Thursday 4th April

Playing E/W with Gerry came second with 54%.

Against Alex and Alistair Gerry opened a multi and rebid 2N showing 19/20.  I transferred to spades, Gerry cue bid diamonds and so I declared 4S as East.
Alistair led 6C to Jack and King, Alex returned a diamond.  I had 9 tricks with 5 trumps, AK and a diamond ruff and a heart.  Two ways to get 10, promote a club or find a doubleton AH. The hearts were extremely unlikely so I had to find a club trick.
I won the diamond, two rounds of spades and led a club towards dummy.  Alistair played 3C. Well if he started with a doubleton there is nothing I can do but play Alex for doubleton AH. However this is also consistent with four small, did he start with 10653 or 8653? Either way I just played a low club and Alex won the 10, that made me a club trick as I can ruff out his Ace.

 A thin game against Victor and Willie.  Gerry opened 1D, I bid 1N (guaranteeing clubs), 2N by Gerry and I bid game.
Willie led 4H and the rule of 11 tells you that looks good.  Victor might have the 10, but much more likely to have honour doubleton or singleton.  So I played low and Victor's Q won.  The expected club came back as Victor tabled the Jack.  I know I am getting a good score for making game and a quick calculation and look at the intermediates tells me to cover this right away.  I'll lose three clubs to go with the heart but make the rest on a heart finesse. That is exactly what happened as they cashed their three clubs.  If they only cash two and exit with say a spade, I just play a club myself.

A very competitive hand against Phyllis and Irene. Irene opened 1D and Phyllis bid 1H.  Now we have three ways of showing the other two suits.  A double obviously which will show decent values, 1N will show at least 5-5 but lacking points.  I bid the 3rd option 2N which will show this type of hand which has a lot of playability if partner has a black suit fit.
Irene bid 3D and Gerry doubled.  Phyllis bid 3H which went round to Gerry who bid 4C, back to Irene who ventured 4H. We all passed.
Whoever bought this contract at the 3 or 4 level was not going to do well.  I led QS won in dummy, Phyllis cashed AC and needed to get some ruffs.  She tried AS, Gerry ruffed and played a heart to my Ace.  I returned JS ruffed by Phyllis who ruffed a club.  So Phyllis got 5 hearts, 1 ruff, AC and AS for down two.