Thursday 16 February

Playing E/W in the West District Sim Prs came 2nd with just 52%.  A very difficult set of hands.

Board 10 was typical where we did the correct thing but got a poor score. After the 2NT by Adrianne I transferred then bid 3NT and Adrianne despite her 4333 bid 4S which is surely sensible. After a club lead she decided on AK of trump then 3 rounds of heart discarding a diamond. With JC falling that was 11 tricks.  Not good.  Many opted for 3NT and made all 13. After getting away with a non-diamond lead, they have obviously risked the entire contract by taking the spade finesse. South must subsequently have shed a heart to keep diamonds and so all the tricks are made. Still much prefer to be in 4S.

Against Alistair & Eileen we got lucky but felt sorry for Alistair who made the right play. I opened 1H and Alistair opted for 2NT, Eileen bid 3C and then Alistair made a brave bid of 3NT. Adrianne could have led a spade (Alistair must be 5-5 in minors and should be AQ of hearts of something similar), however she opted for a heart.  Alistair won and tried AC to find the loser I violently signalled for a spade. However Alistair can get home with 4 diamond tricks, but only missing 15 points and as I had opened, he righly played me for QD and down he went.  Should he have bid 5C? No, 3NT is a great bid, if partner has just 3 small clubs and not a point in her hand, there can be 9 tricks off the top on a heart lead. Why gamble on 5C where partner must have some good points in diamonds (and not in spades).  Three E/W are playing in 4 or 5S, don't know how you bid like that but they were suitably penalised with a double.

Here we got another good score against Alistair & Eileen, but this time probably not for doing the right thing. After 1H, 1S, 1NT, I passed.  Probably 2S is the better bid ensuring some tricks from my hand which might not materialise in NT.  Anyway, despite the bidding Eileen led a small heart giving away a cheap trick and with the QJ of spades falling that was 9 tricks for 150, better than the 140 for 2S.

On this board against Ronnie and Elizabeth I ended up in 5C (don't ask).  Elizabeth led a small trump and this gave me only one real chance that I could see, set up diamonds. I won QC and led a diamond to the King and returned TD to Ronnie's Ace.  Ronnie cashed AS and played a heart, I tried the Queen but no luck and Elizabeth returned a heart to the Ace. I ruffed a diamond to set up dummy's suit and now if clubs were 2-2 I was home, Ace of clubs and no luck, got what I deserved, 2 down for -200 and a bottom.