Playing N/S with Adrianne did not excel with a Butler score of -5. Our opponents seemed to do the right things against us and it wasn't going to be our night.
Against Ian and Bobby we got a good score for being in the right contract. However it shouldn't be that difficult.
After two passes I opened 2N, Adrianne transferred to hearts then bid 3S which I raised to 4S.
Bobby led KC, Adrianne took Ace immediately, tried two rounds of trumps then switched her attention to hearts. Ian won the third round and exited with a diamond.
Adrianne just draws trumps now for 10 tricks.
One person managed to go off (did they duck KC?) and only one other pair was in 4S though one pair made 4H
Adrianne is very fastidious about having a good hand with at least 17 points for a reverse. Unfortunately she broke her rule here. So rather than a simple 3NT I went looking for a slam and tried to stop in 4S. Adrianne doesn't like playing in 4-3 fits so as I had got us into this pickle she decided to let me play it in 5C. Derek led a singleton diamond to Alan's Ace and he returned the three. I discarded the 2S and Derek, sleeping on the job, played 3S! So I won in dummy with the 7 and led 10C to Queen and Ace. I crossed to KH and ran 7C successfully. I then played QJ of diamonds, but ruffed the 10D (you have to reduce your trumps or I will be left ruffing a later winner and having to lead away from J8 into Alan's K9). I cashed KS, crossed to AS to play the winning two of diamonds, Alan discards his third spade, I throw AH. Now Alan has K9 of trumps left and I have J8, so when I lead from dummy it is one trick each. It was worth the bidding shenanigans to pull off a trump coup, however even better if I had ruffed Alan's diamond return at trick two with 8C (which shows up the trump situation) and then played it the same way.
Knowing we weren't scoring well I over extended myself by bidding a slam against Bill and Norman. Adrianne opened 1S (we don't play checkback), I bid 2H and Adrianne 4H. I went through RKC to find 3 Aces and bid 6H.
Norman led a small club to J, Q and K. I crossed to AC and led a spade, Bill rising with Ace. Bill exited with an intriguing 10D. I took the King and played a second diamond to see what pops up and Norman played the Queen which I beat with the Ace. Now surely Norman started with QJ3, so if I ruff a diamond I have 9D to throw my spade loser on. No luck, I ruffed with the 9 but was over-ruffed and 1 down.
So looking at an even worse score I thought I might as well pile it on here.
We played this rotated so Adrianne opened the North hand 1C, I bid 1D and Adrianne 3D. She probably has a major singleton (surely a spade) to choose this rebid rather than No Trump, so I gambled on 5D.
A heart lead will defeat this, but Norman led a club, I just had to knock out AD and the heart loser went on a club for an easy 11 tricks.
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