Thursday 21 February

Playing N/Swith Gerry in the West District Sim Pairs came first with 67%.

 Got two tops against Joyce and Phoebe.  The first after some good bidding. After two passes I opened 1D, Gerry bid 1H and Phoebe bid 1S.  I bid 2C, I can't remember if Joyce bid 2S but Gerry bid 3D and I tried 3S.  Gerry now made the excellent bid of 4C, not because he was suggesting either minor, but as a game try and to complete a picture.  I can now see a singleton spade in his hand (I was thinking 1-5-4-3) as well as something good in clubs.  I bid 5D. If he had just bid 4D, I would have passed.
I received the spade lead, took the Ace, ruffed a spade, AD, ruffed a spade, KD (Joyce let a heart go), heart to K and A. Now Joyce was stuck because of my club bid.  She tried a small heart but I could take a free finesse which held as I threw a club, QH throwing another club and felling the Jack.  I had 12 tricks.

On the next hand Joyce opened 1C and Gerry doubled.  I just bid 1S (nearly 2S) and Gerry, just to make sure, bid 2N (1N would have been enough for me). With too many clubs I decided not to show my five spades and just bid 3N.
Phoebe led a diamond to the K and Gerry led out AK and J of spades. He now played a club to the Q and K. Joyce played AK and another heart to Gerry's Q.  He had come down to two spades, two diamonds and a club in dummy, he overtook QD with the Ace, cashed two spades leaving himself A10 of clubs in hand and took the marked finesse for 10 tricks, beating people in spades.

Got to the right contract again against Nat and Jim. Gerry opened 1H and Jim bid 2H.  I fancied 2N, but a little short of points, I passed.  Nat bid 2S and Gerry did well to bid 3D rather than 3H.  I bid 4D (though still fancied 3N, but the clubs might show up before I have 9 tricks), Gerry 4H to show his good six card suit and I bid 5D.
Jim led KC, Gerry took the Ace and immediately played a spade.  Jim cashed AS and QC and exited with a spade to the King.  Gerry tried AK of hearts, but Jim ruffed the second and was over-ruffed. Gerry could now just play a pure cross ruff (he had AC, KS, AH) making his eight diamonds separately.

 This was a very interesting hand against Kevin and Stuart. I opened 1C, Gerry bid 1S and I rebid 2H.  Gerry tried 3D (4th suit), and I bid 4D, Kevin doubled and Gerry bid 6H.  I wondered a while before passing.  Why bid 4th suit then the slam when it is doubled?  Why the double when I have AK? I decided that Gerry might not have good spades, must have AC and diamond shortage.  However on a 4-4 fit seven could be very difficult, too much ruffing to be done and anyway QH might be missing and QC might be necessary.
So, Kevin led QD and I wondered if he might have seven of them for his double. I obviously wanted to throw a club to avoid the finesse and did it right away winning AD.  I ruffed a diamond and worrying about that 7-2 diamond split I thought I'd better play a trump to check the lie of the land.  So I came back to hand with AH and Kevin played an obvious singleton Jack. That's good I can ruff a diamond with 9H, however I thought I'd better concentrate on 12 tricks and set up the clubs. So I played AC, KC, ruffed a club and am in dummy. It now dawns on me that I can't get back to hand, ruff a diamond and draw trumps:

---                           KJ1075      If I ruff a spade, ruff a diamond, cash QH, ruff a spade
K72                        Q10            then Stuart has a long trump. The astute among you will
K8                          ---              have noticed that if I had kept ruffing high in dummy and
J9                           ---              had say Q 3 left, I could have finessed 7H ruffed a diamond,
                                                 ruffed a spade and made 13

However, all was not lost. If Kevin has AS will he let it go?  I simply played QH, KH, JC, 9C, 7H and sure enough Kevin kept AS and I won the last two diamonds. Lucky.  I think I actually went wrong at trick one, I should just ruff the diamond lead.  I was put off by the thought of a diamond over-ruff, but the initial diamond ruff, AH felling the Jack KD discarding a club, ruff a diamond high and 13 are easy.

Gerry pulled off a bit of a coup on the last board against David and Katie. Katie opened 1D and I bid 1H, Gerry bid 2D (yes, a raise to 3H!). I bid 2H and Gerry bid 2N.  OK I get that, probably 12/13 points, doubleton heart.  I passed. Katie led 2S which went to the 9 and K. Gerry immediately plays JC and Katie takes the Ace followed by her three spade tricks. She exits with JH, Gerry takes the A, crosses to AD, finesses the club, cashes K, overtakes KD with A and just has club winners for 9 tricks. Coolly bid and played.