Wednesday 6 July

Playing with Bob we came first N/S with 68%.

Early on Bob got a top against Morag & Susan. Bob opened 1C and I have a choice between 1D, 1NT, 2C and 3C. 2C is the only real genuine bid, so that's what I chose. Bob ventures 3NT and Morag leads a heart to the Queen and King.

Bob finesses a club and Susan plays another heart. Now Bob runs the clubs and Morag has to come down to 5 cards. She has to keep JH while the Ten is in dummy, as most people do she keeps a doubleton KS, so her diamonds are reduced to QJ giving Bob 4 diamonds and 12 tricks.

A good score here against Alan Brodie & Charles Fogleman. Bob passed, Alan opened 1S and I am a bit stuck, deciding to just bid 2H, Charles passed and Bob finds a great 3H bid, so I bid 4H.

Charles leads a small spade to the King and Ace. After 3 rounds of hearts I played Ace and another club, inserting the Ten from dummy. Alan switches to a diamond but with clubs breaking I have 11 tricks.

We got two joint top scores against Russell & Len.

I open 1S, Russell doubles, Bob bids 2S which I raised to 4S.

Russell leads a top diamond and obviously switches to a trump to the Ten and Ace. I ruffed a diamond, finessed the JS and when QH falls in 2 rounds I have 12 tricks.

On the next I opened 1H, Bob bids 1NT and after some thought, I passed. I would bid 2NT at teams, but would prefer TH to bid 1 more at MPs.

Anyway, Len found an excellent small spade lead and Bob won the third round, he then played a small heart to the Ten and Len's King. Len exits with a club, Bob decides to play another club, cross to a diamond and a third round of clubs.

Len of course can play a heart now to give Russell 2 tricks, but fortunately it a diamond that comes back.

However any plus score is good for us as many are in 3NT.

This one was difficult for Christine. we bid an obvious 1D - 1S - 1NT - 3NT.

Christine led a small club, Adrianne decided as playing the Queen will give me 2 club tricks anyway, to play small.

I now play 5 round of diamonds and CHristine has to find three discards with any heart fatal. Too difficult to let spades go, difficult to let any club go while she thinks I have Queen. SO actually hearts are first to go and I have 12 tricks.

This one was lucky against Katie and Toby.

Bob opens 1C, I bid 1D. Toby now tries 1H and Bob takes a rosy view and bids 3C. I bid 3NT and Toby leads a heart.

Crossing my fingers that Katie doesn't have 4 clubs, I cashed the othe heart, crossed to QC for the 3rd heart and the clubs run.

Difficult for defenders to take their top 5 tricks.

This was astrange one against Jim McMenemy and Ian McIntyre.

Bob opens 1C and Jim bids 3D. Now if Bob is weak(ish) I don't want to just bid 4C and give Ian a chance to bid 4 of a major which he could easily do if he can stand 5D. If Bob is strong(ish), we can make game. Anyway I bid 5C.

Jim led a spade to dummy's King, Bob cashed both red aces, ruffs a heart and diamond, then plays a spade which Jim ruffs. AK of clubs now crash, game made.

On the next board however I let the side down. Jim opens 1NT. I could bid 4S now, but this can easily fail and if Ian has some points a double could be left in for a certain 500. So I double, unfortunately Bob bids 2D, back to me. Knowing I now face rubbish and anything in diamonds won't be any use, I chicken out of 4S and bid 3S, passed out.

Ian leads a spade, I exit with a diamond, Jim plays another spade and I clear trump and try Ace and another club. Ian takes the King, but now I have 11 tricks via the heart finesse. Most people bid game.

Nearing the end now we got 1 very good and 1 very bad score against Joan & Cathy.

Bob opened 1S, I bid 2H and Bob's 2S finishes the bidding. Cathy leads a spade to the J and K, Bob cashes KH and gets to dummy to discard a club, losing just 1 club, 1 diamond and 1 spade.

However I bring us down to Earth on the next board. The bidding went:

P - P - 1H - x

1S - 2C - 2D - 3C

3D - P - P - 4C

p - P - 4D - passed out.

I led AC and switched to ---- a small spade.

Trying to be too cleveer by half. All Cathy can lose now is a heart, a diamong and a club for a top score.

Finally against Moira and Mary I made some amends.

Moira opened 1NT 3rd in hand and I doubled. Mary bid 2D (diamonds + 1 higher) and everyone passed it out.

Bob led a trump to Dummy's Ten and my Queen and I switched to QS, taken by King in dummy. May played a club to Queen and Ace and Bob played another spade to the Ace.

Mary now leads another trump, the Jack, I take my Ace and although I see I could give Bob a trump promotion, Mary will just discard a heart. We can get 2 heart winners if a) Bob has the King or b) the Queen and Mary misguesses, so I tried a small heart and sure enough Bob's Queen wins, back to my Ace and now the fourth spade for Bob's trump to win. 7 tricks, 2D -2.