Monday 16 July

Playing N/S with Adrianne came a mid table 7th with a Butler score of 3. Got a few scores of -7 or -9 when E/W had anobvious game but half the field could't find it.

Nothing we could do about -14 on this hand though.  David & David bid to 6S.  I led a trump to 10 and Jack and declarer can easily set up hearts now. Spade to Ace, AH, QH covered ruffed, club to Ace, ruff a heart, KQ of clubs throwing diamonds, ruff a diamond, 8S takes my last spade and the hearts are good.

Leading a club would have made life much more difficult for declarer, though he could still get home, because of doubleton QT trumps, but I think would probably have gone off. 

 

Missed a chance of a good score on this board against Mary Shaw & Willie Hart. We bid to 4H by North and Mary led a diamond.  I put in the Queen, taken by Willie’s King who promptly returned a diamond for Mary to ruff and of course I lose AK of trumps for 1 down.  Now Adrianne had opened a diamond, why was Mary leading the 2?  If I just go up with the Ace, AC, spade to King, KC (throw a diamond), ruff a club, AS, spade ruff, ruff a club and I have 8 tricks with 2 guaranteed hearts to come.  Only AK and another heart defeats the contract.

 

Adrianne made our score more presentable by bidding the Granny on this board.  Our bidding went 1C – 2N – 4N – 5S – 5N – 6D – 7C.

2N agreed clubs with a balanced 16+. After 5S and 6D Adrianne knows I have AS, KQ clubs and another King, therefore another 4+ points so 12 is fairly certain but, although no way of knowing about 7, running all those clubs is going to make life very difficult for the Phyllis and Irene.  However it is lay down.

Unfortunately I threw away the points gained on the Grand Slam on the very next board.  After I opened 1N we reached 4S by N through Stayman and Irene led a trump taken by Ace. Phyllis immediately returns a heart, which is fairly automatic looking at dummy. I played the Q and Irene won the King, returning a heart for Phyllis to ruff. Phyllis exits with a spade.  Now I can still make this if I can make 4 clubs and discard my diamond loser. Phyllis had 3 spades and 1 heart, so 9 cards in the minors. Most likely 5-4, even if 6-3 she might have the JC, it must be odds on to finesse the 10 rather than playing for odds against 3-3 clubs or doubleton Jack.  Anyway I played AC, finessed 10C, 1 off.  Most people had no problem making game, -10.

 

Again nothing we could do about this bad score against Barbara & Davna. Barbara opened 2S, Davna bid 4S, Barbara checked for Aces and bid 7S! I led the recommended trump but with the lie of the clubs it was impossible to go wrong, 13 tricks roll in, -12 Butler points.

Thursday 5 July

Playing in a Howell with john came 1st with 63%.  Got a few gifts on the way.

This one wasn't a gift, just a mistake that provided good fortune.  Against Mary & Davna, Davna opened South 1NT, John overcalled 2D and I alerted, asked what it was I said Astro (my mistake), I then bid 3S and this was passed out. Davna led AH and switched to a spade.  I took AK, heart to K, ruffed a heart with JS then led a diamond to King and Ace.  Davna gave Mary a diamond ruff, Mary played a club, I took the Ace, drew the last trump and claimed the rest for 10 tricks. John then realised that he used unauthorised information and should have bid 4S, I was just checking with Charles when he then realised that I made 10, so it would have been even worse for our opponents! Plus 170 was obviously a top.

Most were in 3NT on the E/W hands.  That looks easy enough to defeat but running 6 clubs has obviously caused a few spade discards as some made it. Against Issy and Gerry our bidding went
P  -  P  -  1C  - 1S
P  -  2S  -  x  -  P
4H - passed out
I led 2S to John's Ace and he promptly returned QC. Gerry played a heart, I grabbed the Ace, gave partner a club ruff and John cashed AD for 1 down.  Seems straightforward but 3 people were in 4H, one made 11, one made 10 and we put it down.