Thursday 3 May

Playing in a Howell with Adrianne scored a poor 49% without doing much wrong.

Got away with murder against Frances and Marion on board 2 where I am North.

I find it ridiculous what some people will overcall with nowadays, they have no circumspection. So when Frances opened East 1S, Adrianne passed and Marion bid 1NT, naturally, vul against not, I bid 2H?!
Frances very coolly passed, Adrianne, wondering how she gets lumbered with such partners, calmly passed.
Well, what can Marion do with the West hand? What most of us are likely to do, bid 3D.  Adrianne doubles this and I lead KH to AH, ruff, TC (I should duck, but took the Ace), QH, heart ruff and AD to come for 1 off. Everyone was very polite and didn't point out how many off I would have been in 2H and I slipped away with ne'er a blush.

I am East here against Ileen and Christine.  Adrianne opens 1S (we don't play checkback), I bid 1NT, Adrianne raises to 2N and I bid 3N.
Ileen cannot lead a spade, but is absolutely no help when she finds the best lead of a heart. I try the Queen, but no luck.  There is no point in holding up especially as Christine will have noticed Dummy's underwhelming spade suit.  So I took the Ace and advanced the JC.  Without a flicker Ileen played low (you just can't get decent help nowadays).  I took the Ace, if the finesse loses I could be looking at 6 down. I then ran all the diamonds, tried the KC, but no Queen and finished with 8 tricks.  The top score was by Steve and Marilyn in 5D, surely the best spot when West opens ID

Got a very fortunate top here as N/S against Peter and Willie. Without interference our bidding went:
1S - 2C - 2N - 3D - 4C - 6C

Nobody else bid slam. Willie made the unfortunate lead of 7C allowing me to pick up the trumps. I then had the luxury of the spade finesse (I didn't know diamonds broke) and made 13.
A heart lead won't actually defeat me. After 2 rounds of trumps, play on diamonds and discard the heart on the 4th round. Peter can return a club to stop the ruff and I will have to play KS, JS and discard my heart on AS. Like I said, it was fortunate, only the lead made it easy.

 Managed to get a zero against Steve and Marilyn.  Playing E/W I opened 1NT and Adrianne went through Stayman and 2NT and I bid game.
Marilyn led 8S, I played low and ducked the Jack, Steve cashed Ace and continued a third spade. Winning KS I advanced QD, covered and I took Ace. I played JD and a third to Steve's 10, Marilyn discarded an inverse attitude 8H.  Steve now played 9C.  I took AC, played a 4th diamond to dummy's 9 and played a club. Steve put on the 8. Now everything looks wrong, but Steve was end played with that TD, if he holds KH and say Q98 clubs, I am sure this is exactly what he would have played. I was though worried about a doubleton Queen in Marilyn's hand.  Anyway I bit the bullet and finessed.  I didn't get my KC in the end because I discarded one from dummy and went 3 down.

It is strange how your brain works sometimes playing this game, though I play too fast and then do silly things.
Anyway against Charles and Vi, Charles as North opened 1S, I bid 2D, Vi a pre-emptive 3S and Adrianne bid 4D to end the auction. Vi led JS. If diamonds are 2-2 I just have to avoid 3 club losers, finessing the heart is one way, but why not just finesse 10C? However I saw that if I eliminated the majors and then played Ace and another diamond, there is a good chance that Charles will win and have to open up clubs giving me a better chance to play the suit correctly. So very quickly I win AS, AH, KH, heart ruff, KS.  Majors eliminated I then lead 4D and when I come to play from my hand my mind goes blank and I play TD??! Vi wins the Queen and has enough info to know Charles has AK of clubs and so gets her ruff for 1 down.
How stupid was that?