Monday 7 May

Playing N/S with Adrianne we had a below average -9 Butler score. Didn't play very well, couldn't find the right leads, didn't punt the making games.

 Played this against Barry and Lester.  There is a game here and some found it. One actually got the KC lead against 3NT!
I was just in 1NT as North and East lead a heart to the Jack and King. I didn't want to finesse a club, get a heart return then find clubs 3-1 and I can't get my clubs in dummy.  So I played a club to the Ace, then JC to Queen. Defender obliges me by playing another heart to my 8 and that was me with 11 tricks.
3NT always makes on a spade lead by ducking twice then playing Ace and Jack of clubs, but not the best of contracts, but great if you make these games at this scoring.

On the next board Barry opens 1H and Lester bids 4H.
Adrianne led 6S and that was that, the diamonds go away.  Unfortunate, it could have been two spades and two clubs to defeat the contract instead of 2 diamonds and 2 clubs.
A few managed to find the diamond lead or take insurance with 5D (1 off).  What if Lester gives a delayed game raise and bids 2C, now I could bid 2D for lead, but I will in fact bid 2NT. I presume something like this happened at some other tables, no luck for us.

Did get a good score here being in the easier slam. Against Jennifer and John our bidding went:
 P - 1C - 2D - 2H
 P - 3C -  P  - 6C
I decided to convert to 6N, Adrianne might just have Ax of clubs (expecting 6 from me) or her majors could be better but she is missing AC, I might then lose a diamond ruff
Jennifer led a diamond against my 6NT to Jack and King.  I successfully finessed JH, so with 3 hearts, 5 clubs and two diamond I just needed 2 spades, so I now played QS to John's King and made the rest.  The lack of entries to the North hand and the 4-1 club break makes 6C a lot harder.

Against Gerry and Issy we found the good sacrifice of 4S.
Gerald opened 2H, Adrianne doubled and Issy bid 4H. Well I can clearly seee that this is a big heart fit, so is Adrianne defeating this? They are vul and we are not, I prefer insurance and bid 4S which might get 5H anyway. As it was 4S was passed out.
Nothing to the play, 1 heart and 2 clubs were quickly cashed and I had to lose a trump for 1 down. 4H can be beaten on a club lead and continuation when in with spades, but in practice it will always make.

 Found another good sacrifice against Bob and Cathy. Our bidding went:
1S -  P - 2D - x
xx - 3C -  x  - P
3S -  P - 4S - 5C
and Cathy doubled as East.
I quickly lost the first 3 tricks, AS, AD and AH and when clubs broke and hearts were set up had the rest.
Adrianne was worried that she hadn't shown 6 hearts, but could have bid 2NT instead of double (we draw a distinction with x showing good points, 2N showing distribution, but KD wasn't worth anything so 2N would have been more practical).  My 3C bid was an understanding we have over a redouble, we bid if we have a definite suit to play in rather than let it pass round to partner to make a guess, so my 3C didn't show any values, just 4 clubs and fewer hearts.

Finally we missed a slam on this board. I see Gerry and Sidney were the only ones to bid it.
I opened 1S, Adrianne intelligently bid 2D, I bid 2H.  Now when you stretch a 2 bid with a long minor, you should repeat it.  However Adrianne was beguiled by her useful spade holding and bid 2S which also limits her hand.  Perfectly sensible really as 4S looks like the likely game if there is one.  I now bid 4C (big surprise for Adrianne), who quickly bid 4S.  I reluctantly passed and made 11 losing a club and a trump.
If Adrianne had just bid 3D instead of that sensible 2S we would have been in 6D, but your duty in bidding is to find game, slams are luxuries and extremely unlikely with an 8 count over a 1 opener.