Thursday 17 March

Playing with Adrianne we came first N/S with 56%. The usual ups and downs with a few more ups.


Got a bottom on this board. We tried for a slam but backed out, I played 4S by North making 11 tricks while everyone else makes 12!
Christine led a spade to Len’s Queen and my King. I immediately tried the Ace but the Jack didn’t fall. I then played AK and a diamond ruff, but they didn’t break 3-3, so now I tried King of clubs and a club finesse which lost to the Queen. My heart loser went on the Ace of clubs and I gave up the master spade claiming 11.
Where did I go wrong? I don’t believe everyone else played for the 3-1 trump break. Did everyone get a club lead, maybe 10D?


Here we got a very good score for what seems a normal contract / defence against Gloria and Sandra.
West is playing 2S and I lead KC taken by Ace. Sandra immediately returns a club which I win with Queen and I exit with a spade. Sandra wins in hand and ruffs a club. She now tries a diamond to king and Ace and I cash my master club and exit with a diamond. Adrianne takes this and plays a spade to Queen and King giving us 5 tricks and declarer makes the rest. Joint top for us.
What is really intriguing about this hand is how did Len and Christine bid to 3NT? Even more intriguing is how did they make it???



Against Steve and Marilyn, Adrianne got us a top for a well played 11 tricks in No Trump which I followed with a bottom for an ill-chosen lead.

Marilyn opens 5C which is passed out, I lead a spade. Oops!
Two quick heart discards later and Marilyn is claiming 12 tricks. I obviously did go wrong here. Ace of hearts is a better lead, but in fact Ace of clubs is probably best. It is extremely unlikely we lose a trump trick and I can see if KQ of hearts are in dummy and now try a spade or whatever.






It was so simple to get a bottom by an ill-advised lead, here is a simple way to get a top.
Against David & Kate, Kate is declaring 3NT by East and Adrianne leads TS (I had opened 1S). Kate took the King in dummy. She now leads KH and I took the Ace (Adrianne plays the eight). I know Kate has 3 spades, 4 hearts and is extremely odds on to have 5 diamond tricks, so I cashed Ace of clubs to keep Kate to 11.
Hearts and NT elsewhere were making 12.





Still with David Kate, I gave them back a good score by just not concentrating.

As North I am in 3NT and Kate leads 8S, leads were described as reverse attitude. It looks like David might be doubleton QJ. I play small and take David's Queen with the Ace. Lacking entries to dummy, I played a small diamond to the ten which held and now a heart to the Queen which held. I now give up the KD and Kate does well to return a heart which I duck. Kate now plays QC which I take with the Ace. Now I have 4 diamonds, 2 spades, 2 hearts, a club and if I just play a club back I have 10 tricks (or KS). But I wasn't counting, I became fixated with the spades and remembered David's Queen at trick one. If Kate has the Jack and if I run the diamonds she might be squeezed into letting one go and so I make the rest. So I run the diamonds, finesse 10S and lose to the singleton Jack. Weird.