Thursday 21 March

Playing in a Howell with Gerry, came third with 54%.  We had been going well but had a disastrous final two sets.

Lucas Twos can lead to some hairy contracts but we have always scored well with them.  I was West here against Alex and Raymond. I thought about opening 1S and probably would at aggregate but decided it is better to be max than min at pairs  and opened 2S.  Alex passed and Gerry bid 4S (much more sensible than 3S) to stymie Raymond.
QD lead which I took with Ace in dummy, thought about finessing club now, but decided on a spade.  Raymond wins perforce and plays K and another diamond for Alex to ruff.  Ace and another heart now, ruffed.  Spade to Raymond, another heart ruffed.  I can't afford to cross to dummy for club finesse, should have done that at trick 2.  Anyway King is offside and I am down 3 for -150.  Straightforward 4H available for N/S.

 Gerry opened South 1D, Ileen bid 2H and I bid 3C.  Back to Gerry who bid 3D. I gave this some thought but decided that I shouldn't try 3H and certainly not 4D as the four level could easily be too high.  If I had bid 3H and Gerry 3N, would Ileen have avoided the heart lead?
Anyway against 3D Ileen led AK and another heart for Christine to ruff. Chrisitine exits with a diamond, Gerry takes in hand, crosses to a diamond and exits with QC to end play Christine.  She chooses the spade won in dummy by the Jack, now JC destroys her. Nine tricks made.

On the next one Gerry opens South 1C, I bid 1D and Gerry bids 3D.  3N might be right but one of these majors will be a liability.  I decided on 5D.  As it is Christine would probably have led a spade and 3N would have made.
Anyway Christine led JC, I won the Ace, throwing a heart, AD, Christine played the 9, another diamond, Christine played the 8.  I decided that tells me nothing, anyway to lose to a doubleton Q in Ileen's hand and then get a heart through was not attractive.  So I rose with the King, Tried the clubs but Christine ruffed the third and cashed AS for one off.

 I got this hand all wrong.  Playing 3N as West after Gerry opened 1H, 1S, 2C, 2N, 3S, 3N.
Steve led JD and I ducked.  Steve immediately played QD.  I don't know why the Jack, but anyway if it from four or five he figures to have QJ10 as a small diamond is usually led from QJxx missing the 9.
I have to get club tricks to make this so I took QD with A and led a club to Marilyn's K. She returns a diamond.  If they are 4-4 it doesn't matter what I do (remember Steve must have 10). I decided to go up with KD, led another club, oops, Marilyn has two diamond's to cash, down 1.

 Mike found a great defence against Gerry on this board. Mike opened 1D and Gerry bid 4H to end the auction.
Jim led JD to Q and Ace and Mike returned 4S.  Brilliant, Jim wins King, returns a spade for Mike to finesse the Jack and cash the Ace for down 1.
Nothing you can do about that.

Did get one back against them even though I missed bidding game.
Gerry opened 1C, Jim bid 1D and I bid 1H (guarantees 5).  Gerry raise to 3H.  I would just go for 4H at aggregate, but passed the 3H here.
JD lead which I took with Ace, cashed AC and played A and K of hearts.  I now ran 10C, exit with a heart and just lose that and a diamond as my two spades go on the clubs.
Eleven tricks, 200 was a good score especially as others were in clubs.