Thursday October 1st

Playing N/S with Gerry came first with 60%.

On our very first board I opened North 1NT which was passed round to Michele who doubled.  I bid 2S and Mike doubled, passed out.
Michele thought her double was weakish in the protective position, Mike thought it was strong.
Anyway Mike led 2H to Michele's King and back came club to Q, A and ruff.  Four tricks down, Ace of trumps to come, not looking good especially as I would have made 1Nx.  Michele now plays KD which I take with the Ace. I can see now that Michele does not have 15+ and thankfully Mike isn't doubling just because of spade length.  I could see a slight chance of at worst 1 down and maybe even making it if Michele started with Ax in trumps as I can discard two losing diamonds, or even sneaking it if she started with Axx by conning her not to bother ruffing JC. I finessed JH and threw JD on the Ace.  I now played the master JC, Michele discarded and I threw my last diamond.  I only lose Ace of trumps now and made it.

Some fun and games against Len and Russell.  On this board our bidding went:
1D - 1H - (1S) - 2D - 2H - 2N - 3N

I reckoned I could chance 2N to show a double spade stop and if Gerry is looking at a diamond honour he'll have no problem bidding game which is how it was.
A club lead defeats the contract but Russell led the inevitable spade and I had no problem making 10 obvious tricks, never touching clubs and just cashing AK of hearts.

The boot was on the other foot this time. Gerry opened 1D, Len bid 2C and Russell 3C.  Len bid 3S and Russell 3N.
A diamond lead defeats this contract but doesn't present itself.  Gerry led AH and switched to 5S to Russell's Q. Russell gave up his club loser, Gerry cashed AS, but that was 9 tricks now.
Gerry could have done better by exiting with a diamond, but Russell reckoned he would get it right after cashing the clubs.

Len opened West 1S, I passed and Russell bid 3S.  Gerry found a 4H bid, Len bid 4S and I bid 5H.  Russell went to 5S and Gerry doubled.  When this came round to me I had to think what on earth was Gerry doubling with?  Has Russell got nothing, has Gerry got great cards in the minors? However Len opened, he must have points there and they are behind Gerry.
It turned out Gerry doubled to stop me thinking of any higher!
So it was one of those cases where we both make 10 tricks in our major, 5Sx gets a joint bottom.  However 5Hx would just have been a second bottom.  As soon as Gerry bids 4H we are getting a top score.