Monday 26 September

Playing with Adrianne at Butler scoring we did very badly, 3rd bottom with -23, though everyone seemed to bid their games and slams against us.

We got a bad score here against Robert & Jack.

As West, Jack opened 1S. Technically 1D is the correct opening as opening a major implies 5 in any rebid and lying about diamonds is better as it more likely leads to 3NT.

Anyway 1S works brilliantly here.

Adrianne overcalls 2C, Robert passes and I bid 4C. Using Unassuming Cue this shows distribution.

Jack doubles and now Robert has a very obvious 4S bid. This comes round to Adrianne who now knows I am likely to have at most 1 spade and probably 5 clubs. She therefore can't see any defence and bids 5C. Jack doubles and we are down 2. 4S goes off 1. C'est la vie.

Bad score here against Barry and Lester. Some made 3NT, some 4S, some got a good double of 4H, I went down in 3NT.

Lester opened 2H passed round to Adrianne as South who doubled. I bid 3NT and barry led JH.

Doesn't look good, Barry has 3 hearts and I need to set up both minors for 3 tricks each. Spades has a possibility I thought. Lead JS, covered, take Ace and finesse 8S coming back. However if I was Lester I probably wouldn't cover JS, as North has at most 3 spades and if he has A9x it will not matter in the end.

Maybe QC is doubleton. Anyway I decided to take the worst option first, I tried AK of diamonds! I followed with AK and another club and went down 1.

All I have to of course is play Ace and another spade, 9 tricks via 3 spades and 3 AKs.

Against Avril & Stephanie, Adrianne opened 1NT and Stephanie bid 2D. I doubled and there we played.

I decided to lead one of my black doubletons. Of course I choose the wrong one and lead 10S. We make 5 trumps and that is it, Stephanie can dump her losing club on Dummy's 4th spade.

Again against Steph & Avril, we did manage to do well on this hand after a mix up.

Steph opened 1D and I bid 1H, Adrianne bid 2D and I bid 3C. Now we play long suit trial bids and although this sequence hasn't come up before, I thought that is what it would mean. Adrianne took it as showing probably a decent second suit, bid 4H.

I explained my bid before the lead, but Avril led a diamond. Steph didn't try to cash her two clubs, so I made 12.

This hand was fairly typical of our night. Against ian and Michelle, I opened 1D and Adrianne bid 3NT which exactly describes this South hand. Worried about the spades, I bid 5D.

No chance, 3 obvious losers. As Ian will surely lead JC, 3NT is unbeatable.