Wednesday 22 August

Playing N/S with Gerry we won the Men's Frestival pairs with 62%.

 

Against Mike and Steve Steve opened 1D and Gerry chanced 1NT. This stole the contract.  Mike led a heart ducked to the Queen and Gerry led a diamond to the Jack and King.  Steve played Ace and another heart, Gerry led another diamond to 10 and Ace.  Gerry was given his diamond and so had 3 red tricks, now he tried the spades but their were only 3 so one down. 1D passed out was common or spade contract N/S going down.

Not so good a score on this board against Ronald and John. Ronald opened 1H which came round to me.  I want to double but can't bear hearing 2D from partner so I bid 1NT. Gerry bid 2NT which I alerted and bid 3D.  Gerry bid 3NT. (we have now agreed that normal system is on here!) Anyway I would bid 3NT if he raised via Stayman. However no chance, I won 3rd heart, led the club, Ronald took the Ace and 2 down.  If I do double Gerry's best bid looks to be 2H, then I bid 2NT and same result.  Difficult to find 5C.

Got back with this board though. I opened 1C, Ronald 1H and Gerry 3C.  John bid 3H which I fancied defending but Gerry is just as likely to have 5 clubs to the Ace and nothing else and finding a 5th trick might be difficult.  I bid 4C.
Ronald led KH, I took straight away, cashed AK of diamonds led a club to 10 and Q, ruffed a diamond. Now everything looks great.  JC to King and Ace, 9C, take my 2 diamonds and 10 tricks.



This board was arrow switched so I am West.  Gerry has a system for finding minor fits over 1NT.  As we use Stayman then jump in our 5 card suit when we are 5-4 in the majors, that leaves a transfer to hearts and then 2S redundant.  Gerry uses this sequence to initiate a Baron sequence.
So Gerry opens 1NT, I see a minor suit slam looming so I bid 2Da, Gerry 2H, I bid 2S (not a!).  Gerry bids 3H I bid 3N and hope he doesn't bid 4H and yes he passes.  On the 5S lead he made 12 tricks for an average.  Missed the laydown 6C/D and 13 as long as you play AK of diamonds first. Unfortunately this convention probably won't come up again for 2 years! Playing with Adrianne our bidding would go 1N - 3C - 4C - 6C

Against Alec and Raymond I got a bit carried away with my hand and led us to a bad score, however it was a bit unlucky.

I opened 1H, Gerry bid 1S, now 12 points isn't quite good enough for a splinter but what is my sensible rebid? So I bid 4C, Alec doubled (?), Gerry redoubled.  Not what I wanted to hear, AC isn't any use.  I bid 4S hoping to put a dampener on things but Gerry loves his heart holding and 5th spade so via 4N we a re in 6S.  Raymond led KD so it is now 50-50 and the trump finesses loses for 1 down. Unlucky, if the K or Q of diamonds had been is Alec's hand we might have avoided that lead, or trump finesse could have been right.  However 6H is better as Alec is a little less likely to find the diamond lead and a long spade and AC give two diamond discards.

On the next board Raymond opened 1D. I am too strong for our Michaels so bid 1H, Alec bid 3D, round to Raymond who bid 3N. I have 3 options. Quiet pass hoping for 1 down, double hoping even more for 1 down. Or bid 4C hoping we have a sacrifice.  I thought we could defeat but opted for the quiet route of pass.  KC lead, odd number from partner, AC, good not singleton and 1 down it was.
We make 4H, 4C was the correct option. Though would Raymond double or bid 5D which is of course 1 off?

Against Bill and Rod we had a tricky sequence.
P  -  P  -  1H  -  2S
x  -  P  -  2N  -  3D
x  -  3S  - 4C  - passed out.
Gerry won the QS lead in dummy and led a club to 8 and King. Winning the spade return Gerry read the hand perfectly, diamond to Ace, run JH, run 10H, diamond ruff, AH, heart ruff, diamond ruffed by 9 and Ace, heart ruff to get 10 tricks.

Against John and Willie, John opened 2S, Gerry doubled.  I nearly bid 3C, but opted for conservatism and bid a Lebensohl 2N.  Gerry forgot and bid 3N.  However with 20 points his bid would be 3S and I would bid 3N anyway.

This contract has of course no chance on any spade lead, but John led 2D. I was cheeky enough to finesse, Ace and another club.  Now fingers crossed Willie doesn't have QS, 8S came through, taken by QS. John returns a small spade, 11 tricks.  In the Women's half were in 3N all going down on the spade lead, half were in the sensible 5C.  In the Men's 6 are in 3N, 3 make, 3 go 2 down on the spade lead. Russell and Len are the only ones who play in 5C.  If I had bid 3C we might well have ended in 6C.