 13

Board 13 N/EW

K J 9 7 3

A 5

T 8 2

Q T 8

8 2

4 3

K Q 6 5 4

K J 9 3

6 4

K Q 8 7

A J 3

A 6 5 2

A Q T 5

J T 9 6 2

9 7

7 4

I thought we had a nice controlled auction here for a change. Bryony opened 1C and South made a good decision not to overall in my opinion. I bid a quiet 1D and North overcalled 1S. Partner now doubled showing a sound opening hand and South raised to 2S. I could now bid 3C which shows extra values (but is non-forcing). This proved to be a good place to play. With the spade weakness exposed, 3N had no play so we partner simply made the routine 9 tricks in clubs. I've heard about 3N slipping through on a heart lead and heart return… well done to Wilkes and Webley for that one.

Alastair Gidman’s story on this hand was quite instructive I think. Chris Whitehouse found an aggressive 2C overcall over 1N (showing the majors). Expecting a better hand, Alastair simply bid game which slid 2 off. I have no real concerns about overcalling light here if that is your style but what is most important is knowing and expecting that partner might do such a thing. Obviously if you are aware that partner will overcall quite light here, you should simply invite. If partner’s overcalls are sound, bid game.

Board 14

Board 14 N/EW

A Q T 9 7

Q J

A T 7 6 5

K J 3

Q T 4 3 2

8 4

9 8 2

6 5 2

9 8 6 5

T 9 6 3

K 4

8 4

K J 7

A K 7 5 2

Q J 3

Our opponents had a decent auction here to the cold club slam. North was perhaps a bit pushy following South's weak no-trump opening, but an auction of :

1N 2H
2S 3C
3N 4C
4D 4N
5D 6C
P

seemed decent. Bryony kicked off with a diamond which declarer won in hand. This is a little fiddly for declarer as he really wants to have an entry to table to discard his losers on the diamonds. If the king of clubs is with west, it could remove the entry prematurely, so a small club to the king gives declarer the most flexibility. When East is forced to rise on the first round, then the hand is over. The Worcs auction only promised a four card suit with North and Bryony figured that the only way to defeat the slam is for declarer to be 5134 as there would then be a diamond ruff. Not this time…..

Personally, I would have found the same action as Simon Cope here and upgraded the South hand to a strong nt. A nice 5 card suit and a 14 count looks like an upgrade to me. There was no stopping Nathan Piper from bidding slam after that start! Only some frantic back-tracking from Simon kept them out of grand here!

A typical auction for those missing slam (as reported by Wilkes/Webley and GIdman/Whitehouse) was

1N 2H
2S 3C
3N 4C
4D 4H
5C P

I think maybe that responder should raise 5C to 6C but think that the real problem is that opener is better placed if they upgrade this to a strong nt.

Still, slam only missed twice here by Oxford, so that was a better effort than our counterparts.

Board 15

Board 15 N/EW

Q J T 9 8 4

J 4

T 6 5 4

7 6 3 2

A K 9 8 7

A 7

A Q

Q 6 5 4 3 2

Q T 5 2

K J

A K

K 9 8 6 3

9 8 7 3 2

I'm sure Bryony was more than a little surprised here for me to overcall South's wafer-thin 1D with 1H!! She raised to game and I decided not to have another go although it's close… If I'd known North would lead the Jack of diamonds, maybe I would! 12 tricks on that lead, but 11 is normal.

Board 16

Board 16 N/EW

A T 8 4

T 4

A K T 7 5 4

Q 7 6 3

A 2

J 9 3

K Q J 2

J 5

J 9 8 7 6

Q 8 6

A T 6

K 9 2

K Q 5 3

9 8 5 4 3

Another boring hand here, North made an odd weak jump overcall in diamonds and got to play in 2D. We slopped a trick here by playing on spades as it didn't seem obvious that North would have AAK for his weak jump overcall!!

This hand was notable for Keep and Brown enjoying 380 when 1NX played rather well. Landy and Hayes also picked a good time to defend and racked up 300 against nothing.

If the first half wasn’t that exciting… the second half was as dull as dishwater!

Oxfordshire vs Worcestershire July 2008 Board 1-8

2008-08-07T17:50:00.002+01:00

So, much delayed, I’ve finally managed to find something to say about the Oxfordshire vs Worcestershire match. The hands were deathly dull and Oxford played really well. Isn’t much more to say, is there? Well, I’ll try anyway.

Well done to the C team for having a great card all round but especially Gascoyne/Quainton and Currie/Murrie.

In the B team, a solid card from Cope/Piper in their first appearance for the county was good to see and rest were consistent if unspectacular. Still we’d have taken 15-5 if offered it with the B team up in Solihull.

In the A team, all four pairs plus and a reasonably even effort. Good to see the three relatively new pairs in the A team all continuing to produce consistently good cards.

All three matches panned out in similar ways – a huge start followed by little happening in the second half. The A team were 100 imps up at half-time and coasted thereafter. The B and C simply established a winning position and kept it (although with more of a struggle than they are probably used to in the B team).

I’ve not included as many stories as usual in these hands as they were some of the least interesting hands I’ve come across!! Still, I’ve tried to include what little interesting bridge there was…

Board 1 N/EW

Q J T 9 4 2

Q J 7 4 2

A 9 6 5 2

J 7 3

A 9 6 5

8 6 5

K J 7 3

K Q 9 8

T 8

A K 7

Q 8 4

A T 6 5 4

K 3

What do you open with the North cards? 1S is obviously bizarre, 2S looks very wrong with a 6115 shape and 4S is bold at love all. Pass? Looks a bit wet to me. Bryony found a good choice, in my opinion, with a down the middle 3S. I had an easy raise to 4 as South, and she made 11 tricks fairly easily. If North passes, E/W have a chance to get into the auction, but it looks like no pair found a 5H "save"… more likely no-one was *allowed* to play in 5H as I'm sure North will struggled to stand a double of 5H.

One unusual result saw a swing to the county in the B team when Landy/Hayes’ opponents played in a no-trump part-score. Fair enough – imps this way!

Board 2

Board 2 N/EW

T 9 2

K T 9 7 5

A Q 6

Q 8

Q 6 5 3

Q 3

J 3

K 6 4 3 2

K 8 7 4

J 8 4

K J T 4

A T

A J

A 6 2

9 8 5 2

J 9 7 5

Depends on your NT range here as to whether you get to play in 1N or 2S (normally). Our opps just played in a weak no-trump. Our defence was a little below par here, which was annoying. I led my second diamond and Bryony inserted the queen to maintain communication. Declarer won and tried a spade from hand. I could see little reason not to rise with the SA and switch to the H2. Bryony ducked and so declarer won with the jack and cashed the rest of the spades. When he now crossed to hand in diamonds, partner could rise and play on hearts. Unfortunately the HK return made things a little tricky for me and I rather stupidly thought that partner was intentionally blocking the suit, expecting me to return a club. In fact when I switched to the H2, which suggested an honour, it should be right to return a small heart which I will then get right and I need all the help I can get! Still, I should probably realise that there was no future in clubs and over-take anyway. A poor effort from me, I think. Oh well - it was fortunately not Match-points and was just a couple of over-tricks. There was no chance of beating 1N (Phew!).

On the other table of our mini-match, Michael Clark opened a 12-15 NT and North protected with a fairly aggressive 2H. I don’t like this much with such a balanced hand and agree with Bryony’s pass. This came round to Luke who balanced with 2S implying only 4 spades (he didn’t transfer initially) and a probably second place to play (i.e. longer minor). This came round to South who found a raise eventually which should have been enough but Michael thought that the undisclosed 4 card support was enough to merit a raise to 3S which went one off when N/S found a sharp defence. A small swing out in any case.

Board 3

Board 3 N/EW

K J 2

Q 9 7 4 2

Q 8 6 5

A 9 3

J 9 8 7 5 4 3

K 3

Q 7 6

K Q T 2

A 8

A T 9 2

T 8 5 4

J T 6 5

K J 7 4

4H here - not very exciting in truth. 11 tricks when the SK is onside. NEXT!

I should add that there was one result that didn’t conform to the norm. Clacey and Angus had a big result here when they were allowed to play in 4D after an uncontested auction! Joe’s 2D (diamonds and a major, weak) was raised to 4D and the opponents declined to compete. Apparently one opponent asked if 4D was invitational…… obviously not!

Board 4

Board 4 N/EW

Q 5 3

9 8 6

7 6 5 3

4 3 2 2

A T 8

A 7 4 2

A J 8

T 8 6

K 6

Q J T 5 3

T 9 4

K 7 5

J 9 7 4 2

K Q 2

A Q J 9

I've been having an interesting debate (with Nick Smith) about this one about whether you'd want to be in 4H or not. My feeling is probably not, but I know that it plays very well (cold from East and needs a club lead if played by West). At our table, West opened a weak nt and East began with a 2D transfer. I doubled this which showed a penalty double of 1N (a bit light, but still - that's one way to stop them bidding game!). West completed the transfer showing 3 card support and this came back round to me. I felt obliged to protect with 2S and East did extremely well to raise to 3H. I don't think I would with such a balanced hand but the extra trump with declarer was rather useful. On a non-club lead, declarer can eliminate spades and diamonds and simply duck a club to south. They are then endplayed to lead away from the AQ of clubs for the tenth trick. Flat in our match.

Still, Nick had a different perspective on the hands and found the following auction

1D* P 1H X *=precision
3H P 4H
This proved to be enough for a game when Nick’s aggressive 3H rebid and Alan’s good decision to bid game found them in a cold contract. Is this lucky? Well Nick is adamant that it is a clear 3H using his hand-evaluation methods (see Nick to ask for more details) and it certainly worked on this occasion.

Best result on this one was at Landy and Hayes’ table. A takeout-double misunderstanding saw them play in 2HX. Just the 1070 then! Oops…

Board 5

Board 5 N/EW

J 8 3

J 8 4

J 3 2

K 7 6 2

K 5 4 2

K T 7 5

9 5 4

T 5

9 7

Q 9 6 2

Q T 7

J 9 4 3

A Q T 6

A 3

A K 8 6

A Q 8

I thought this was a relatively dull 3N but it seems that several people (including my counterpart in our mini-match) rather lost their way. West tended to lead a heart which certainly put the defence up to a good start. Trick one is interesting - do you play the jack or small. I decided that East wouldn't get it wrong if I played low, so hoped that West had under-led the KQ of hearts and rose with the jack. When East put the queen up, I ducked. East now made things very easy by returning the H2, which was likely to be third or their remaining hearts. It was therefore safe to simply take the spade finesse for the 9 tricks. It looks like you have extra chances by trying for clubs 3-3 and the queen of diamonds to come down in two rounds, but this is fraught with danger. Yes - if both of these happen, you do indeed have 9 tricks without needing the spade finesse but this is extremely unlikely. The problem is then that you will go off if hearts are 4-4 and the spade finesse is wrong (as is indeed the case). You will have set up the additional tricks that the defence need if you go down this route. It is better I think (certainly on the carding I got at any rate) to play for the spade finesse or hearts 4-4.

For those who got it wrong, you'd feel a bit aggrieved if East was awake enough to obfuscate the position and return a deceptive H6 or H9. Now, you may well go wrong as it would seem extremely unlikely that hearts were 4-4. Bad luck to at least one pair who ran into this fine defence. Anyway a big swing to us was welcome

In fact Worcestershire managed to go off in this one on 4 occasions to our one, so at least we got the basics right!

Board 6

Board 6 N/EW

Q J 8 2

T 5

A J 9 7 4

3 2

K 7 3

K 8 6 5 3

K Q 9 8 7

A T 7 3

A Q 9 8

T 2

J T 5

K 9 6 5 4

J 6 4 2

A 6 4

This was another chance which we gratefully took. East and South passed which both seem reasonable to me, although I wouldn't be too upset if people were opening the East cards. West opened 1D and East responded 1H. I overcalled 1S and West doubled. Bryony checked the double wasn't penalty (described as showing extras) and raised to 3S giving East a problem. He emerged with 3N in the end. I led a spade (notice no attempt to be clever, I’ve learned my lesson by now) and declarer was in trouble now. He won the first round and tried the CJ which I won. We now cashed 4 more spades and declarer had to find some discards on table and settled for 2 diamonds. Bryony pitched the D7 on the last round of spades which seemed to suck Declarer in as he mistakenly covered the DQ allowing Bryony to cash out for 5 off and a juicy 500.

Things got worse for Worcestershire when Clark and Porter reached the dizzy heights of 4H - not a fine spot! South kicked off with a spade lead which was ruffed on table. Michael now tried a club to the jack and ace. South now switched to the DQ which was covered by the king and ace. North now fell from grace by returning a *small* diamond. This forced South to ruff with his natural trump trick and that was the end of the defence. A big swing here to the county.

Smith and Wilson here got to the reasonable 5C contract. Needs the DA onside and a little bit more, but didn’t work so well on this occasion for one off. Fortunately, their Worcestershire counterparts played 3N off a few like at our table for a 5 imp gain.

I think Alistair Gidman thought this might be a swing out for the C team here when they went off in 3N after correctly ducking the DQ, but were relieved to find that at Currie and Murray’s table, the DQ was covered and so 3N went a mighty 6 off for a large swing in.

Another good result for Clacey and Angus here was tempting a double here in their part-score. 470 went well with Cope and Piper’s 300. Nicely done.

Board 7

Board 7 N/EW

A K J 9 6

K J 5 4

8 6

3 2

Q 4 3 2

A 9 8

K J 5 4 2

T 8 7

T 6

A Q 7

K Q 8 7 5

Q 7 3 2

T 9 3

J T 9 6 4

A more mundane 3N here at our table when E/W shrugged off partner's 1S overcall. 3N proved to be trivial and made an over on the lead of three rounds of spades. A heart lead or switch will hold it to 9 tricks but that is just small change.

Clacey and Angus and both C team pairs managed to defend a part-score in a minor here for a nice swing.

Board 8

Board 8 N/EW

K Q T 7 6 2

5 3

J T 8 5

T 5 2

A J 5

K T

K Q 9 7 6

J 9

8 4 3

A Q J 9 6

4 3 2

K Q 8 7 6 4 3

8 7 4 2

Interesting hand this, I thought. West opened a weak no-trump at our table and Bryony found a natural 2H overcall. East stepped in with 2N (Lebensohl) which allowed me to pass as South to await developments. West bid 3C - Pass or Correct - and East now bid 3D showing a hand with no interest and some diamonds. I now tried 3S which was non-constructive. This is booked for one off on tight defence but I had a stroke of luck here. West started brightly with the DK and the DT which East overtook. He then exited in trumps. I can't possibly make here so tried a club to the ace and drew the trumps to limit the damage. On the off chance I tried a heart up and West rather tamely played low giving me my 9th trick. I then tried the CJ from table and when East didn't cover pitched a diamond loser. I have to confess, I was a little taken aback when I found myself still on lead, obviously West had expected me to ruff and so ducked. I thought I'd cheekily try the CT to see if that was a winner too, but West declined to let that one slip through too….. worth a try :) Imp in when the CK was led at the other table against 2S. Doesn't seem like a ridiculous lead to me but is unfortunate on this occasion.

Nick Smith tells me of a good result for their four on this board. Nick and Alan got to 3D after a decent auction:

1N 2H 2N P
3D P P P

2N was Lebensohl, but with such good clubs, Nick bid 3D (prepared to play in 4C or 3N if that was his suit)

“HK led. I won and drew trumps (pitching Ss), then a C to S's A. When he led SK, N was forced to overtake and switch to CJ. I was able to cash CKQ and allow N to win the 4th round of Cs. He now had to lead a H to give me my 9th trick. Needs a S lead to beat 3D, I guess.”

When Wilkes and Webley managed to bid (and make!) 4S, this was a big swing in.

Alastair Gidman tells me that he and Chris Whitehouse managed to get a trump promotion against 3S to defeat it by two tricks. Good to hear that at least one pair found the right defence here!

Oxfordshire vs Gloucestershire May 2008 Boards 25-32

2008-06-01T22:15:00.005+01:00

Board 25 N/EW

J T 9 5

8 2

A K Q 7

AQJ

K 3 2

A 9

J T 9 8 5

7 6 5

A Q 8 4

T 4

3 2

9 8 4 3 2

7 6

K Q J 7 6 5 3

6 4

K T

Brilliant defence from me here…… Our opponents had a bizarre auction to 3N (what’s wrong with 4H for goodness sake?)

1S 2H
3N end

I think. After a club lead I rather stupidly forgot to return a spade when in with the HA. Looking at the club pips, that does look a bit stupid – but the auction hadn’t precluded North from having Qx of clubs here and partner might just have had AJ98xx…. A bit far fetched though but seemed more likely to me than opening 1S on Jxxx which would be required for 4 spade tricks to be standing up. Oh well – a flat board in any case and a match-point top for our opponents!

Smith and Wilson got a bit high here and reached 5H following a strong club opening. Is there a pattern here? Unusual I’m sure for so many slam-hands to go wrong on one day isn’t it following a strong club opening? Fortunately no spade lead here so one of the spade losers went away.

Gidman and Rowland’s opponents discovered that the 6 level was a bit far even on a helpful lead. Oh dear – good job I wasn’t defending…

Board 26 E/All

T 6

J 7 2

K 7 4 2

T 9 5 3

K Q 8 5

A T 8 4

Q 8

K J 8

A J 9 4 2

K Q 9

A 6 3

Q 6

7 3

6 5 3

J T 9 5

A 7 4 2

Interesting decision here. Partner opened a strong no-trump and then bid 2S over my Stayman response. What methods do you play here following a major response to Stayman to make a forcing raise in that suit. 4x looks a bit like a splinter, so I was reluctant to bid that without agreement, so instead spent some time assessing what hands partner might have to make slam a good prospect. Eventually, I decided that slam was likely to be no more than 50% and so bid a reluctant 4S. Having said that, on the DJ lead we were held to 450 so I guess that worked out well in the end. Still.. we’ve all been in worse!

Anyway – will have a think about that anyway….. I think following a major suit response to Stayman, it is a good idea to play a bid of the other major is a forcing raise with slam interest. Then you can save jumps for support with shortage (splinter).

David Southcombe found himself on lead here after an agricultural auction to 6S. The CA was an expensive one on this occasion but isn’t that dreadful… very unlucky I think. Even worse was that on the other table, Angus and Clacey did get the DJ lead when they pushed to the slam. A rare big swing out for the C team.

Williams/Wilson were a little unlucky here as they pushed to slam at 50+ down which does seem reasonable. They were even more unlucky to wrong side it and get a diamond lead.

Board 27 S/None

T 7 5

K T 8 4

J 9 4 3

7 5

Q 8

7 3

A T 7 6 2

Q J 8 6

A K J 9 2

9 6

A T 4 3 2

6 4 3

A Q J 5 2

K Q 5

K 9

Another chance missed here by me. Incredibly it was the same as on Board 22 and I got it wrong again!

On this occasion, South opened 1H and North once again found a conservative pass. Bryony balanced with 2H – again showing a strong hand with spades and a minor. South doubled and it was back to me again. This time without good defence to hearts, I thought redouble was wrong so tried 2N. North cam alive once again with 3H and that came back round to me. We can actually make 4S here but I was a bit worried by developments and so decided to sell out to 4H as I couldn’t be sure that we were beating 4H. Wet, really. At least we beat 3H although we should really have taken it two off after a signalling misunderstanding. Fortunately they just played in part-score at the other table so we got away with it.

Slater and Stephens had a good result here after overcalling 1H P 2H with 2S. Now the raise with Qx spades looks quite appealing and so they easily got to the cold 4S.

Good result here for Williams and Wilson as a preemptive raise to 3H practically forced John to bid 3S. This was raised to game and an unwise double led to 590 to the home team. There was a similar story in other matches when a good raise on Qx propelled Rowland and Gidman and Goldsmith/Percival Price to the good spade game.

Board 28 W/NS

A 6 3

Q 9 8

9 8 7

Q T 5 4

Q 8 7 4

7 4

A K T 2

A K 8

K T 9 5 2

A K 2

J 5

7 3 2

J T 6 5 3

Q 6 4 3

J 9 6

Another slight misunderstanding this time went a lot better than the last one! I opened a strong no-trump as West and partner bid 2H as a transfer to spades. My hand is prime for spades so I bid 3D as a maximum hand with values in diamonds. Partner now bid 4H which was rather ambiguous. I think she thought it was either a re-transfer or a mild-try with a heart control but I thought it was showing a heart singleton! It now seemed obvious to bid RKCB and when I heard about two keycards, bid slam. It isn’t a great spot! North led the four of clubs and so I won crossed to the HK (to see what was going to happen and put the ST on the table. This was covered much to my relief to the queen and ace. North played a second club which I won in hand. I now drew the trumps and noted that South had pitched two hearts. When I crossed to the HK and both followed, it seems likely that South was discarding from 5 hearts. The lead suggested that North had 4 clubs and south 3, and so that put South with a 1543 shape. I now put the DJ on the table to see what would happen. South played low reasonably smoothly so I had a choice of whether to ruff out the queen if North had Qxx or simply run it if South had Qxxx. In the end, I simply went with the odds as holding 4 diamonds, South is more likely to hold the queen and was mightily relieved when it worked. A fortunately swing in, but at least I took the best line.

John Atthey was the only other declarer in this spot for Gloucs against Smith and Wilson. Fortunately for us, he chose to ruff out the diamonds and fall back on an unlikely squeeze so that was a very welcome gain.

Chris Wilson muses that it was right to bid on here with an 11 count but not on board 16 with a 16 count following identical starts to the auction. Quite right – you might think? Well – yes and no, is my opinion. My view is that half the problem is the auction up to 4S At their table on both occasions, they had:

1S 2N
4S* ? *=extras presumably

2N is a raise to 3+, I guess. I think this pretty much emphasises why there was a difficulty here. The jump to 4S has taken up so much space that it forces you to guess. There is no way of knowing what to do. I would suggest that the key to this hand is to examine the responses to 2N to ensure that you have sufficient space to investigate slam before you get uncomfortably high. If anyone wants any advice on good methods, you probably shouldn’t go to me…. But I’m willing to offer the little I know!

Board 29 N/All

J 9

K Q J 5

A 8 3 2

K J 6

Q 6

A T 6 3

K J 6

T 8 7 3

K 7 5 4 3 2

9 8 7

Q T 9

A T 8

4 2

7 5 4

A Q 9 4 2

Back to a humdrum hand here – N/S in a dull 3N making 10 tricks. NEXT.

Board 30 E/None

K Q

K J T 9 7

J T 9 5 4

J 8 6 4

8 6 5 4

J T 6 2

A T 9 7 5

3 2

Q 8 7 3

9 4

3 2

A Q

A K 2

A K Q 8 5 3

Well – this is a very tricky hand to bid it seems… at least it was for our opponents. The Benji auction wasn’t pretty:

2C 2D
3C 3H
3N end

Ugh!! On the other table, Luke and Ed showed good judgement and found the cold 6N in about 6 bids for a big swing in. The south hand is easily worth a game-forcing opening and with a 55 10 count with great texture in the suits, there was no chance they were missing this one.

In fact this was a desperately disappointing board for the county with both our A team pairs failing to find this and both Gloucs pairs having no difficulty. One to look at for our pairs, I think as you don’t want to miss many slams this good.

Dickinson and Southcombe found a decent sequence here:

2D-2NT-3NT-4D-6NT was our sequence. A frightening ST opening lead from the ace(!) ["strong ten" was given on the card] was the defence's chosen start, but it didn't cost. I started with cAKQ, dA, then hearts, finding RHO with four in both hearts & clubs and LHO wriggling for discards. RHO looked odds-on to have a singleton diamond, especially as LHO had not opened a weak 2S, so DJ finesse was fairly marked; as it was, they covered DJ when led so that was +990.

Yep – well done. I’ve heard about a nightmare situation from Nathan Piper though. He was playing in 6H after an uncomfortable auction. Unfortunately it was one of those days and he missed a pitch and went off (he claims that he was sure there was a revoke though). The play is quite interesting though:

I've just thought.

“AH, QH, AC, ruff a club. If trumps were 5-1 or clubs 6-0 then I'm off, but if clubs were 42 or better I claim. If LHO had 5C I have a showup squeeze to pick up the diamonds whenever it's possible to do so. If RHO had 5C then if LHO had a side-suit of H in his Lucas 2 (which was possible) then I have a trump squeeze against RHO and if LHO's suit was diamonds then the diamond finesse it at least 2 to 1 on. This is all vastly better than my actual line which only gains when trumps are 5-1 and the diamond finesse works.”

Yep – I’m sure that’s what goes through my mind when I’m declaring too 

Smith and Wilson had some more strong club difficulties here: “

P    1C    P    1H
1S    1N    3S    X*                * 0-2 controls
P    4H    AP

The 3S bid made it very hard for me and my doubleton S didn't look good ... I can't even be sure 4H is making! Maybe I should try 4C but I'm still not sure we're getting there. 11 IMPs out. Rats.”

Hm – I don’t know what to suggest here but it looks to me like responder needs to do more here. The problem with the hand is that the strong club opener hasn’t really shown the extra strength here. Is 1N enough? Questions, questions…..

Board 31 S/NS

A K Q T 6 2

K Q J 2

Q 7

7 5

A T 6 5

K 9 7 3

K 9 6

J 9 8 4 3

9 7 4 3

5 2

J 3

Q J T 8 6 4

A T 8 5 4 2

Another bidding nightmare here for our opponents. Those of a nervous disposition avert your eyes!

2D* 3D
3S 4C
4H 4N
5H 6S

I think was the auction – I have no idea what it all meant but 6S was a dismal spot. Bryony correctly declined to double despite holding 2 trump tricks as she had no way of knowing that 6N was also hopeless. If she’s known I had an ace and two kings opposite, I suspect she might have found it!

Ed and Luke had a more sensible auction on the other table and were very unlucky to find that 4S can’t make. Still a few imps in there for better judgement.

Best effort of the day came yet again from Dickinson and Southcombe:

“A nice one for the 2NT opening bid! (both minors weak). I simply raised to 3NT and there we played. We rather got away with this though: heart lead went to the king. SAKQ found the 5-2 break, so David now cashed DA and followed with C7 off dummy to ten, king. Club back to queen, jack, small.
Only hope now is a miracle endplay on West, if he started with four hearts + DK. Even then they have to fail to unblock hearts. So David now led HQ to the ace. West cashed dK (third defensive trick) and ... returned h6!! Terrible: he has an exact count at this point and knows his pard has H9 + SJ waiting for one off. HJ, H2 put West back in with H10 and he had only C/D to lead ... +600!

Phew! Well done anyway!

Unbelievably Smith and Wilson had more difficulties following a strong club opening after some seriously “robust” pre-empting – over to Nick “

P P 1C 2H!* * both majors!
3D 4H X P
??

Alan's X of 4H is pen-oriented but could be practically anything. I don't think pass is a realistic option on my hand - the choice (I felt) lay between 5C and 6C. As 5C would just suggest 5-5 (and I'm a passed hand), pard would be unlikely to raise. Pard doesn't have to have 15 pts in the majors on that auction! So, after much thought, I bid 6C - well, at least I was getting my shape across! Butland doubled briskly and Alan, perhaps reasonably (?), removed to 6N which I knew was unlikely to have much play. It wasn't doubled and went just one off, meaning that 5C would have made on the nail after all - ugh!”

Board 32W/EW

K 8 6 5

A T 9 6 3 2

A Q 9

Q 8 4

J 5 3 2

T 6 4 3 2

A 9 4 2

K J 5

Q 8 7

K J 5

Q J T 3

A K T 9 6 4

8 7

Our opponents got to a mystifying 2N here when Bryony’s aggressive (and flat!) takeout double persuaded them not to introduce their spades. This can be defeated but it is pretty hard for partner to read me for 3 hearts when in with the SA quite early. Still – with Ed showing good technique in 4S on the other table of our mini-match this was a satisfying swing in.

In one of the A team mini-matches, both declarers lost control when trying for a cross-ruff. I must admit, I’ve not analysed this yet sufficiently to tell whether it should make or not….. sorry! Still, some made, some didn’t so well done to Piper and Robinson for rolling that one in.

Many thanks to those who gave me loads of comments on the hands. Thanks particularly to Nick Smith, Alastair Gidman, Tim Dickinson, Malcolm Currie, John Williams, Chris Wilson and John Slater for loads and loads of good stuff.

Chris Cooper June 1st 2008.

Oxfordshire vs Gloucestershire May 2008 Board 17-24

2008-06-01T21:52:00.003+01:00

Board 17 N/None

A 8

A T 9 8 3 2

A T 4 3

J T

Q 5

Q J T 9 7 2

K J 9

K Q 7 6

K J 7 6

5 4

8 6 5

9 5 4 3 2

A 8 6 3

Q 7 2

Interesting little hand this. It was the first board we played and partner kicked things off with 1H by North. East passed and I responded with the normal 1S. West now found an aggressive 2D and partner’s 2H ended the auction.

The play is quite fiddly here. A diamond lead was helpful and ran round to the king. Partner now ducked a heart round to the queen by West who played a second diamond. You might think this gives a trick away but actually makes things quite hard for declarer. Bryony pitched a spade on the diamond and played a spade to the ace followed by ace and another heart – observing the poor split. She was now reduced to playing for the CK onside which wasn’t the case and slid one off after West can simply force declarer in diamonds. After that start, the contract can still be made by a club to the ten when in with the DA but it doesn’t look that great a line to me. Unlucky – I thought.

Still on the other table, our counterparts managed to get all the way to 3N which was undoubled…… c’mon boys – get the red card out! Still 3 off was 3 in.

Tim Dickinson tells me that his opponents rebid 3H with the North card. Yuck!! Very lucky not to go more than one off!!

At Smith and Wilson’s table, declarer prevailed after a diamond lead as the continuation wasn’t found. Eventually, Alan could be thrown in to lead a minor or concede the next trick in diamonds. Looks like the defence at our table was best – even though it gave up a trick early.

Goldsmith and Percival-Price here got to play in 1H and made it on the nose for good measure. That’s a sure way to annoy your opponents. With Piper and Robinson defeating 2H, that was a cute swing in.

Board 18 E/NS

7 5

J 8 7

A Q 7 5

A K Q 5

Q T 2

K Q 9 4 3

J T 8 2

8 4 3

A T 6 5

K 3

9 6 4 3

A K J 9 6

T 9 8 6 4 2

This hand was problematic for several here. At our table, I held the South cards and decided to pass second in. West opened a light 1H in third and Bryony found a bold 1N overcall… well Jxx is “practically” a stop anyway! East competed to 2H and I was now in quite a good position to describe my hand. I started with a forcing 3D intending to bid 4S over partner’s expected 3N. However, she surprised me by raising to 4D but I could still bid a natural-ish 4S. Bryony’s 5D now ended the auction and makes very easily. I was pleased to note the diamond finesse failed as 6D was not an unreasonable spot on the auction.

Our counterparts in our mini-match found 4S after an unconvincing auction. This is a contract that requires you to guess the spades to be 3-3 and so avoid the force. When the Gloucs pair managed this, we were destined to lose a couple of imps. I know where I’d rather play though!

Tim Dickinson tells me that their South opened a Lucas 2 spades. I know that the same happened at Slater/Stephens’ table where our boys did the same. After an enquiry against Tim and David, South showed a “minimum” hand with spades and diamonds and got to play in 3D. The fact that slam is on a finesse should be a good pointer that the South hand has far too much playing strength for a Lucas 2 effort. Pass or 1D is far superior in my opinion. Angus and Clacey made no mistake on the other table of their mini-match.

Slater and Stephens at least got to game, but there were 5 heart cashers against 3N. At least some parity was restored in the A team when Smith and Wilson’s pair had the same auction to 3N with the same result.

Williams and Wilson ran into good defence here playing in 4S. An auction of:

P P 2D X
3H 4S end

Practically forced them into it. 3H was supposed to show both majors after a multi 2D opener. After ruffing the second heart, the spade finesse lost and John W had to duck the third heart to stop him going loads off. Disappointing. The auction does make it a bit confusing though, I will agree.

Board 19 S/EW

A K T 6 2

K T 7 3

T 7 3

8 4 3

A 6 4 2

K J T 8

Q J

J 7 5

Q J

A 9 5

A K 8 6 2

Q 9

9 8 5

7 6 4 3 2

9 5 4

1S 2C end was a common auction. A bit galling for the opponents to fail to bid past 2C with a combined 26 count when game doesn’t make! I think West’s pass is conservative to say the least. Still – worked on this occasion for an unexpected flat board.

Williams and Wilson saw an unusual auction:

P P 1S P
X P P 2C
end

Hm – 2C is a strange choice indeed. Don’t really understand it. Still it worked rather well on this occasion when Smith and Wilson bid the hopeless 3N on the other table.

I’m afraid to say that the poor bridge of the day can be found in the C team here. At Gidman and Rowland’s table, the Gloucs defenders found themselves in 2C after a simple overcall. Over to Alastair:

“We start with 3rounds of spades, and I exit with QD, which declarer wins in dummy. He cashes QJ clubs, failing to overtake and draw a 3rd round. He cannot now get back to hand without letting me in, and we score both our small trumps left and the KH for 1 off. I think they’re in 3N at the other table, making!! Is my hand not worth a 1S opening??? If you tell me NO...you’re lying.”

Indeed it is… 3N making is unusual…. Let’s leave it at that and congratulate Currie and Murray!

Board 20 W/All

A Q 9

6 4

K T 3

A K 8 7 3

T 2

A K T 8

9 7 6 5

Q 6 5

J 4

Q 9 5

A Q J 8 4

J T 9

K 8 7 6 5 3

J 7 3 2

4 2

I was almost end-played into bidding this thin game. Partner opened a strong no-trump and I had two options. I could either transfer to spades and pass unless partner broke the transfer or bid Stayman and see what happens. I chose the latter and was not surprised to hear a 2D response. Nothing for it now but to bid 2S which we play as invitational. Needless to say, 4S hit the table – no messing around here from partner! The play isn’t that interesting. Really just needs a kind trump split and the clubs behaving when the DA is wrong. I was pleased to wrap this up for a nice game-swing in.

This game was missed at quite a few tables, so well done to Gidman and Rowland for bidding that one.

Board 21 N/ NS

K 8 5 4

8 3

K Q 8 6 4

8 6

A T 9 6 2

T 7 4

J 9 7 4

7 3

A Q J 9 5

A 9 7 3

K Q

Q J

K 6 2

J T 5

A T 5 3 2

Good job we weren’t defending 4H here as I found a less than convincing defence. My diamond lead wasn’t a rip-roaring success and followed it up with an inability to play trumps… Oops. Sadly Ed and Luke’s opponents managed to find a more sensible defence against the decent 4H. This looks like it will make if the clubs are 4-3 or the hand with 3 trumps as to ruff the club so this was quite unlucky.

Smith and Wilson had a good result here when they managed to get to 4H after some interference over a strong club shoved them into it rather. Nick recounts:

“A D lead helped ... I ruffed one and led a C to the K and A. H back to the 9, CQ, D ruff, loser away on CJ (N ruffing in, I think), 10 tricks. +7 IMPs.”

Angus and Clacey on the other hand managed to get away with 150 playing in 1N, I believe. I won’t ask how!! I’ll just assume you played it magnificently.

Board 22 E/EW

A T 8 5 4

8 4

K Q 6 4 3

8 7 6

9 7 6 2

J 9 6 5

A 9

K Q 9 4 2

K Q J

A T 7 3

A J 5 3

K Q 2

T 8 7 5 2

I had no idea what to do with this hand – but realise that my solution was terrible in hindsight! East opened 1S and West found a curious pass. Partner backed in with 2S which we played as “strong” with hearts and a minor. East doubled showing a good hand and it was back to me. I figured XX was a decent start – to show some values and to see what was happening. Much to my surprise – West now came to life with 3S which came back to me. What on earth was going on? Of course – I should now double and collect 800 but couldn’t believe that the opponents would stick their necks out so far when red against green so settled on 3N. That didn’t make…. With 5C cold and a big penalty available, I wasn’t greatly pleased with myself. Bryony thought she might have doubled 3S but I think the fault was definitely mine there… sorry! Fortunately they missed the cold game on the other table of our mini-match and subsided in a rather feeble 4C for only a small swing out.

I’ve heard about some auctions starting 1S P 2S 3H!!! Well bold this might be (dreadful springs to mind for me) but it worked well on this occasion when East raised as South has an axe in hand waiting - Dickinson and Southcombe got clobbered in such a manner.

You might think it odd that I don’t mind partner’s 2S protect but hate the 3H overcall. Well – the obvious difference is that you have shown two suits – which is a much better description than 3H. The other point is that partner will not hang you too badly as you are protecting the auction from being passed out. With regards the 3H bid – why not try 2N? In this auction, I think it should show any 2 unbid suits as there simply isn’t room to show other combinations (unless you play Ghesthem I suppose). Still – fortunate on this occasion certainly favoured the brave.

Nelson Stephens did well here to double after 1S P 2S. I don’t like it much, but it certainly worked well here. As I have said, 2N is superior in my opinion if you must bid. Things got even better when they climbed to 5C and netted a double for their trouble for a nice doubled game. This result and auction was matched by Williams and Wilson so a great board for the A team here.

Smith and Wilson managed to play in 4S undoubled for -300 and +6 imps. Fairly bizarre not to double and more than a little fortunate!

The jackpot though was found by Gidman and Rowland. After East opened 1S and West raised to 2, Cathy found a takeout double. East now found a wild jump to 4S which netted one of the easiest doubles you’ll ever see.

The defence?

“After a heart lead, and a ruff, I switched to a club, won in dummy and N encouraging. A diamond was led and I won with the Q, and played another club, declarer ruffing. She tried to draw trumps, But I’m in control now, ducking the first, then drawing 2 more rounds, and leading another club. We take 3 more tricks at the end with another 2 clubs and a diamond for 5 off.”

How much? 1400? Strewth!

Board 23 S/All

A 5

K 4 3 2

9 6 5 2

A Q J

T 3

A 9 6 5

T 8 7

K T 7 6

K Q J 6 4

J T 8

A Q 4 3

9 8 7 2

Q 7

K J

9 8 5 3 2

I found myself in 2C here when partner found an aggressive but correct takeout double of the 1S overcall. The play was quite interesting. West led the ST which I won to play a diamond to hand. East rose with the SA at this point to play two more rounds of spades. West pitched a heart, so I ruffed on the table. I now tried a heart to the queen and ace and West won and exited in hearts. I could win this and ruff a heart back to hand, ruff a club and cash the CA. Now I could ruff a heart with the 8 of clubs and West was stuck. If he ducked, that was my 8th trick but if he won it, he was end-played holding K7 of clubs over my 95 and was forced to give me an 8th trick. It looks like that West should discard a diamond not a heart on the 3rd round of spades, but it makes no difference as long as I play him to have started with 4 hearts and 3 diamonds so I need to ensure that I cross to hand by ruffing the right red suit.

This was a nice part-score swing when Ed and Luke rolled in 2S.

Board 24 W/None

9 6

J 3

K Q 8 3 2

K 7 6 5

Q J 8 7 5 2

7 5

A 9 8 4

A Q 9 7 6 4

T 9 4

T 3 2

A K T 3

K T 5 2

A J 6

Q J

We got to 3N here by South after West kicked off with a weak two in spades. I decided to reopen with a double as I’m far too strong for a protective 2N and Bryony bid 3D to show extra values. My 3N simply ended the auction. West kicked off with a small club which suggested to me that he had 4 clubs. I won this in hand and immediately played back the CQ. Always nice to play the suit they’ve led back at the opponents, I think….. West now erred by taking the first club and exiting in hearts to East’s king. East won this and returned a spade, but I could win this and squeeze West in spades and hearts for 11 tricks. Obviously I could have finessed the hearts, but that just isn’t as much fun.

Tim Dickinson was allowed to play in 2S following a multi opening going quietly 3 off….. mystifying!!

Oxfordshire vs Gloucestershire May 2008 Board 9-16

2008-06-01T21:30:00.005+01:00

Board 9 N/EW

K 9 7 2

T 7 2

K 9 6 4 3

A T 3

9 8 6 5 3

A Q 7 5

J 8

A K Q T 5

A J 4

J T 2

Q 6 5 4

9 8 7 4 3 2

K Q

I can’t actually remember what happened here except that partner made 11 tricks fairly easily in no-trumps. Ah yes, I remember. Partner opened a strong nt and I couldn’t remember how I was supposed to show this hand. Our agreement was to transfer to diamonds and then bid hearts to show this hand but of course I forgot. Instead, I bid Stayman and bid 3N over the 2H response. 11 tricks were fairly painless for a gain of 1 whole imp. Actually it wasn’t a terrible way of bidding the hand and when you’ve not got as much partnership experience as you’d like, then simplicity often works well.

This was a good board for Dickinson and Southcombe but not really due to anything stunning from our boys. The Gloucs auction was:

1H 2D
3D 4D
5D P

4D is the real problem here – 3N seems like a better choice. Two heart ruffs, three kings and a club ruff gave them 4 off and +400. To make matters worse for Gloucs, Clacey and Angus picked up 500 from 3SX or something like that for a huge swing in.

Alastair Gidman mused what the right rebid is on this hand, playing Acol after

1H P 2D P ?

My view is that 2N is the right call. It’s a balanced hand and unless you’ve found a fit, rebidding no-trumps or opening no-trumps is the right call with such hands.

Board 10 E/All

9 5

K T

K Q 5 4

A Q 6 5 2

J 7

A Q 9 5 2

J T 7 6 3

K Q 4

J 7 6 4

A 8 2

K T 3

A T 8 6 3 2

8 3

J 8 7 4

I got to play this in 2H after a simple auction of

1C 1H
2H end

I have to say that although 55 is a nice distribution, I didn’t really think that game was on the cards opposite a weak no-trump which was partners most likely holding. I supposed it’s slightly more plausible if you are playing a weak-nt. The defence was fairly soft. North led a spade to his partner’s ace and South woodenly returned a spade. I won and pitched my club on the third spade. North could ruff and exit with the DK (again rather soft). I simply won this and played a heart to the ace and allowed myself a small smile when the king dropped. Now I had an easy 10 tricks for an other imp gain.

Clacey and Angus had another great board here when they managed to punish South for an injudicious spade call and picked up a juicy 500.

For Williams and Wilson – a diamond lead against 4H was end of auction. In fact this was a nightmare for the entire A team as 4HX was allowed to slip through at one table….. ouch!

Board 11 S/None

A K Q 9 4

9 5

K 5 4

K 3 2

T 7

K Q 4 3

Q J 9 7 3

Q J

J 6 3

J 8 7 6 2

T 8 6 2

8 5 2

A T

T 9 8 7 6 5 4

I’ve seen some curious bidding on this board. I opened 1D which didn’t happen at many tables I’m sure, as… well I don’t really have an opening bid! This is a dreadful hand, I will happily admit. Still – I can’t resist getting these 11 counts on the table. It is a bidder’s game, you know! North overcalled 1S and Bryony found a simple raise to 2D. I have to say South’s preemptive 3S response is bizarre! Obviously two aces and a 7 card suit didn’t really merit anything stronger. North eventually raised to game and on the CA lead, 12 tricks weren’t that tricky. What a bizarre hand! Needs a heart lead to beat 6!! For once team-mates uncomplicated bidding didn’t work so well here. 1N 3N wasn’t the best spot! Shame they led a heart!! Same thing happened in the other B team match too and so this was the worst board of the day for the Bs.

Slater and Stephens had some luck here too when their opponents (including one of my occasional partners) found an incredibly timid raise to 2S. I’ll have to have words with him before our next game! A similar story in the C team when Angus and Clacey’s opponents failed to get near game.

No messing around from Smith and Wilson though, Nick simply raised a 1S opening to 4. Practical effort, I think.

Board 12 W/NS

K Q J 9 8

A K 8 5

K Q 3

T 7 5 4

Q 4

A Q J 9

J 7 5

6 3

T 9 7

K 8 7 4 3

9 8 4

A 2

J 6 3 2

T 5 2

A T 6 2

Well a very poor slam is on the cards here. This needs the trump queen to come down in two rounds. Two oxford pairs actually bid it. Well done on the result, but a slap on the wrists for the bidding! An eight card fit, missing the trump queen and a keycard means the slam is going to be very good. If you are getting to that, I suggest you have a look at your methods to work out why!

Tim Dickinson offers some defence for getting there:

“Back at our table, I decided to attempt 6C despite a disappointing 5H reply to RKCB. Maybe DS would have Ax/xxxx/xx/AJxxx and that would be easy. No, he only had four clubs so put me back into hearts. I knew we were missing an ace + hQ. So, should I try 6S or not? He could be x/Jxxx/Axxx/AJxx and it wouldn't be pretty. So sit for 6H I did, and prayed. Yes, it was a good day. hQ duly appeared second round, trumps pulled, thank you very much, 13 IMP in. You know it's your day when things like this happen. On a bad day they'd have been 4-1 offside.”

Well – it’s worse than that, I think as you can’t pick up that many 4-1 splits. Still – at least it made! I don’t like the auction though – slam looks like it is quite a view when you are missing a keycard and the queen of trumps.

The other oxford pair who bid the slam were Smith and Wilson:

“12. A much needed bit of luck!

1C    1N
2S    3C*         * no support, 4+ controls
3H    4H
6H!

Alan knew I had 2 aces but we don't play Bashwood that high and he gambled on my Hs being a bit better than they were - except that they were good enough after all! Phew!”

Phew indeed. I don’t like the auction as things start so well and you are extremely well placed at 4H to see whether slam is sensible or not. Fair enough not playing some sort of Blackwood, but surely you should have some method here of making noise rather than just bidding slam or not? It rather negates the point of having a strong club here if you are reduced to guesswork on the slam hands and I would suggest some systemic work following 4H on this auction is required! End of lecture. :-)

Board 13 N/All

K J 3

K 6 3

K J 5

A T 9 8

T 8 5

A Q J 9 7 4

K 6 4

A 7 4

Q 9 8 3 2

7 5 3 2

Q 9 6 2

T 8 5

A T 7 4

Q J

This was our only real piece of bad luck all day. North opened 1C and South responded 1D. I decided on a 2H overcall opposite a passed hand as there didn’t seem to be much chance of game. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t given them so much of a push. North’s game-forcing 3H here is extraordinary. It is an unremarkable 3334 15 count and 3H wouldn’t even cross my mind. Still – that sucked them into 3N which is irritatingly cold as the club finesse is onside and East has the SA. Very lucky and I don’t blame Luke and Ed for staying out of it at all.

Smith and Wilson chose to defend here, extracting 500 out of the 2H overcall. Fair enough – Definitely the right decision to defend as game is poor and more than a little unlucky to lose 4 imps in their mini-match.

Only one Oxford pair got to 3N, so well done to Piper and Robinson for rolling that one home.

Board 14 E/None

A 6 5

9 6 3

K Q T

J T 9 5

8 7

Q J T

A J 9 7 4 3 2

J 4 3

K 8 7 5

8 6

A K Q 7

K Q T 9 2

A 4 2

8 6 3 2

Well this board was spoiled in the B team match. So most of you won’t have seen it. We bid a cold 4S which needed some careful play. Good job I wasn’t playing it then! This was made at three tables but Robinson and Piper’s opponents didn’t find it.

For the rest of the teams, there seemed to be a fair bit of over-bidding but only the Lintotts got caught to the tune of 800…. Ouch!

Board 15 S/NS

5 4

T 9 3

A Q J 6 4

J 7 2

Q T 9 8 7

J 8 4

Q 9 6 5

A 6 2

A Q 6 5

9 5 3 2

8 3

K J 3

K 7 2

T 8 7

A K T 4

Ah my defensive prowess was on fine display here….. well should have been anyway! It looks like N/S should always make the normal spot of 1N with over-tricks. But you’d be surprised how tricky people found it. West usually leads a spade to the ace and a spade back which is ducked to the queen. West can then clear the spades. The key part of this hand is the play of the diamond suit. Our declarer, like so many others, ran the DT immediately. Unfortunately this now give declarer a loser – the correct line is to play a small diamond from hand as you have enough entries to cross back to hand to finesse the diamonds again. Even after the diamond is covered, declarer can still make easily by ducking a diamond but the seduction of over-tricks and countless games of duplicate bridge saw several declarers play a top diamond from the table. Now the diamond suit is dead and on best defence declarer should not be able to succeed. Our declarer next ran the CJ to my queen with partner playing the 8. I merrily cashed the last two spades and observed partners signals keenly. When Bryony encouraged in hearts with the 6 and then pitched the 5, I placed declarer with

KJx
Qx
Txx
AKTxx

and partner with

Axx
AKxxx
9xxx
8

Which requires me to switch to a heart to cash our 7 defensive tricks (with the heart suit blocked). Unfortunately this isn’t the layout and a heart exit gives away the 7th trick. If I had instead exited in clubs, declarer is forced to lead away from the king of hearts for one off.

I was a little irritated with myself and still think I should get it right. I guess that partner could make things a little easier by discarding the C3 and then the H6 as then I will have a correct count of the hand and will know that declarer hasn’t got enough tricks holding only 4 clubs. Oh well – a chance missed but a flat board in our mini-match. Still, after an identical start to the defence, I’m pleased to report that Gidman and Rowland got the defence right. Well done, a good defensive effort.

Currie and Murray managed to get all the way to 3N here after a frisky auction, to say the least. The worst thing is that the contract has *some* play. Over to Malcolm:

“Partner must rate my declarer play more than I, putting me in another 22-point 3N in the auction 1N - 3N. ST lead, won with the A, S6,J,Q,5, On the third round of spades I won in my hand, discarding the C2 from dummy. So if I can make all five diamonds, and either win three clubs or the HK, I'm home. So the plan is small diamond intending to finesse the Q. If that holds then you try the CJ. If RHO covers you win, lead the DT finessing again and score a game nobody else will be in. If the CQ doesn't appear, win with the A and continue with diamonds, watch the discards and likely go for the heart A being with RHO (given that LHO knows your interest in clubs). That works too. Great. However, my concentration lapsed, still stunned by dummy's eight points, and I played the DT on the first round of diamonds and when the stiff K appears...”

Ouch – yes, good analysis but unfortunately a little too late..

I heard from Nick Smith that he led a small diamond not the ten from hand in 1N. Hooray!! At last someone got it right!!

Board 16 W/EW

A J 9 6 3

Q 8

K Q 3

K Q 8

Q T 8 7 2

9 7 3

A J 9 5 2

5 4

A J 6

J T 9 6 5 4 2

K T 5 4 2

T 8 7 4

A 7 3

Dull 3N this – nothing much to say. I caused some mirth at our table though. Declarer won the club lead in hand and immediately tried the HQ. Bryony won this and switched to a spade, cutting off an entry from the table. Declarer looked a little worried now and tried a diamond to the king which I ducked. He now ran the 8 of hearts to my 9 and I cashed DA and played another as I didn’t want to give a free spade finesse. Declarer was now really worried an played a club to the table. When he hesitantly tried the HK, I discarded a spade!! He slumped visibly but then I had to tell him I was only joking and hearts were 3-3 after all…. Hehe. Bit naughty but I couldn’t resist. Did I say dull? Well that didn’t stop Jones and Porter extracting 800 out of an unwise action by their opponents. Not the time to stick your neck out there.

Slater and Stephens had the most comical result on this board after their Lucas 2 ended the auction. Obviously they were expecting a reopening double or something… good job there wasn’t one as Nelson improbably managed to make this with 3 club ruffs, 2 aces, 2 diamond ruffs and the SQ fetching both the SA and the SK. Very amusing… unless you were defending it!