Monday 16 December

Playing N/S with Adrianne had a lot of ups and downs for a middling Butler score of 14.

Here are two of the downs:

 With 5-5 in Clubs and Spades we open 1S if we feel we can reverse with 3C.  So I opened 1S, Adrianne bid 1N and now I bid 3C.  This is game forcing so when Adrianne bid 3S this is stronger than 4S. Well it is probably rather fanciful that Adrianne would have both black Queens and a red Ace but I decided to try a 4C cue on the way.  Unfortunately partner raised to 5C and there I played.
David Young led AH and switched to a club. The lead enhances my prospects, why should one hand have both Aces? However I won in Dummy and tried QJ of spades to see what happens.  Now David Cree played the 7 then the 9. If spades are 3-3 I can come over to AC, cash a spade discarding a diamond then lead KD in the hope the person with the King doesn't have the third club and I can ruff a diamond. Well after a few moments I discounted that, why should the one hand have both Aces? I led a diamond to the King and David Y cashed the AQ for down one.

This time with 5-5 in spades and clubs, Adrianne isn't strong enough to reverse so opens 1C.  Our bidding proceeded in 10 seconds flat as : 1C - 1D - 1S - 4N - 5S - 7S
I didn't give it a moment's thought, but maybe I should have looked for an outside King to make it more secure.
Anyway this is one Granny that falls right off the bus.
Phil led JH which removes an entry to Dummy.  Unless diamonds break or the Queen falls, ruffing them good would require two club ruffs to make 13 and also spades to be 2-2 and that will be the only entry to Dummy to make the diamonds.
How about ruffing clubs? Well win AH, AC, club ruff small, AK diamonds throwing a heart, heart ruff club ruff, but no good, you would have to ruff high and can't ruff the 5th club.  Complete cross ruff?  Again it is that 4-0 spade break and 5-2 club break which scuppers you.  Adrianne tried for some luck with the diamonds and tried ruffing clubs but had to lose the last spade to Maurice's 4th spade and made 12 tricks.
What was particularly galling was that of seven pairs who bid 6S only two made it.  If I had just bid 6S we would have been +13 instead of -5