Monday 20 August

Playing N/S with Adrianne came second with a Butler score of 42.

Picked up 5 points here as some E/W were allowed to make 3N. I just don't see how. Barry opened 1C, Lester 1D, Barry 2N and Lester 3N.
I led 4H to 5, 9 and J.  Barry played AD, finessed J and cashed K followed by 4th diamond to my Q, Adrianne and Barry both discarding 2 clubs.
All you have to do now is keep declarer out of Dummy.  As long as Adrianne has another heart I can do that by a) not playing a heart and b) if Declarer plays a small one, rise with Ace, if he plays KH, duck.
I now played JS which was allowed to win followed by 10S to Q and King again ducked.  Adrianne does best to play another spade but no matter she plays a club to Barry's Queen.  Barry tries the small heart but I take Ace and play another and he has to give Adrianne a club for our 5th trick.

This time we gained 10 points because others couldn't find game or played in the wrong one.
I made finding game easy by opening North 1C, Irene overcalled 2S, Adrianne bid 3H, Phyllis passed and I bid 3N. 4H looks tempting with doubleton honour and singleton diamond and indeed it an excellent contract if partner has six hearts, but what if they have five? Do you really want to see say JS led as you put down dummy, partner forced to ruff the second spade and now playing in a 4-2 fit when you know hearts aren't going to break? 3N on the other hand has the prospect of a double stop if partner has just the singleton 10 or maybe West has a blocking honour.  Partner has almost certainly got a diamond stop.  Anyway QS led to the Ace, JC to Ace, Irene continued spades and I had 12 tricks.  Even on a diamond I am still home.
More interesting is if Irene overcalls my 1C with an unusual 2N.  Adrianne bids 3H, Phyllis can bid 4D.  I think I will bid 4H now.  A diamond lead followed by a heart switch is a little more likely now than a spade. Even on a spade lead, I think my partner is more likely to have AC on this bidding and could maybe cope with a 4-2 heart break.
If I don't open and East opens 2S, Adrianne bids 3H I would have bid 3N as in the first scenario.

Two keycards and Q of trumps missing but nearly everyone found 6H. I made it easy to bid by 1H - 2C - 3H.  Our 3H rebid is to do with trick taking potential, not points.  Adrianne just bid 6H.
Davina avoided the AS lead and led 10D.  I won in Dummy and led 9H, Barbara played the 6.  I sensed it was just 50-50 which card to play but like most people I let the 9 run and made 12.
Looking at it later there are 8 layouts of 3 cards:
AQ6  --  void, AQ  --  6, A6  --  Q, Q6  -- A and their mirror images.
However the 9 is the better chance.  In the four cases of singleton or void on your right you make half the time automatically and go down half the time whatever you play. When there is singleton or void on your left, you automatically make when West has AQ and in the other 3 a 6 appears and in two of them you make by playing the 9.

Another game which most people missed.  Against Bob and Cathy I opened 1S, Adrianne bid 2S and so I went to game. The bidding seemed straightforward to us.
Cathy led 5H to Bob's Ace followed by King and a diamond switch. I took the Ace and played a small spade. No point in thinking about club ruffs or spade finesses, just make your game. Cathy won the King and tried another diamond to my King.  AS, JS and claim.