Playing N/S managed, with some luck, to come first.Against John Larkin & Rob I opened 1C, John passed (could/should double). Adrianne bid 1H and Rob 1S. I bid 4H, John 4S, Adrianne 5C and passed out (again John could double).
Nothing to the play no matter how you take on the clubs, you lose 1 trump and 1 heart. Ruff 2 diamonds and discard the other on a long heart, easy 11 tricks.
A number of pairs were in 5H all going down. Looking at the South hand all you lose are 1 club and 1 heart. However you need to get 2 spade ruffs and a spade discard on the clubs or 3 spade ruffs. On a spade lead you could ruff 3 spades. On a trump lead, taking AH, the problem is you have to ruff 2 spades AND set up clubs then after K of hearts play a winning club discarding a spade.
Lost the gain from board 1 on this board against Willie Taylor & Alan Bergson.Adrianne opened 2S passed round to Willie who found a 3NT bid??!
Adrianne led the natural looking QS and that's 9 tricks off the top. Same as I would have.
Maybe we should apply some thought here. Willie is normally either a strong hand or a long minor with AS, so perhaps a different lead could be found. No take out double so lead a heart?
If we had been E/W, we bid 3C as East showing this hand (we use 2NT for weaker overcalls). The West hand could now take 3NT and we would have lost the first 6 tricks.
Managed to bid the Grand Slam here against Victor & Brian. Adrianne opened 1D and I bid 3C, 4C from Adrianne. After RKC I know partner has AD, QC and KS. KD is the obvious problem. If she has less than 15 points (we play weak NT) then she is at most 2-2 in majors so exactly 3 points in the majors, 2 points in clubs leaving 7-9 in diamonds, could be AQJxxx, but then I realised the value of the 4C bid, if partner was that basic she would more likely have bid 5C, so 7C it was. However why did I not bid 5NT for Kings? Well funnily enough I cannot recollect ever agreeing whether we show the King we bid to confirm the Queen of trumps. So if I had bid 5N and Adrianne bids 6D, I am in 7C still not knowing if there are 2 Kings opposite! It cost us 2 imps not bidding 7NT, but when it comes to a Grand I'll always prefer a good suit fit.
We got very lucky here. Jack & Robert bid to 6NT after Robert had (over)rebid his hand 1D - 3D. Jack obviously goes for slam now. They are the only ones in it and maybe Robert's rebid was right after all because it is an excellent slam just needing 1 of 2 finesses and a 6 card suit to run to put pressure on the opponents before testing the hearts.As it happens there is no play and so we got a great score by pure luck.
Against Moreen & Ernestine, here was another good score by good fortune. I won't relate exactly how, but I bid my hand 1C, 2C, 3C. Adrianne ends in 3NT which is unbeatable (except on a club lead?)
And on the next board we do well again.
Adrianne opens 1D, Moreen bids 1S and I think it is silly to worry about how many points you need for a 2 level bid with my hand. I bid 2C and eventally the opponents go to 4S, we bid 5C and are doubled.
Nothing in the play, the diamonds are easily set up for two heart discards so you lose 1 spade and 1 club.
Against Charles and Vi we got a great score.Vi opens 1D, I overcall 1H and Charles doubles to show spades. Adrianne bids 4H, Vi 4S and I bid 5H, doubled by Charles.
Again nothing in the play, there is 1 spade and 1 diamond to lose and can cross ruff the 3 losers in each hand.
Many E/W got to play in 4S making, it is difficult to cash those 3 club tricks.
