Thursday 9 October

Despite my attempts to the contrary (two inept bids rewarded with two complete zeros against Steve and Frances), Adrianne and I came top in a Howell with 61%.

Only two pairs found 4H on this board and only Adrianne made it. Adrianne opened South 1D, Gerry bid 2S and I doubled.  Adrianne bid 4H. Although I am forcing a bid at the three level, we double with 8 points at the two level and anyway KD and AS are good cards.
Gerry didn't want to give away a cheap spade trick and led 3H to K and Ace.  Adrianne crossed to JH and played K and diamond finesse. Gerry exited with the last trump. Adrianne cashed AD and ruffed a diamond, ran 10C to King, won the KS return, 9, J and AC gave her 10 tricks.
A spade lead would have made life harder, you have to finesse QH (not run the Jack), but the key is not to draw three rounds of trumps or you will eventually lose a spade.

I played this hand badly yet got a top, such is bridge.
Adrianne opened South 1N passed round to Steve who bid 3C.  Back to me and I bid 3D.  Marilyn gave this a lot of thought before passing it out.
KC lead taken by Ace.  Diamond to Q, 10D back to Marilyn's Ace as Steve drops QC.  Marilyn exits with a diamond. I take out the last diamond and confident Steve has AS after QC discard I played KH and finessed JH. Oops, JC then QS back and I'm two off. I would have played hearts the other way round if I'd known and Marilyn would have been end played in spades to give me 9 tricks.  No matter, everyone else is making in some number of clubs, -100 is a top!

An interesting hand at the end which gave us a top and let us win. I opened 1H and Joyce overcalled 1S. Adrianne doubled promising both minors. I decided 1N was my best rebid and Joyce bid 2C.  Adrianne bid 3H and so I bid 4H.  I asked Raymond if they played Michaels which he confirmed.  If Joyce leads her two Aces, end of story, but she led JD. When I saw dummy I decided it would be 5-5 rather 6-4 but no matter, three red cards was the most likely.
I won AD and played KH, then AH.  I now played KD and so the three red cards were confirmed and I was in a great position. Two more winning diamonds let me discard KC and and a spade. I played the last diamond, ruffed and over-ruffed leaving me with Kxx spade and the last three trumps, dummy has a trump, a spade and the clubs. I envisaged Joyce with AQJ spades and AJx of clubs.
So I played a small spade and Joyce went in with the Jack. Now as it happens Raymond can overtake with QS and play a black card back to keep me to 11, but not so easy for him to see. Joyce is now scuppered.  If she plays AS I ruff in dummy and have KS and last three trumps.  If she plays AC I ruff in hand, ruff spade in dummy and throw the last spade on QC. Not certain on the whereabouts of KS she chose the spade suicide and I made 12 tricks.