The end of last week saw two back-to-back important events. The first took on somewhat less significance when Lessurl took ill, prompting my Dad to step in as my partner for Round 4 of the Phoenix Cup. Jim was also without regular partner Jun, so the competition between us was "off" as we wanted each other to occupy 1st and 2nd spots and knock the regular partnerships down. Unfortunately, we only managed two finish above two other regular partnerships, coming 3rd bottom. Jim kept his end of the bargain by coming top.
However, the important event was Phoenix Rising v Torphins on the Friday. It was not an ideal date for the match; I tried to plead with Jun to play but apparently the Open European Trials were more important. He and Jim did well, winning 5 out of 7 matches and qualifying for the Final Four. They couldn't really have done better than that for the first weekend. 009domino was also unavailable, and in total she was one of three players that were in the 17-3 loss to Banchory that dropped out of the team (owing to unavailability, not selection I might add) for this one. In came three juniors, one pair of which were extremely inexperienced having only started bridge in September. So Torphins were on a hiding to nothing. Anything less than 20 VPs for them would be an achievement for us.
Lessurl had recovered from illness, thankfully, but we weren't playing together as one (very) inexperienced partnership was enough and we felt that the two other juniors should be partnered with experience, in the hope of creating three "reliable" partnerships. This was a particularly high challenge for my partner, who had herself been one of the least experienced players against Banchory, and we were now looking to her to help anchor the team. But with some of our best players missing, others have to step up to the plate, and she did just that.
On Board 1, I held:
A J 10 9
7
A 4 2
K J 10 9 7
I was sitting West. North opened 3 Spades, and after some deliberation, South raised to 4 on a void, which I doubled. Partner knew this could be nothing other than penalty, and we managed to scrounge six tricks between us, taking 500. A nice, good score to settle the nerves early on.
On Board 2, I held:
A K 3
A
K J 9 6
K 10 7 4 2
Partner is Dealer and passes. South passes, and I open 1 Club. North passes, and partner raises to 3 Clubs. South says 3 Hearts. What now?
I suspect slam might be a possibility, but with a new partner I was unsure how to go about it. We ended up settling for 5 clubs, and missed the 25 point slam. Partner held:
8
10 4 3
Q 7 3 2
A J 6 5 3
Both minor suits break nicely. Partner's 3 Clubs was a good one; she did all she could. In other words, I carry the can for not getting us to the right spot. Incidentally, if we're not going to find the slam, then cracking 3 Hearts is better. Another 500 is slightly better than 420, but at teams you are never going to double into Game.
On Board 3 (I'm not doing all the boards, honest!) I held:
K Q 10 9 8 5 2
A
7 3
Q 8 6
I bid spades three times, and in between, the opponents bid to a making 3NT. My third and final spade bid (reckless, over a silent partner) was 4 Spades, which was of course doubled. I expected that 3NT would make because for his bidding, North would probably hold AJx of spades. In fact my dummy was:
J 7 4
7 5 4 3
Q J 9 5 2
9
So, even though 3NT makes 4 Spades Doubled is too expensive as a sacrifice. If North-South can see all the cards before defending, they would take me for 800. Fortunately, they can't. North dutifully led a heart in response to partner bidding them, and I exited a club. I ruffed the heart return, and ruffed a club with the 4 of spades, before ruffing a heart with the 8. I then ruffed another club with the 7 and played the Jack, which got me to a total of nine tricks and -200, halving the deficit of 3NT.
Sometimes experience counts, and sometimes it is luck. Our new pair, who sat the same way as us, were in the same doomed contract, but lost 800 for their troubles. One lesson they will have to be taught is to do as I say, and not as I do.
When all six of the first set of boards had been played, partner and I had gathered +1330, which was good going having missed the slam. (The par score if you find the slam is 1370). Unfortunately, the Torphins East-West pairs were merciless, and partner and I were the only pair on the team to achieve a plus.
Being the hosts, it was our pairs that rotated round the room, which meant we changed polarity for Round 2. This was unfortunate as East-West got all six of the hands; one of them a cold slam, four cold games and one part score. So -3000 would've been an achievement for us if you do the maths. However, partner and I didn't settle for that. We managed to find a good sacrifice against a making game (below the level of Game, but the opponents didn't bid it), and they didn't bid the slam either. We scored -2010, more than one thousand better than the double dummy "par" score, and the new pair also came in with a creditable -2470.
Unfortunately, our other 2 pairs didn't contribute such large plusses, so we were well on our way to 0 VPs at Half Time.
We were there by the end of Round 3. Board 14 was seriously unlucky. After some confused bidding where my partner felt obliged to continue after a 4 Heart sign-off, which was partly my fault for only partially explaining an ethical rule, I had this situation:
K 6
A Q 10 7
K 6
A K 5 3 2
9 5
J 9 8 5 4 3 2
8 5
J 8
Contract: 5 Hearts by the bottom hand; Queen of Spades led.
Both missing aces are offside, LHO has QJ of spades, and RHO has both the missing hearts. The result is that if my hand plays the contract, 4 Hearts can never make. Partner on the other hand can make, as partner's LHO is endplayed on the opening lead. The best lead would be a club; the Jack would be covered by the Queen and King, then Declarer can cash the Ace of Hearts, Ace of clubs and ruff a club, with the suit splitting 3-3. Declarer can then exit in hearts, to end play South again. The best South can do is cash the two aces and give up. A really unlucky situation where the hand that is most likely to bid hearts first wrong-sides the Game in doing so.
There was more bad luck to come. We didn't touch a minor slam that was anti-percentage, but did make, opting instead for a major Game. Board 18 did at least yield a 100% slam that just required to be bid, and our overall score for the round was +1700, which is either 200-400 points better or 200 points worse than a debatable par, depending on what you take par to be. Still, we didn't expect what our team-mates provided (we were the only plus again), and we passed the 5000 point aggregate minus threshold.
Unless we won Round 4, we were going to lose this match 20-0. It was Twenty Past Ten by the time we finished Round 3, so we felt it was in the best and fairest interests of all sixteen players to call time on the match then. A match in the afternoon I would have happily played another six boards against the odds, but we were getting very late, especially for youngsters.
The Division 2 table does not make good reading. We are bottom with 3 VPs; Ellon are second bottom with 24. Some would say the situation is already hopeless. Indeed, I admit it is getting critical. However, I have faith in my team and there are a lot of positives we can take from this.
I am aware that with a statement like that, when on the face of it we were completely swept aside and outclassed, I look like a football manager trying to appease his team's fans after an embarrassing defeat. But there are some very promising signs and we still have three matches to get ourselves out of our admittedly sticky situation.
The first positive is the "team of four within the team of eight" scenario. Comparing Pair 1 and Pair 2's scores from the match against Banchory, they made a net gain which was good enough for a 15-5 win if pairs 3 and 4 had levelled out. Well, so we should, given the strength of Pairs 1 and 2 in that match. However, when doing so again for the Torphins match, Pairs 1 and 2 (who'd had two good players removed, and replaced with two lesser-experienced players), still came out ahead. This is very encouraging, because it is a sign that the experience of playing these matches is paying off and that our inexperienced players are getting better; learning to hold their own. The reason that it went so wrong against Torphins is that they can hold their own when they have some strong players to back them up and compliment their scores; they are not yet at a stage where they can help anchor a team.
The second positive is our new pair. On the face of it, they were completely thrashed, but there's more to this than meets the eye. The game plan was that it would not be disappointing if they did slightly worse than they should have done; it was up to me and my partner to cancel that out with a good score. But in Round 2, between all the doubled contracts that spoiled their score card in Rounds 1 and 3, they actually did better than par, which is a real sign of progress and more than I could've asked them for. There's a lot of potential there, and when I look at their score card, what I find is that they were completely fearless, (as reckless as me in places but less inclined to get away with it), so they are standing in good stead for a positive future.
Individual development is also a key area. My partner from the match in particular is coming on leaps and bounds and is not as far away from becoming a fully-fledged player as she thinks she is. Another player was back after a bit of a hiatus, and Lessurl informs me that not a lot went wrong in the bidding, which means he has retained quite a bit of the bidding theory that he has learned very well. Against Torphins, we fielded four partnerships that have never played in any competitive bridge event together, which means the team is learning to play with others.
As a Captain, I am learning a lot about my team and my players, what they can and can't do and what they are capable of. Some of it I know beforehand, but there are some things you can only find out by experience, trial, error and observation.
The team spirit is another factor which pleases me. After a start like this, it is easy for the heads to go down and players to blame themselves and ask whether they are good enough. But they are all up for it and ready to play their part in the recovery - and they will.
We also have to remember that this was far from our best possible side. Two of last season's ever-presents and one international junior were not involved in this match. I chose players from my team pool. I could have tried drafting in substitutes instead - if I had been so desperate to win this match that I was willing to sacrifice team development. But this is a work-in-progress; a transitional phase as we look towards building a bigger and better junior team in the future. These players need games. They learn by doing.
It is a shame that it is two of my clubs that occupy the bottom two positions of Division 2. But, sorry Ellon, there are no divided loyalties. The next match is a forty-pointer (the bridge equivalent of a football six-pointer) between Phoenix Rising and Ellon, and I certainly hope that we will be getting our first win of the season under our belts. I have of course been supporting Ellon in all of their matches so far this season, but they have my permission to lose the next match. It would be good if both teams could avoid relegation however.
While it is still possible that we will escape relegation, we'll continue to play to do so. I don't mind if anybody writes us off; some people wrote off Division 2 as ours to win before the season started, and we proved them wrong. There is still a lot of bridge to be played, and I have faith that my team will come good. It is just a question of how quickly they do so.
I write this on Monday. This week sees a marathon of five (possibly six) days of bridge in a row, starting tonight. Still, if that happens, it won't be the first time - nor will it be the first time I have several events to blog about at once. Bring it on.
Monday, 30 January 2012
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Third Time Lucky
This week saw three major events, not including a session at Ellon. I say major - I only really gave a brass monkey about two of them; the first was just A-N-Other tournament to compete in. Were these events not played out on consecutive nights, they may have merited a blog post of their own. But having played Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I was not going to find time to blog in between.
Here, they come, in order.
Norvite Simultaneous Pairs
This event I had no aspirations for. It is a simultaneous pairs event played throughout the North District. All the hands are pre-dealt, that is to say, fixed. The Convener spends all year finding/composing hands to use, so I'm reliably informed. This is a major departure from Simultaneous competitions run by the SBU, where the computer dealt boards may seem fixed, but they are not. The second difference is that scoring is by aggregate, with a limitation on penalties in place. This requires more of a Teams mentality. Played on a Wednesday night, I was playing with McLeod Senior again. The partnership harmony didn't last long, although in fairness it never does.
A K J 3
10 8 5
5 3 2
9 8 5
Playing the Asking Club (if you know it), Partner opens a Strong 2 Diamonds - 20+ points or a hand as good as, with at least 5 Diamonds. What is your bid here?
My bid (and my subsequent claim that I will do the same again) caused my partner to state that we are going to stop playing together. Which is why I'd like to know if I'm the only person in the world who'd bid what I did here? (Do not guess at what I bid; give me YOURS).
The response structure (for those that want to advise what I should've done in this situation) is as follows:
Bid a 5 card suit or
Bid 2NT to show cover in the other three and some values, and wrong-side 3NT.
Bid 3 Diamonds to show support with no extra values.
4 Clubs is Gerber
Partner had:
5 4 2
---
A K Q J 10 7 4
A Q 2
What do you think partner's rebid should be?
Next up; your hand is:
K
J 7 6 3
A Q 8 6 4 3
7 5
RHO opens 1 Spade, and you intervene with 3 Diamonds. LHO says 4 Clubs, and after RHO agrees clubs, RHO ends up in 6 Spades. What do you lead?
I reckoned our score was a paltry +1000 at the end of the night, but I can't count.
Phoenix Teams of Four Finals
The Phoenix Teams of Four is the club's most prestigious event. Going into the Semi-Finals, we were third, which meant we played 1st place in a knock-out sixteen board match - the unbeaten ROSS team. I think Lessurl and I can be pleased with our efforts.
Things didn't start well; our opponents stopped well in a 3 Heart contract for 140. We traded "misplayed" (or Mis-defended at the other table) game contracts for a +12 and -12 on consecutive boards. 12-17. The next board was flat; my Counterpart and I both made 13 tricks in 4 Spades when the defence didn't cash two top tricks. Then we took over.
Do you want to be in 7 Hearts when you have nine solid tricks from trumps and the minors (trumps drawing easily and no chance of a ruff against you), and your spade holding is J x x x opposite A K 10 x? Thought not. We were, but the queen was singleton (offside), so we got away with +1510 and 11 IMPs.
On the next board, RHO intervened with 4 Diamonds while Lessurl and I were bidding to solid vulnerable Game. We were red, they were White. Bidding 4 Diamonds for a lead might've seemed like a good idea to RHO at the time, but unfortunately for him, his partner sacrificed in 5 Diamonds and we collected 1100.
Next, I made one more trick than I was entitled to in 3NT, giving us a 34-17 lead after seven, eight and nine boards. A mutual disaster for our team saw that lead cut to 34-30 on board ten, and then another -5 and a missed Game cost us dearly, leaving the score at 34-45.
Board 14, in my view, was the crucial board. I held:
A J x x x
A K Q x x
---
x x x
Do I open this 1 Heart or 1 Spade? I opted for 1 Spade. LHO overcalled 2 Diamonds, and partner raised to 4 Spades. RHO bid 5 Diamonds. I considered 5 Hearts, but opted for 5 Spades, which was crucial. It went one down, for -10 IMPs. Had I opted for 5 Hearts, I would have found partner with J 10 x x x x of Hearts, and I'd have made 5. However, our team-mates should have bid and made 6 Diamonds, so our -100 should've been enough to win the match. We lost 40-63.
The other Semi-Final (which played the same sixteen boards) was between the 2nd placed HAY team, and the only twice-beaten team in the Semis, the revamped POMEROY team, sporting a substitute pair. On paper, the Pomeroy team had been weakened, but on paper only. After what I'm sure was a fascinating match, they drew 40-40. It was decided the fairest thing to do, in the spirit of the tournament, was play a two board play-off, which the Pomeroy team won.
Only 73 IMPs were shed in the Third Place Play-Off, as opposed to 103 in our Semi. After taking a 500 and 100 for two beaten Game contracts (the first Doubled), on boards 22 and 23, I would've thought, with reasonably tight play, that would've been enough. Unfortunately, our team-mates had a disaster on Board 24, and in the end we lost by 9 IMPs.
In the end, I'm happy with 4th place. (Disappointed in that it was the worst we could've done going into the last night, but we weren't among the top 4 seeds.) We exceeded expectations, and hope to be regular semi-finalists/ finalists/ winners; one day.
The final was keenly contested. ROSS took the title by the margin of ONE IMP. What a great advert for the Phoenix Club; it is going from strength to strength.
Bridge Club Nova v Phoenix II
The playing of this match went into some doubt as both teams struggled to field teams, and in the end neither side could play eight players from their own pool. (Long live the new substitution rules!) Lessurl and I, having played once for Phoenix II already, were eligible for one more match, and the Captain required it to be this match. I sincerely hope the team does not need subs for their remaining two fixtures.
Bridge Club Nova needed a substitute too, and called in - my Dad. It so happens that one of his pick-up partners is in Nova. My Dad was, of course, happy enough to help, when the phone call came, so both McLeods were subbing for opposite sides.
Boards 1, 2 and 3 (the first three boards we played, although not in sequence) all saw the same contract - 1NT. Lessurl thought he was in 2 and made 8; I ran for 7 in mine, and RHO came down in his. Lessurl and I were not in charitable mood. So, we were edging ahead, and then I had this 3NT:
Q x x
K 7 x x
10 9 x
A x x
A K x x
A 9
A Q x x
x x x
I got a small diamond led, and I tried the 9 from dummy. LHO had indeed led from KJxx, so it held. I next tried three rounds of spades, finishing with the queen, so I could lead away from the ace of clubs, but the spades broke 2-4. LHO pitched a heart on the queen of spades and won my club, returning a heart. I won with the ace and cleared the suit, RHO getting in with a heart. For reasons best known to himself, RHO decided not to cash his two hearts and a spade, and played the Queen of clubs. This I won in dummy after seeing the card LHO played, and ran the ten of diamonds. LHO won with the Jack, but now holds this:
---
---
K x
K
All he can do is cash the club before giving me the AQ of diamonds. 9 tricks.
By all accounts, the boards were against us in the first set, so our team-mates were delighted when we offered +760, leaving us a little over 1700 ahead after six boards.
The second set was not as productive. The boards were against us here too, and our opponents were apt to cash in. They bid two good games. One was solid and the other needed a trump lead to beat it, which I don't blame Lessurl for not finding. We also had the dreaded +170 on a vulnerable board, although I'm not saying Game was cold there. The team was 1190 up at half time.
Playing at Table 3 all night, the third round was against the Nova Captain and his partner, one of Lessurl's regular partners. They started well, bidding a thin but cold vulnerable Game. I then failed to make a 4 Spades which wasn't there. This was the turning point:
K x x x
J
K
K Q 10 9 7 x x
A x x x
K Q x x
x x x x
2
Contract: 4 Spades Doubled by the bottom hand; AC lead.
This was the situation Lessurl faced. Immediately he knows he is hoping for a mis-defence. He gets it. His LHO, looking for the big penalty, leads a small heart to trick 2, underleading the ace. After overcoming his surprise when the Jack holds, Lessurl cashes the Ace and King of spades, with both opponents following both times. He now ruffs a small club - a necessary precaution as LHO led from a singleton. He plays the King of hearts, covered by the ace, and ruffs. He can now run clubs until the final spade appears, collecting +590, and +260 on the set overall.
It is always satisfying to get a plus score for a set where the boards are against you. However, this always requires luck. This was especially true on the last set, where the boards were so skewed against us that "par" would probably have been around the -2000 mark. But Lessurl managed to tempt a mistake from his RHO when playing a 4 Spades contract, and I played the following collection in 3NT:
K x
A 9 x x
x x x
J 9 7 4
A J 6 x
K 10 x
x x
A 6 5 2
You might well ask what on earth we are doing in 3NT. My RHO (McLeod Senior) opened 1 Spade (5 card suit), and Lessurl made a protective double. I failed to deduct 3 points from my hand, and blasted 3NT.
LHO dutifully led a spade, and I beat my Dad's queen with the ace. I have to take the view that if they find a diamond switch at any stage, I'm dead, so I better play as if they're not going to. I play the ten of hearts to set them up, as a minimum of three tricks are required from this suit. LHO plays small, and to my surprise, the ten holds the trick. So that's three spade tricks and three hearts now. I need three from clubs. I cash ace and another heart, and then play the 9 of clubs. Queen appears on my right. I cover with the ace and collect the three from LHO. I now play the 2, and the 8 appears from LHO. I play the 7, and the King comes down. RHO now plays a spade, and I have nine tricks.
My Dad felt that we'd been very "lucky" all night. Yes and no. Yes, there were some clear errors from his side. But then, we had to get ourselves in position to take advantage. That's what people mean when they say good players make their own luck. Mind you, I suppose the addage it is better to be lucky than smart also applies.
Not that we got it all our own way. Going into the last board of the night with a double game swing in the bag, we had +930. We were hoping to offer another "plus that should've been a minus". Unfortunately, our opponents bid the solidest of solid slams, so no such luck. We were -440, our Table 1 team-mates somehow were -190, which meant we were destined for a massive swing. It was enough to win 18-2.
That's it for Lessurl and me playing for Phoenix II this season. Next week, it's back to Phoenix Rising. But, as Lessurl joked, "we should have kept Phoenix II away from relegation". Phoenix I and II sit happily at 1st and 2nd place in Division 1 respectively. Certainly it was our most successful (and luckiest) night of the three.
Here, they come, in order.
Norvite Simultaneous Pairs
This event I had no aspirations for. It is a simultaneous pairs event played throughout the North District. All the hands are pre-dealt, that is to say, fixed. The Convener spends all year finding/composing hands to use, so I'm reliably informed. This is a major departure from Simultaneous competitions run by the SBU, where the computer dealt boards may seem fixed, but they are not. The second difference is that scoring is by aggregate, with a limitation on penalties in place. This requires more of a Teams mentality. Played on a Wednesday night, I was playing with McLeod Senior again. The partnership harmony didn't last long, although in fairness it never does.
A K J 3
10 8 5
5 3 2
9 8 5
Playing the Asking Club (if you know it), Partner opens a Strong 2 Diamonds - 20+ points or a hand as good as, with at least 5 Diamonds. What is your bid here?
My bid (and my subsequent claim that I will do the same again) caused my partner to state that we are going to stop playing together. Which is why I'd like to know if I'm the only person in the world who'd bid what I did here? (Do not guess at what I bid; give me YOURS).
The response structure (for those that want to advise what I should've done in this situation) is as follows:
Bid a 5 card suit or
Bid 2NT to show cover in the other three and some values, and wrong-side 3NT.
Bid 3 Diamonds to show support with no extra values.
4 Clubs is Gerber
Partner had:
5 4 2
---
A K Q J 10 7 4
A Q 2
What do you think partner's rebid should be?
Next up; your hand is:
K
J 7 6 3
A Q 8 6 4 3
7 5
RHO opens 1 Spade, and you intervene with 3 Diamonds. LHO says 4 Clubs, and after RHO agrees clubs, RHO ends up in 6 Spades. What do you lead?
I reckoned our score was a paltry +1000 at the end of the night, but I can't count.
Phoenix Teams of Four Finals
The Phoenix Teams of Four is the club's most prestigious event. Going into the Semi-Finals, we were third, which meant we played 1st place in a knock-out sixteen board match - the unbeaten ROSS team. I think Lessurl and I can be pleased with our efforts.
Things didn't start well; our opponents stopped well in a 3 Heart contract for 140. We traded "misplayed" (or Mis-defended at the other table) game contracts for a +12 and -12 on consecutive boards. 12-17. The next board was flat; my Counterpart and I both made 13 tricks in 4 Spades when the defence didn't cash two top tricks. Then we took over.
Do you want to be in 7 Hearts when you have nine solid tricks from trumps and the minors (trumps drawing easily and no chance of a ruff against you), and your spade holding is J x x x opposite A K 10 x? Thought not. We were, but the queen was singleton (offside), so we got away with +1510 and 11 IMPs.
On the next board, RHO intervened with 4 Diamonds while Lessurl and I were bidding to solid vulnerable Game. We were red, they were White. Bidding 4 Diamonds for a lead might've seemed like a good idea to RHO at the time, but unfortunately for him, his partner sacrificed in 5 Diamonds and we collected 1100.
Next, I made one more trick than I was entitled to in 3NT, giving us a 34-17 lead after seven, eight and nine boards. A mutual disaster for our team saw that lead cut to 34-30 on board ten, and then another -5 and a missed Game cost us dearly, leaving the score at 34-45.
Board 14, in my view, was the crucial board. I held:
A J x x x
A K Q x x
---
x x x
Do I open this 1 Heart or 1 Spade? I opted for 1 Spade. LHO overcalled 2 Diamonds, and partner raised to 4 Spades. RHO bid 5 Diamonds. I considered 5 Hearts, but opted for 5 Spades, which was crucial. It went one down, for -10 IMPs. Had I opted for 5 Hearts, I would have found partner with J 10 x x x x of Hearts, and I'd have made 5. However, our team-mates should have bid and made 6 Diamonds, so our -100 should've been enough to win the match. We lost 40-63.
The other Semi-Final (which played the same sixteen boards) was between the 2nd placed HAY team, and the only twice-beaten team in the Semis, the revamped POMEROY team, sporting a substitute pair. On paper, the Pomeroy team had been weakened, but on paper only. After what I'm sure was a fascinating match, they drew 40-40. It was decided the fairest thing to do, in the spirit of the tournament, was play a two board play-off, which the Pomeroy team won.
Only 73 IMPs were shed in the Third Place Play-Off, as opposed to 103 in our Semi. After taking a 500 and 100 for two beaten Game contracts (the first Doubled), on boards 22 and 23, I would've thought, with reasonably tight play, that would've been enough. Unfortunately, our team-mates had a disaster on Board 24, and in the end we lost by 9 IMPs.
In the end, I'm happy with 4th place. (Disappointed in that it was the worst we could've done going into the last night, but we weren't among the top 4 seeds.) We exceeded expectations, and hope to be regular semi-finalists/ finalists/ winners; one day.
The final was keenly contested. ROSS took the title by the margin of ONE IMP. What a great advert for the Phoenix Club; it is going from strength to strength.
Bridge Club Nova v Phoenix II
The playing of this match went into some doubt as both teams struggled to field teams, and in the end neither side could play eight players from their own pool. (Long live the new substitution rules!) Lessurl and I, having played once for Phoenix II already, were eligible for one more match, and the Captain required it to be this match. I sincerely hope the team does not need subs for their remaining two fixtures.
Bridge Club Nova needed a substitute too, and called in - my Dad. It so happens that one of his pick-up partners is in Nova. My Dad was, of course, happy enough to help, when the phone call came, so both McLeods were subbing for opposite sides.
Boards 1, 2 and 3 (the first three boards we played, although not in sequence) all saw the same contract - 1NT. Lessurl thought he was in 2 and made 8; I ran for 7 in mine, and RHO came down in his. Lessurl and I were not in charitable mood. So, we were edging ahead, and then I had this 3NT:
Q x x
K 7 x x
10 9 x
A x x
A K x x
A 9
A Q x x
x x x
I got a small diamond led, and I tried the 9 from dummy. LHO had indeed led from KJxx, so it held. I next tried three rounds of spades, finishing with the queen, so I could lead away from the ace of clubs, but the spades broke 2-4. LHO pitched a heart on the queen of spades and won my club, returning a heart. I won with the ace and cleared the suit, RHO getting in with a heart. For reasons best known to himself, RHO decided not to cash his two hearts and a spade, and played the Queen of clubs. This I won in dummy after seeing the card LHO played, and ran the ten of diamonds. LHO won with the Jack, but now holds this:
---
---
K x
K
All he can do is cash the club before giving me the AQ of diamonds. 9 tricks.
By all accounts, the boards were against us in the first set, so our team-mates were delighted when we offered +760, leaving us a little over 1700 ahead after six boards.
The second set was not as productive. The boards were against us here too, and our opponents were apt to cash in. They bid two good games. One was solid and the other needed a trump lead to beat it, which I don't blame Lessurl for not finding. We also had the dreaded +170 on a vulnerable board, although I'm not saying Game was cold there. The team was 1190 up at half time.
Playing at Table 3 all night, the third round was against the Nova Captain and his partner, one of Lessurl's regular partners. They started well, bidding a thin but cold vulnerable Game. I then failed to make a 4 Spades which wasn't there. This was the turning point:
K x x x
J
K
K Q 10 9 7 x x
A x x x
K Q x x
x x x x
2
Contract: 4 Spades Doubled by the bottom hand; AC lead.
This was the situation Lessurl faced. Immediately he knows he is hoping for a mis-defence. He gets it. His LHO, looking for the big penalty, leads a small heart to trick 2, underleading the ace. After overcoming his surprise when the Jack holds, Lessurl cashes the Ace and King of spades, with both opponents following both times. He now ruffs a small club - a necessary precaution as LHO led from a singleton. He plays the King of hearts, covered by the ace, and ruffs. He can now run clubs until the final spade appears, collecting +590, and +260 on the set overall.
It is always satisfying to get a plus score for a set where the boards are against you. However, this always requires luck. This was especially true on the last set, where the boards were so skewed against us that "par" would probably have been around the -2000 mark. But Lessurl managed to tempt a mistake from his RHO when playing a 4 Spades contract, and I played the following collection in 3NT:
K x
A 9 x x
x x x
J 9 7 4
A J 6 x
K 10 x
x x
A 6 5 2
You might well ask what on earth we are doing in 3NT. My RHO (McLeod Senior) opened 1 Spade (5 card suit), and Lessurl made a protective double. I failed to deduct 3 points from my hand, and blasted 3NT.
LHO dutifully led a spade, and I beat my Dad's queen with the ace. I have to take the view that if they find a diamond switch at any stage, I'm dead, so I better play as if they're not going to. I play the ten of hearts to set them up, as a minimum of three tricks are required from this suit. LHO plays small, and to my surprise, the ten holds the trick. So that's three spade tricks and three hearts now. I need three from clubs. I cash ace and another heart, and then play the 9 of clubs. Queen appears on my right. I cover with the ace and collect the three from LHO. I now play the 2, and the 8 appears from LHO. I play the 7, and the King comes down. RHO now plays a spade, and I have nine tricks.
My Dad felt that we'd been very "lucky" all night. Yes and no. Yes, there were some clear errors from his side. But then, we had to get ourselves in position to take advantage. That's what people mean when they say good players make their own luck. Mind you, I suppose the addage it is better to be lucky than smart also applies.
Not that we got it all our own way. Going into the last board of the night with a double game swing in the bag, we had +930. We were hoping to offer another "plus that should've been a minus". Unfortunately, our opponents bid the solidest of solid slams, so no such luck. We were -440, our Table 1 team-mates somehow were -190, which meant we were destined for a massive swing. It was enough to win 18-2.
That's it for Lessurl and me playing for Phoenix II this season. Next week, it's back to Phoenix Rising. But, as Lessurl joked, "we should have kept Phoenix II away from relegation". Phoenix I and II sit happily at 1st and 2nd place in Division 1 respectively. Certainly it was our most successful (and luckiest) night of the three.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Singing in the Rayne
Well, as of my last blog, I'd had a good start to 2012. It began with a 1st place on a Tuesday night at The Bridge Club, followed by a win in the teams on the Thursday, and two wins in the District Teams of Four. However I look at it, that's a 100% winning start. Like I said, I had hoped this run would continue on until the final of the Rayne was done and dusted, but unfortunately my Bridge Guardian Angels have had other ideas and seem to think it's fair to deal me with slices of rotten luck as well as the good stuff.
This started on Monday night when my partner decided that my discarding a high diamond followed by a low one when we play Reverse Attitude meant I wanted diamonds on the first hand, but on the second hand the Guardian Angels apologised for turning up late by giving me this Declarer problem:
Q x x x
J 10 x
9 7 x
K x x
A K x x
Q x x
A K Q x
Q x
Contract: 3NT (by the bottom hand). Lead: A small diamond.
There is certainly play for 9 tricks here. Spades and diamonds provide three top tricks, with chances of a 4th in each. If that works, either one of the rounded suits might provide the 9th trick. But obviously, the first task is to bore into LHO's mind and work out what he led from. Do I play the 9 or 7? If this is a 4th highest lead, I might as well play the 7 - which holds. LHO had led low from J 10 8 x x (!), so I was never going to guess wrong.
Four tricks in diamonds are coming in, what about the spades? If they break well, then nine tricks are in the bag with a club exit. But the Angels have taught me pragmatic pessimism, if I haven't learned it from life in general. Sure, that works if spades break, but what if they don't? I'm going to need clubs stopped; there's always a chance hearts break 4-3/3-4 and they can't run against me. So I play the Jack of Hearts.
RHO wins with the King and returns a diamond; exactly what I was hoping for. I can now knock out the heart Ace without concern about clubs. RHO wins and plays another heart, and I'm happy to see LHO follow too. RHO has a heart winner once he gets in, but not yet.
I cash three diamonds, and note that spades are never thrown. Wouldn't you know it; they are 1-4. Good thing I decided to set up hearts. I can still set up clubs and make a total of nine tricks. It was one of those hands where everyone in my seat played in 3NT. The others went one or two down - this included the other Declarer fortunate enough to get a low diamond lead.
Unfortunately that did NOT set the tone for the evening. There is still a lot of work to do - that's undeniable when partner decides to play in 4 Hearts on a 5-0 trump fit. By sheer graft we managed to take second place; I doubt we can say there was much finesse on out part.
But if that was bad, Wednesday night was worse. Somehow we scraped as many outright tops as outright bottoms, and partner was lucky that bridge crimes do not earn time in prison. Whether it was showing strong hands with plates of mince, or passing when he actually had one, there were some decisions made to which utterly no logic or rational thought made sense at all. All of which I can tolerate if partner was gracious enough to accept it, but when it all is somehow MY fault, I think I'm entitled to vent about it.
In fairness (?) to partner, it was the BGB, which meant computer-dealt hands. That winds him up for a start. He doesn't know the difference between "computer dealt" and "fixed" - to him it's all a fix. So we can seldom expect a good night in a BGB event, but we still play them, because once every blue moon I might get some Green points for it.
{To the uninitiated: Green Points = Red Points = National Master Points. 100 Black points = 100 local points = numerical value of 1 Green/Red/National Point. Easy. EXCEPT, I heard the other night that the EBU are now considering inventing Blue Points which, apparently, will be equivalent to a part award in Greens and Blacks. If anyone out there capable of logical and deductive reasoning can explain to me what in the name of sanity the EBU are doing, I'd be very interested in understanding, or at least attempting thereof.}
At least the afternoon school's session was good. They still need a lot drummed into them before being unleashed on the bridge general public, and developing the teams we want is going to be an epic challenge, but I am hopeful we will rise to the occasion. The highlight was when one of Phoenix Rising's newest players made 12 tricks in 4 Spades, testament to the fact that she should have been in 6.
Thursday night, and things improved, just a little bit. It was not evident to start with when I had this hand early on:
Q J
A J x x
A K Q x x x
x
Partner opens a (Weak) 2 Spades. RHO bids 5 Clubs.
My feeling was that I can construct possible hands for partner where 6 Spades will make, and on most of the occasions that it doesn't, 5 Spades won't make either, so, in keeping with our style, I blasted it. (I should probably explain that this was not my regular partner, but a Life Master notorious for bidding everything. The philosophy is that it is okay to come down in contracts on a regular basis as long as no Games or Slams are missed). Unfortunately, this did not work. To make matters worse, 5 Clubs turned out not to make either.
Other things went wrong too; the pick of these was when partner opened a Weak 2 Spades (again), and with RHO making a strong bid, I decided, holding two points, that I would pre-empt them out of a making slam. This was initially working when LHO picked a sub-optimal Game contract, but partner decided to double, which caused RHO to rescue to a slam in her suit. The subsequent second double from partner resulted in -1190 on the score card and -6 IMPs.
But, the Guardian Angels were not quite idle. Observe this hand:
Q J
A Q 10 x x
-
9 7 x x x x
Partner opens 1 Diamond, playing 5 Card Majors with a short club. I reply 1 Heart, as 2-over-1 shows 11+, so 2 Clubs is out. Partner bids 1NT (12-13). Here, I think the reasonable option is to Pass. Sure, it'll be wrong sometimes, and is unlikely to be the optimum contract. But anything else will risk a bigger mess, as I shall now demonstrate.
Deciding that I just would not pass a contract when I knew it was unlikely to be the best spot (if not the least ridiculous), I set out in search of the perfect score. I bid a Checkback 2 Clubs, which by agreement could show a GF hand or an invitational hand. I am hoping partner will bid 2 Hearts now. But of course I ought to know what was coming; partner will inevitably in these situations make the bid you don't want - 2 Diamonds. Okay, so that's things gone belly-up; let's now compound the error; utterly screwing myself over by bidding 2 Hearts. This really was going out on a limb; of course if partner has 5 Diamonds and 3 Hearts, he'll show the 5 diamonds first. He could still have three hearts. He doesn't. He bids 3 Diamonds. Now what? Sigh. 3NT. I should've just passed the b****y 1NT.
Not if the Angels had their say. 3NT romped home with an overtrick, swinging +8 in the IMPs column when our counterparts made 2 Diamonds on the nose.
The last hand from the session I will note:
10 5 4
x x
A Q x x
A 10 x x
A K 8 7 6 3
A K J x x
-
Q x
Yes, of course we got to 6 Spades on this. The question is, how do you go about making it on the Jack of Clubs lead? Obviously you start by winning with the Ace in dummy and pitching the queen of clubs on the Ace of diamonds. Trick 3 requires an important choice. I considered two different lines here. I took the one that looked best at the time; on the actual layout, both worked. Thoughts?
Anyway, when all said and done, we won 5 matches and lost one - enough for second place. It was all quite formal, with the top team winning every match, us only losing to them, and 3rd place only losing to 1st and 2nd place. So, on the way back up again. After Thursday it became a case of hoping to go one better in the....
RAYNE TROPHY FINAL
Hence, the inspiration for the title. Above? That was just the preamble(!). I didn't mention the Rayne qualifier in my previous post, because I can catch up with it here.
It has been difficult of late to secure a steady team for the Rayne. This year, in terms of organisation, we went one better, when the Convener knew I wanted to play, and put my name on the sign-up sheet without checking if I actually had a team, which I didn't. However, lessurl and I managed to find two others that were willing to play 42 boards on a Sunday afternoon, and we went into the qualifier with no aspirations and no pressure on our shoulders.
I find it sad that out of the entire District, we can only amass a grand total of eight teams that were interested in playing in one of the biggest teams events on the calendar. Montrose Bridge Club (won't mind me mentioning here that they) got TWELVE tables! How is it that a CLUB manages to get 50% more entries than a DISTRICT?
Some of you might read that last part and say "don't act as if you don't know", while others would challenge me to do something about it. I guess it is a subject that I have touched on before, and yes, I do have theories. But really, I guess I should vent my spleen about that in a separate blog post.
So, anyway, we had eight teams, and played a Thurner movement with 6 board matches, with a mandatory break, because of the SBU's directive that players that qualify for the final must have played in two sessions prior to it. I do see the logic here, but really, all this is doing is dissuading players from actually entering, and this is counter-productive for all concerned.
Of course, there was only one qualification spot available, and we could hardly be considered favourites to get it. With a lack of entries, the event was chalk full of players actually intent on qualifying. On paper we might have been as low as the sixth strongest team.
However, the team showed from the outset they were not here to make up numbers. Our team-mates (who had never played together before, ever) had one disaster in 42 boards, which is a terrific return. Lessurl and I were working our socks off meanwhile, and didn't take many prisoners. There was even one match where we had a Grand Slam against us on the first board and we still won 20-0. We won five matches, and a score of 87 VPs was just enough to take First place. None of us had expected that, but it became official very quickly.
And so on to the Final in Dundee.
Our drive down worked like clockwork, and we arrived in plenty time to stretch our legs and double-confirm that our team was in the Silver bracket. This was not the first Final in Dundee where my team was in the Silver bracket by virtue of one Scottish Master plus three Bronze bracket players. So, we knew what our target for the day was: The Silver Award. More on that later. First, some hands.
Anatomy of a Match
The format was a 12 team Thurner; 11 matches of four board; 44 boards in total. Lessurl and I gave ourselves the easy job of sitting all day. Out of 44 boards in a National final, there are bound to be some interesting ones, but the task I have set myself here is to find some interesting boards from the same match, in the hope of giving an insight into how a Silver team might go about attempting a good score. I have selected two; the matches against McCreadie and Campbell's team. I would also include the match against Wickens, but that means I'd accidentally have picked the three matches where we scored best, which I don't think it's the done thing to do.
First up is Board 21 against Stuart McCreadie's team. This is a very competent team. They knocked us out in Round 1 of the Scottish Cup Plate last year, although I felt that on the top of our game there might have been a different outcome. So I was keen to see what we could do here in the space of four boards.
I opened a weak 2 Spades; lessurl raised this to 4. This could either be with the intention to make, or the intention to stop East-West finding the right spot. Stuart now bid 5 Diamonds, which my partner doubled at his turn, and 5 Diamonds doubled was the contract. This is the cue for some nervous card-play, for if there are two things Stuart can do really well, it's judge an optimum contract, and play the cards. (Or to put it another way, the two best aspects of his game are bidding and card play. Hmm) As it was, there were no voids, and lessurl held three aces. We took the contract 1 down. We'd hoped for more than +100 when we had bid to a making Game, but as my partner pointed out, 4 Spades makes ten exactly, so that was the best we could do. He was proved right when our team-mates brought back +100 for beating 5 Spades. 5-0.
Board 22 was the big one.
John Lessurl Stuart Me
Pass 1S 2C 3D*
In 44 boards, our special defence to simple interference of our 1 of a Major opening was used twice. This was the second occasion, on the sixth board of the day. The 3 Diamonds bid shows a raise to 3 Spades with 4+ card support. I actually had a 5-5-3-0 shape, so when Lessurl bid 3 Spades, I calmly raised to 4. Let's look at it from Declarer's point of view:
Q 10 6 3 2
A K 10 8 2
10 8 2
---
A K 9 5 4
J 6
J 9 7 4
K 5
There is only one thing for it. Spades have to come down in two rounds, so that he can get ten tricks with two rounds of spades, five cross-ruffs, two hearts and a left over spade. That is exactly what happened; 4 Spades made.
The key thing about the 3 Diamonds bid is that it set us on our way to our optimum Contract, whilst cutting East-West out completely. Our team-mates found their way to 5 Clubs, got doubled, and made for a better-than-Double-Game-Swing. After two boards we were 20 IMPs to nothing ahead, and our opponents hadn't really done anything wrong.
Onto Board 23.
I hold:
A Q J 10
K 10 6
J 6 4
Q 5 3
I open 1 Club (Better Minor), and John overcalls 1 Heart. Lessurl bids 2 Diamonds, and I am happy to raise this twice in a competitive auction, so Lessurl plays in 4 Diamonds. What I did not know was that he had 5 Diamonds and 4 Spades, which meant that although he got ten tricks in diamonds, he had the same ten tricks in spades. A vulnerable game swing against us made the score 20-10.
On Board 24, I overcalled Stuart's opening with an Unusual 2NT. Although they found their 4 Heart spot, Lessurl had 5 Clubs and that was also the contract he raised to. 4 Hearts makes, but 5 Hearts doesn't, and when our team-mates semi-proved that by making 11 in 4 Hearts, we'd regained the ten IMPs, which for a 4 board match gave us a 20-0 VP victory. I think that shows how cut-throat a four board match can be. Our opponents certainly have cause to feel unlucky.
The second match I'm choosing to share is the match against Beryl Campbell's team. Again, this is purely because of the boards of interest and nothing to do with the score. Seriously, I've looked at the two matches we lost 20-0 and don't think they're worth writing up.
So, Board Five.
This board was interesting for what didn't happen as much as what did. The boards are on the Central District website, and board 5 is worth a look. For convenience I'll post East and West's hands:
Q J
Q J 9 7 4
A K 6 5
8 5
A 9 7 5 2
---
7 4
A K J 7 6 4
(West at the bottom)
At our table, East opened 1 Heart, and Lessurl (South) overcalled with a strong 1NT. From his point of view, this is entirely reasonable, but unfortunately for him, if they double this for penalties they can easily take 1100, as did happen to one unfortunate South. That is almost a good save against a slam in clubs. Every finesse works, as the 1NT bid suggests, but East-West are hard-pressed to find the slam. How do you proceed after the 1H-1NT start? With us, West bid 2 Clubs, and ended up just playing 3. She made 13 tricks for 190, and we thought we were quids in. Unfortunately, our (by now rather tired) team-mates were in the same contract and only made 11, so we were 0-1 down after this board. Most East-West players found Game, but none found the slam.
On Board 6, our opponents did not make the best of things, playing in 2 Hearts on a 5-0 fit. I'd best gloss over this one I think; I'm eager to get to Board 7, which we did with a 3-1 lead, thanks to our team-mates pushing to 4 Clubs, down 1.
Here is Board 7:
Lessurl and I unanimously agreed this was our favourite defensive board of the day.
Off the cuff, does it look like West makes 4 Spades here?
Deep Finesse will tell you the answer is "no", but the defence is not simple.
The credit goes to Lessurl for implementing the plan; I simply followed it.
I led the ace of hearts and another. Partner won with the King and fired back a heart. Declarer, alert to the danger of losing a 3rd trick to a ruff when the ace was outstanding, ruffed with the queen and immediately pulled a round of trumps: small to the King, beaten by the ace.
Lessurl now played another heart, a trick some defenders would not find owing to the taboo of conceding a ruff and discard. But he has worked out the best hope for the defence is that I have the ten of spades, after which, by ruffing (whatever West plays) with the ten, forcing the Jack, we've had a successful trump promotion.
I don't know if our team-mates got the same defence, but they were in 3 Spades making, for 6 IMPs and a 9-1 lead.
On Board 8, I held:
10 4 2
10 6
K Q 6 5 2
K 6 5
RHO opened 1 Diamond; I passed and LHO bid 2 Diamonds. Lessurl Doubles, which I know is takeout, but when RHO passes, I can't resist a penalty pass. Remember, we don't have a barometer; I think we're well ahead in the match and that 2 Diamonds Doubled is not a double into Game, therefore relatively safe.
I lead the Ten of Hearts, and see this dummy:
Q
A 5 3
J 10 9 8
J 10 4 3 2
Gulp. Declarer wins with the ace and plays the spade; lessurl covering with the King. She wins with the ace and now plays the queen of clubs. I pause for thought, and ultimately take the wrong option, cashing my King, fearing the Chinese Finesse. I give partner his King of hearts. Now there is nothing else to do but bide our time as Declarer cross-ruffs in spades and clubs, but with two diamonds left in dummy, she ruffs a club with the 4. I can win with the six, exit with the King, and ruff back in, draw the last trump from Declarer and dummy, and cross to partner's hand to beat the contract by one. Our team mates beat 2 Spades, and we collected another 4 IMPs; 16 VPs.
We scored up our eleven matches, winning five. I was pretty sure that was enough to win the Silver bracket - mainly because we were the only Silver team in the Final. I think, given the field, we did at least earn it. Not only did we get 5 wins in the Final, we qualified in the first place. I was dreading losing every match; it would have been very embarrassing to collect "Silver" then.
Target achieved, I feel. I went home with a 40p profit for the day, another "Silver Team Award" to go with the Men's Team's Silver in 2010, and a happy team. It was especially good going given that the qualifier was our team-mates' first ever game together, and the Final was their second. The pressure was off in terms of gain; but it was on in terms of deserving. I think we all enjoyed testing ourselves against the best, and giving a good account of ourselves as the only team from the North. Hence, I make no apologies for the cheesy title! :-)
This started on Monday night when my partner decided that my discarding a high diamond followed by a low one when we play Reverse Attitude meant I wanted diamonds on the first hand, but on the second hand the Guardian Angels apologised for turning up late by giving me this Declarer problem:
Q x x x
J 10 x
9 7 x
K x x
A K x x
Q x x
A K Q x
Q x
Contract: 3NT (by the bottom hand). Lead: A small diamond.
There is certainly play for 9 tricks here. Spades and diamonds provide three top tricks, with chances of a 4th in each. If that works, either one of the rounded suits might provide the 9th trick. But obviously, the first task is to bore into LHO's mind and work out what he led from. Do I play the 9 or 7? If this is a 4th highest lead, I might as well play the 7 - which holds. LHO had led low from J 10 8 x x (!), so I was never going to guess wrong.
Four tricks in diamonds are coming in, what about the spades? If they break well, then nine tricks are in the bag with a club exit. But the Angels have taught me pragmatic pessimism, if I haven't learned it from life in general. Sure, that works if spades break, but what if they don't? I'm going to need clubs stopped; there's always a chance hearts break 4-3/3-4 and they can't run against me. So I play the Jack of Hearts.
RHO wins with the King and returns a diamond; exactly what I was hoping for. I can now knock out the heart Ace without concern about clubs. RHO wins and plays another heart, and I'm happy to see LHO follow too. RHO has a heart winner once he gets in, but not yet.
I cash three diamonds, and note that spades are never thrown. Wouldn't you know it; they are 1-4. Good thing I decided to set up hearts. I can still set up clubs and make a total of nine tricks. It was one of those hands where everyone in my seat played in 3NT. The others went one or two down - this included the other Declarer fortunate enough to get a low diamond lead.
Unfortunately that did NOT set the tone for the evening. There is still a lot of work to do - that's undeniable when partner decides to play in 4 Hearts on a 5-0 trump fit. By sheer graft we managed to take second place; I doubt we can say there was much finesse on out part.
But if that was bad, Wednesday night was worse. Somehow we scraped as many outright tops as outright bottoms, and partner was lucky that bridge crimes do not earn time in prison. Whether it was showing strong hands with plates of mince, or passing when he actually had one, there were some decisions made to which utterly no logic or rational thought made sense at all. All of which I can tolerate if partner was gracious enough to accept it, but when it all is somehow MY fault, I think I'm entitled to vent about it.
In fairness (?) to partner, it was the BGB, which meant computer-dealt hands. That winds him up for a start. He doesn't know the difference between "computer dealt" and "fixed" - to him it's all a fix. So we can seldom expect a good night in a BGB event, but we still play them, because once every blue moon I might get some Green points for it.
{To the uninitiated: Green Points = Red Points = National Master Points. 100 Black points = 100 local points = numerical value of 1 Green/Red/National Point. Easy. EXCEPT, I heard the other night that the EBU are now considering inventing Blue Points which, apparently, will be equivalent to a part award in Greens and Blacks. If anyone out there capable of logical and deductive reasoning can explain to me what in the name of sanity the EBU are doing, I'd be very interested in understanding, or at least attempting thereof.}
At least the afternoon school's session was good. They still need a lot drummed into them before being unleashed on the bridge general public, and developing the teams we want is going to be an epic challenge, but I am hopeful we will rise to the occasion. The highlight was when one of Phoenix Rising's newest players made 12 tricks in 4 Spades, testament to the fact that she should have been in 6.
Thursday night, and things improved, just a little bit. It was not evident to start with when I had this hand early on:
Q J
A J x x
A K Q x x x
x
Partner opens a (Weak) 2 Spades. RHO bids 5 Clubs.
My feeling was that I can construct possible hands for partner where 6 Spades will make, and on most of the occasions that it doesn't, 5 Spades won't make either, so, in keeping with our style, I blasted it. (I should probably explain that this was not my regular partner, but a Life Master notorious for bidding everything. The philosophy is that it is okay to come down in contracts on a regular basis as long as no Games or Slams are missed). Unfortunately, this did not work. To make matters worse, 5 Clubs turned out not to make either.
Other things went wrong too; the pick of these was when partner opened a Weak 2 Spades (again), and with RHO making a strong bid, I decided, holding two points, that I would pre-empt them out of a making slam. This was initially working when LHO picked a sub-optimal Game contract, but partner decided to double, which caused RHO to rescue to a slam in her suit. The subsequent second double from partner resulted in -1190 on the score card and -6 IMPs.
But, the Guardian Angels were not quite idle. Observe this hand:
Q J
A Q 10 x x
-
9 7 x x x x
Partner opens 1 Diamond, playing 5 Card Majors with a short club. I reply 1 Heart, as 2-over-1 shows 11+, so 2 Clubs is out. Partner bids 1NT (12-13). Here, I think the reasonable option is to Pass. Sure, it'll be wrong sometimes, and is unlikely to be the optimum contract. But anything else will risk a bigger mess, as I shall now demonstrate.
Deciding that I just would not pass a contract when I knew it was unlikely to be the best spot (if not the least ridiculous), I set out in search of the perfect score. I bid a Checkback 2 Clubs, which by agreement could show a GF hand or an invitational hand. I am hoping partner will bid 2 Hearts now. But of course I ought to know what was coming; partner will inevitably in these situations make the bid you don't want - 2 Diamonds. Okay, so that's things gone belly-up; let's now compound the error; utterly screwing myself over by bidding 2 Hearts. This really was going out on a limb; of course if partner has 5 Diamonds and 3 Hearts, he'll show the 5 diamonds first. He could still have three hearts. He doesn't. He bids 3 Diamonds. Now what? Sigh. 3NT. I should've just passed the b****y 1NT.
Not if the Angels had their say. 3NT romped home with an overtrick, swinging +8 in the IMPs column when our counterparts made 2 Diamonds on the nose.
The last hand from the session I will note:
10 5 4
x x
A Q x x
A 10 x x
A K 8 7 6 3
A K J x x
-
Q x
Yes, of course we got to 6 Spades on this. The question is, how do you go about making it on the Jack of Clubs lead? Obviously you start by winning with the Ace in dummy and pitching the queen of clubs on the Ace of diamonds. Trick 3 requires an important choice. I considered two different lines here. I took the one that looked best at the time; on the actual layout, both worked. Thoughts?
Anyway, when all said and done, we won 5 matches and lost one - enough for second place. It was all quite formal, with the top team winning every match, us only losing to them, and 3rd place only losing to 1st and 2nd place. So, on the way back up again. After Thursday it became a case of hoping to go one better in the....
RAYNE TROPHY FINAL
Hence, the inspiration for the title. Above? That was just the preamble(!). I didn't mention the Rayne qualifier in my previous post, because I can catch up with it here.
It has been difficult of late to secure a steady team for the Rayne. This year, in terms of organisation, we went one better, when the Convener knew I wanted to play, and put my name on the sign-up sheet without checking if I actually had a team, which I didn't. However, lessurl and I managed to find two others that were willing to play 42 boards on a Sunday afternoon, and we went into the qualifier with no aspirations and no pressure on our shoulders.
I find it sad that out of the entire District, we can only amass a grand total of eight teams that were interested in playing in one of the biggest teams events on the calendar. Montrose Bridge Club (won't mind me mentioning here that they) got TWELVE tables! How is it that a CLUB manages to get 50% more entries than a DISTRICT?
Some of you might read that last part and say "don't act as if you don't know", while others would challenge me to do something about it. I guess it is a subject that I have touched on before, and yes, I do have theories. But really, I guess I should vent my spleen about that in a separate blog post.
So, anyway, we had eight teams, and played a Thurner movement with 6 board matches, with a mandatory break, because of the SBU's directive that players that qualify for the final must have played in two sessions prior to it. I do see the logic here, but really, all this is doing is dissuading players from actually entering, and this is counter-productive for all concerned.
Of course, there was only one qualification spot available, and we could hardly be considered favourites to get it. With a lack of entries, the event was chalk full of players actually intent on qualifying. On paper we might have been as low as the sixth strongest team.
However, the team showed from the outset they were not here to make up numbers. Our team-mates (who had never played together before, ever) had one disaster in 42 boards, which is a terrific return. Lessurl and I were working our socks off meanwhile, and didn't take many prisoners. There was even one match where we had a Grand Slam against us on the first board and we still won 20-0. We won five matches, and a score of 87 VPs was just enough to take First place. None of us had expected that, but it became official very quickly.
And so on to the Final in Dundee.
Our drive down worked like clockwork, and we arrived in plenty time to stretch our legs and double-confirm that our team was in the Silver bracket. This was not the first Final in Dundee where my team was in the Silver bracket by virtue of one Scottish Master plus three Bronze bracket players. So, we knew what our target for the day was: The Silver Award. More on that later. First, some hands.
Anatomy of a Match
The format was a 12 team Thurner; 11 matches of four board; 44 boards in total. Lessurl and I gave ourselves the easy job of sitting all day. Out of 44 boards in a National final, there are bound to be some interesting ones, but the task I have set myself here is to find some interesting boards from the same match, in the hope of giving an insight into how a Silver team might go about attempting a good score. I have selected two; the matches against McCreadie and Campbell's team. I would also include the match against Wickens, but that means I'd accidentally have picked the three matches where we scored best, which I don't think it's the done thing to do.
First up is Board 21 against Stuart McCreadie's team. This is a very competent team. They knocked us out in Round 1 of the Scottish Cup Plate last year, although I felt that on the top of our game there might have been a different outcome. So I was keen to see what we could do here in the space of four boards.
I opened a weak 2 Spades; lessurl raised this to 4. This could either be with the intention to make, or the intention to stop East-West finding the right spot. Stuart now bid 5 Diamonds, which my partner doubled at his turn, and 5 Diamonds doubled was the contract. This is the cue for some nervous card-play, for if there are two things Stuart can do really well, it's judge an optimum contract, and play the cards. (Or to put it another way, the two best aspects of his game are bidding and card play. Hmm) As it was, there were no voids, and lessurl held three aces. We took the contract 1 down. We'd hoped for more than +100 when we had bid to a making Game, but as my partner pointed out, 4 Spades makes ten exactly, so that was the best we could do. He was proved right when our team-mates brought back +100 for beating 5 Spades. 5-0.
Board 22 was the big one.
John Lessurl Stuart Me
Pass 1S 2C 3D*
In 44 boards, our special defence to simple interference of our 1 of a Major opening was used twice. This was the second occasion, on the sixth board of the day. The 3 Diamonds bid shows a raise to 3 Spades with 4+ card support. I actually had a 5-5-3-0 shape, so when Lessurl bid 3 Spades, I calmly raised to 4. Let's look at it from Declarer's point of view:
Q 10 6 3 2
A K 10 8 2
10 8 2
---
A K 9 5 4
J 6
J 9 7 4
K 5
There is only one thing for it. Spades have to come down in two rounds, so that he can get ten tricks with two rounds of spades, five cross-ruffs, two hearts and a left over spade. That is exactly what happened; 4 Spades made.
The key thing about the 3 Diamonds bid is that it set us on our way to our optimum Contract, whilst cutting East-West out completely. Our team-mates found their way to 5 Clubs, got doubled, and made for a better-than-Double-Game-Swing. After two boards we were 20 IMPs to nothing ahead, and our opponents hadn't really done anything wrong.
Onto Board 23.
I hold:
A Q J 10
K 10 6
J 6 4
Q 5 3
I open 1 Club (Better Minor), and John overcalls 1 Heart. Lessurl bids 2 Diamonds, and I am happy to raise this twice in a competitive auction, so Lessurl plays in 4 Diamonds. What I did not know was that he had 5 Diamonds and 4 Spades, which meant that although he got ten tricks in diamonds, he had the same ten tricks in spades. A vulnerable game swing against us made the score 20-10.
On Board 24, I overcalled Stuart's opening with an Unusual 2NT. Although they found their 4 Heart spot, Lessurl had 5 Clubs and that was also the contract he raised to. 4 Hearts makes, but 5 Hearts doesn't, and when our team-mates semi-proved that by making 11 in 4 Hearts, we'd regained the ten IMPs, which for a 4 board match gave us a 20-0 VP victory. I think that shows how cut-throat a four board match can be. Our opponents certainly have cause to feel unlucky.
The second match I'm choosing to share is the match against Beryl Campbell's team. Again, this is purely because of the boards of interest and nothing to do with the score. Seriously, I've looked at the two matches we lost 20-0 and don't think they're worth writing up.
So, Board Five.
This board was interesting for what didn't happen as much as what did. The boards are on the Central District website, and board 5 is worth a look. For convenience I'll post East and West's hands:
Q J
Q J 9 7 4
A K 6 5
8 5
A 9 7 5 2
---
7 4
A K J 7 6 4
(West at the bottom)
At our table, East opened 1 Heart, and Lessurl (South) overcalled with a strong 1NT. From his point of view, this is entirely reasonable, but unfortunately for him, if they double this for penalties they can easily take 1100, as did happen to one unfortunate South. That is almost a good save against a slam in clubs. Every finesse works, as the 1NT bid suggests, but East-West are hard-pressed to find the slam. How do you proceed after the 1H-1NT start? With us, West bid 2 Clubs, and ended up just playing 3. She made 13 tricks for 190, and we thought we were quids in. Unfortunately, our (by now rather tired) team-mates were in the same contract and only made 11, so we were 0-1 down after this board. Most East-West players found Game, but none found the slam.
On Board 6, our opponents did not make the best of things, playing in 2 Hearts on a 5-0 fit. I'd best gloss over this one I think; I'm eager to get to Board 7, which we did with a 3-1 lead, thanks to our team-mates pushing to 4 Clubs, down 1.
Here is Board 7:
Lessurl and I unanimously agreed this was our favourite defensive board of the day.
Off the cuff, does it look like West makes 4 Spades here?
Deep Finesse will tell you the answer is "no", but the defence is not simple.
The credit goes to Lessurl for implementing the plan; I simply followed it.
I led the ace of hearts and another. Partner won with the King and fired back a heart. Declarer, alert to the danger of losing a 3rd trick to a ruff when the ace was outstanding, ruffed with the queen and immediately pulled a round of trumps: small to the King, beaten by the ace.
Lessurl now played another heart, a trick some defenders would not find owing to the taboo of conceding a ruff and discard. But he has worked out the best hope for the defence is that I have the ten of spades, after which, by ruffing (whatever West plays) with the ten, forcing the Jack, we've had a successful trump promotion.
I don't know if our team-mates got the same defence, but they were in 3 Spades making, for 6 IMPs and a 9-1 lead.
On Board 8, I held:
10 4 2
10 6
K Q 6 5 2
K 6 5
RHO opened 1 Diamond; I passed and LHO bid 2 Diamonds. Lessurl Doubles, which I know is takeout, but when RHO passes, I can't resist a penalty pass. Remember, we don't have a barometer; I think we're well ahead in the match and that 2 Diamonds Doubled is not a double into Game, therefore relatively safe.
I lead the Ten of Hearts, and see this dummy:
Q
A 5 3
J 10 9 8
J 10 4 3 2
Gulp. Declarer wins with the ace and plays the spade; lessurl covering with the King. She wins with the ace and now plays the queen of clubs. I pause for thought, and ultimately take the wrong option, cashing my King, fearing the Chinese Finesse. I give partner his King of hearts. Now there is nothing else to do but bide our time as Declarer cross-ruffs in spades and clubs, but with two diamonds left in dummy, she ruffs a club with the 4. I can win with the six, exit with the King, and ruff back in, draw the last trump from Declarer and dummy, and cross to partner's hand to beat the contract by one. Our team mates beat 2 Spades, and we collected another 4 IMPs; 16 VPs.
We scored up our eleven matches, winning five. I was pretty sure that was enough to win the Silver bracket - mainly because we were the only Silver team in the Final. I think, given the field, we did at least earn it. Not only did we get 5 wins in the Final, we qualified in the first place. I was dreading losing every match; it would have been very embarrassing to collect "Silver" then.
Target achieved, I feel. I went home with a 40p profit for the day, another "Silver Team Award" to go with the Men's Team's Silver in 2010, and a happy team. It was especially good going given that the qualifier was our team-mates' first ever game together, and the Final was their second. The pressure was off in terms of gain; but it was on in terms of deserving. I think we all enjoyed testing ourselves against the best, and giving a good account of ourselves as the only team from the North. Hence, I make no apologies for the cheesy title! :-)
Friday, 23 December 2011
Happy new Blog(?)
Perhaps I know what my New year resolution can be - update this properly. This is going to be yet another whistle-stop tour of everything I've done in the bridge world since November 4th, over two months ago. Oops. I had intended writing in late December, but never got there, and sank into bridge hibernation as Christmas and New Year passed. Eventually, last Tuesday, I raised my head out of the burrow to indulge in bridge once more, and won the session, playing with McLeod senior, with a score of 65%, which I was pleased with given some gross mistakes along the way.
But enough of that. Let's go back to the start.
We are still hangers on in the Phoenix Cup, having finished 5th = in Round 3 whilst the leaders took 3rd place. I haven't done the mathematical workings, but I am fairly sure we are still 2nd in the running. However, there is no margin of error, and we are moving towards the outside lane. It is difficult to get this particular pair of favourites to surrender the lead once they have it.
DISTRICT TEAMS OF FOUR
Rounds 2, 3 and 4 have been played. For Round 2, we drafted in a substitute to replace one of our players who unfortunately had to cancel out at the last minute. This made an already quite difficult task much harder. Our Round 2 opponents were HAY and WATSON - last year's winners and this year's only Ellon entry respectively.
As East-West, Lessurl and I played against the HAY team first. Last year, Jim Hay, who I credit as a coach and important influence on my bridge career, had a team that went through the entire competition unbeaten. Most of this team has still had some participation in this season, so his team were installed as favourites by the Conveners (half of whom is me). This year, however, there are chinks in the armour. They scored 26 out of a possible 40 in Round 1, losing their unbeaten run. Lessurl and I had a reasonable match against the North-South pair (Jim and Jun being out counterparts), although it might have been better had I taken the right view in a slam contract. In the end, we scraped 11 VPs.
We were firm favourites for our second set of twelve boards, against WATSON. This team finished 15th of 16 last season, and were seedings to be used throughout, would've been seeded 12 of 13 this time round. Obviously I have a soft spot for them as I know them from Ellon. Of course, there is a difference between being favourites and getting an "easy" match. The problem, as any "top dog" will tell you, is when the underdogs play a solid game. Certainly, they did not seem to be giving away anything spectacular. What was important was that we matched their solidity, and eventually wore them down. Things went right for us and we eventually did squeeze every IMP we could, taking a 20-0 win.
Round 3 was a mixed/mediocre affair. We won the match in which we were underdogs 17-3, but lost the other match (in which we were still underdogs, but not by as much) 16-4. I don't think we played well or badly; not much to write home about. After this we were 6th.
Round 4 was last night. Lessurl was given the night off, for happy reasons that I won't go into here. Thus I played with our second substitute of the season, and we had a lot of fun, trying to work out what each other's bids meant. This was especially evident in the first match we played, against USHER. Quite a few times we couldn't explain what partner intended, but we did at least manage to find the optimal spots, save for one Game that was just a stretch too far. We managed a thin Semi Slam and also picked up an 800 and 200 courtesy of tempting our opponents to go too high and bringing out the red card. Our team mates went rather overboard, bidding three slams, but at least they made one of them, and when the dust cleared we collected 18 VPs.
Our second match was against this season's leaders. Here, our bidding frailties were shown up and when we missed a slam, and then a Game, on consecutive boards, we were 13 IMPs behind with half the boards played. Cue the comeback.
After RHO opened 1 Diamond (third in), I made a takeout double based on my 4-4-1-4 shape as it was NOT based on my points. I felt this was safe as both LHO and partner were passed hands; my plan was to pass whatever partner bid. In fact he chose 2 Clubs, which suited me holding KQxx. RHO then got across his hand with a 4 Diamond bid. Pass-pass-? Partner thought a little bid, and eventually produced a double. I will remember to ask my regular partner how we play this, as I am not 100% sure and certainly wasn't sure with a first time partner. I was leaning towards penalties, simply because now is a strange time to look for another suit, when I have taken no action after my initial takeout double, and if he wants to play 5 Clubs, he has the option of bidding it. But I never had a dilemma. RHO now bids 5 Diamonds, worried that we are about to find our heart fit. It is a phantom sacrifice, as LHO has 6 hearts. When the bidding comes round to West, my somewhat surprised partner makes another double. Everyone knows this is business. Three off for 500 does nicely.
We then bid to a Game that wasn't there, so shipped out 7. After I opened 1 Spade on the next board, and responded to 1NT with a forcing 3 Spades which was passed, that really did look like the killer. I made 12 tricks for +230. Imagine my surprise when we scored that one up and gathered 7 IMPs. Thank you, team-mates, you've bailed us out again. A flat Game was next, followed by an unexpected +3. My partner was not happy with how he played a 1NT contract on that board, and the upshot was, completely unknown to us, going into the last board the match was tied at 24 IMPs each.
Partner opens 1 Heart (5cM). I hold:
x
x
Q 10 x
A K Q 10 9 7 x x
2 Clubs is my bid. (That was easy).
Partner makes a reverse bid of two spades. Hmm, I think I'll bid 3 Diamonds 4sf.
Partner bids 3 Spades. What now?
Have you worked out what your bid would be? This is not a test; I'm just interested how many people would've done what I did here. (I realise a fair number may not have agreed with my first two bids). My bid was... Six Clubs. Ace of diamonds lead; here is dummy:
A Q x x x
A K x x x x
x
J
I could not have really asked for better. If this was a play problem, the question would be: how do you play once LHO switches to a club at trick 2?
Instead, LHO continued a low diamond. I ruffed with the Jack in dummy, cashed the ace of spades and ruffed a spade with the 9. I claimed: draw trumps in as many rounds as necessary, cross to the ace of hearts and pitch the diamond on the king. 10 IMPs here got us 14 VPs.
When the results are all accounted, we see there is something of a gap in VP totals between 8th and 9th - in other words, the top 8 and the bottom 5. Some will argue that any of the top 8 are still in with a chance of winning. Since we were playing the best team in the bottom five, who are more or less guaranteed a 9th place finish the way things are going, and the team that has led from the outset (although they were 1st= after round 1), we consider 32 a great night's work. We currently lie 5th; not high enough to trouble the leaders I feel, but what else is there to play for?
The aforementioned WATSON and HAY played each other last night, with a 13-7 win for WATSON. Congratulations to them; that is the biggest shock that I can remember in this competition. I will say I know nothing about the match or how the result came about. Others will say I could've stopped after the first six words of that last sentence.
Things are certainly interesting. It still remains in MOWAT's hands. Their grip may have slipped a little with a defeat last night, but we are the only team that has managed to beat them so far, and every other team has lost more than one match so far. We are one of only three teams that have only lost two matches. The resurgent ROSS team has come back from a disastrous 6/40 in Round 1 to climb into second place with scores of 37, 38 and 35. HAY sits 3rd and will play MOWAT and ROSS on the final night. McGUIRE, who hammered us 17-3 on the first night, still have title aspirations, and we sit 5 behind them. Don't get me wrong - I intend to win the Sybil Hay District Teams of Four one day. But I'm not putting money on it being this year.
HIGHLAND BRIDGE CONGRESS; COYLUMBRIDGE
This Congress is already a favourite of mine - perhaps because of everything that comes with it. (The company, etc, etc). It really deserved a blog post of its own, but unfortunately I never got round to it, and giving hands from it now seems just a wee bit off - although there are plenty good ones.
Having missed out on the Pairs Final by one place last year, we made sure of it this time, qualifying as First in our section. Our bridge was solid for the first two thirds of the evening, and it seemed that was enough. By the time McLeod Senior broke free of the reins and took some actions that I'd rather he didn't, we must've been in the Final.
We even started the Final pretty well, but before we reached the half way stage, partner suddenly decided he wanted to play in a Slam missing an ace and three kings and came crashing down. Now we all know that playing Match Points, all you do is get back up and carry on. But a combination of bad luck and bad bridge ensured we never really did that, or by the time we did, we finished just shy of the top 3rd. Apparently this was just high enough to get 2 reds, which I gratefully accept. Phoenix pair Bill Ross and Emily Garden were Runners-Up for the 2nd year running.
The teams went well too. I thought we had a predominantly good card, and whether right or wrong about that, we qualified for the final. We raised our game for the final, and were rewarded with a 3rd place finish.
LEAGUE TEAMS OF EIGHT
So far, not so good for Phoenix Rising this year. It has been a hard battle just getting the matches organised, not to mention actually playing them. We agreed 18th December to play Banchory, and despite snow finally hitting Aberdeen on that day, we played the match. We fielded our youngest ever team and, in fairness, it showed. Division 2 is a step up in class from Division 3, one that some of our players were not quite ready for. We lost 17-3, and are rooted to the bottom of the table. For avoidance of doubt, our season's objective is to stay up.
On the plus side, we have a match in hand over most teams. Our match with Fraserburgh has been postponed until the spring. There is still a lot to play for. Our next match is against Torphins, and I will field as young a team as I can for that one too.
PHOENIX TEAMS OF FOUR
This is the Phoenix Club's premier event, and two rounds of three have been played since I last checked in. It is run as a Double Elimination event, with sixteen board matches. The first round was a random draw, and as we were drawn against one of the possible favourites, one win and one draw was the best we could hope for. It was close - the one win was by 2 IMPs; we scraped into Section B for Round 2.
This was slightly different. One potential winning team was in our section, but the other team we were up against was an outright underdog. Lessurl and I did not cover ourselves in glory, but somehow (I think with a lot of thanks to our team mates), we won the match comfortably. While Lessurl and I played the underdogs, there was a change to the team line-up of the other team, which suited us as it turned out. We won both matches on the night and therefore qualified for the Semi-Finals in Round 3.
CAMROSE
I write this with three of five matches completed in the first weekend of the Camrose. Scotland emerged on top in the battle between themselves and the SBU, although I understand it went right to the wire. Both Scottish teams got a crack at England today. SBU led by more than thirty IMPs half way through, but eventually lost convincingly. Scotland were down at Half time, but could (and should) have grabbed a draw in the second half.
This morning, Scotland found themselves 41 IMPs behind Wales before all of us were wide awake and ready to watch. The deficit was shortened by the end of 32 boards, but Wales still took the spoils. They followed that up with the aforementioned narrow defeat to England, so I'm crossing my fingers that they fire on all cylinders against both Irish teams from the outset tomorrow.
As for the SBU, they finished the day by grabbing their first win, against ROI, so hopefully the improvement continues into Sunday.
Bottom line: Neither Scottish side are doing well right now, but there is still time for that to change completely. Fingers crossed.
So, Happy New Year.
I hope 2012 is very prosperous.
As for the Bridge, I live in hope. We (my Dad & I) followed up our Tuesday win with a win at Phoenix on Thursday, with significant help from our team-mates. Coupled with last night, it seems I'm unbeaten in 2012, so long may that continue. After all, it's the final of the Rayne next week.
But enough of that. Let's go back to the start.
We are still hangers on in the Phoenix Cup, having finished 5th = in Round 3 whilst the leaders took 3rd place. I haven't done the mathematical workings, but I am fairly sure we are still 2nd in the running. However, there is no margin of error, and we are moving towards the outside lane. It is difficult to get this particular pair of favourites to surrender the lead once they have it.
DISTRICT TEAMS OF FOUR
Rounds 2, 3 and 4 have been played. For Round 2, we drafted in a substitute to replace one of our players who unfortunately had to cancel out at the last minute. This made an already quite difficult task much harder. Our Round 2 opponents were HAY and WATSON - last year's winners and this year's only Ellon entry respectively.
As East-West, Lessurl and I played against the HAY team first. Last year, Jim Hay, who I credit as a coach and important influence on my bridge career, had a team that went through the entire competition unbeaten. Most of this team has still had some participation in this season, so his team were installed as favourites by the Conveners (half of whom is me). This year, however, there are chinks in the armour. They scored 26 out of a possible 40 in Round 1, losing their unbeaten run. Lessurl and I had a reasonable match against the North-South pair (Jim and Jun being out counterparts), although it might have been better had I taken the right view in a slam contract. In the end, we scraped 11 VPs.
We were firm favourites for our second set of twelve boards, against WATSON. This team finished 15th of 16 last season, and were seedings to be used throughout, would've been seeded 12 of 13 this time round. Obviously I have a soft spot for them as I know them from Ellon. Of course, there is a difference between being favourites and getting an "easy" match. The problem, as any "top dog" will tell you, is when the underdogs play a solid game. Certainly, they did not seem to be giving away anything spectacular. What was important was that we matched their solidity, and eventually wore them down. Things went right for us and we eventually did squeeze every IMP we could, taking a 20-0 win.
Round 3 was a mixed/mediocre affair. We won the match in which we were underdogs 17-3, but lost the other match (in which we were still underdogs, but not by as much) 16-4. I don't think we played well or badly; not much to write home about. After this we were 6th.
Round 4 was last night. Lessurl was given the night off, for happy reasons that I won't go into here. Thus I played with our second substitute of the season, and we had a lot of fun, trying to work out what each other's bids meant. This was especially evident in the first match we played, against USHER. Quite a few times we couldn't explain what partner intended, but we did at least manage to find the optimal spots, save for one Game that was just a stretch too far. We managed a thin Semi Slam and also picked up an 800 and 200 courtesy of tempting our opponents to go too high and bringing out the red card. Our team mates went rather overboard, bidding three slams, but at least they made one of them, and when the dust cleared we collected 18 VPs.
Our second match was against this season's leaders. Here, our bidding frailties were shown up and when we missed a slam, and then a Game, on consecutive boards, we were 13 IMPs behind with half the boards played. Cue the comeback.
After RHO opened 1 Diamond (third in), I made a takeout double based on my 4-4-1-4 shape as it was NOT based on my points. I felt this was safe as both LHO and partner were passed hands; my plan was to pass whatever partner bid. In fact he chose 2 Clubs, which suited me holding KQxx. RHO then got across his hand with a 4 Diamond bid. Pass-pass-? Partner thought a little bid, and eventually produced a double. I will remember to ask my regular partner how we play this, as I am not 100% sure and certainly wasn't sure with a first time partner. I was leaning towards penalties, simply because now is a strange time to look for another suit, when I have taken no action after my initial takeout double, and if he wants to play 5 Clubs, he has the option of bidding it. But I never had a dilemma. RHO now bids 5 Diamonds, worried that we are about to find our heart fit. It is a phantom sacrifice, as LHO has 6 hearts. When the bidding comes round to West, my somewhat surprised partner makes another double. Everyone knows this is business. Three off for 500 does nicely.
We then bid to a Game that wasn't there, so shipped out 7. After I opened 1 Spade on the next board, and responded to 1NT with a forcing 3 Spades which was passed, that really did look like the killer. I made 12 tricks for +230. Imagine my surprise when we scored that one up and gathered 7 IMPs. Thank you, team-mates, you've bailed us out again. A flat Game was next, followed by an unexpected +3. My partner was not happy with how he played a 1NT contract on that board, and the upshot was, completely unknown to us, going into the last board the match was tied at 24 IMPs each.
Partner opens 1 Heart (5cM). I hold:
x
x
Q 10 x
A K Q 10 9 7 x x
2 Clubs is my bid. (That was easy).
Partner makes a reverse bid of two spades. Hmm, I think I'll bid 3 Diamonds 4sf.
Partner bids 3 Spades. What now?
Have you worked out what your bid would be? This is not a test; I'm just interested how many people would've done what I did here. (I realise a fair number may not have agreed with my first two bids). My bid was... Six Clubs. Ace of diamonds lead; here is dummy:
A Q x x x
A K x x x x
x
J
I could not have really asked for better. If this was a play problem, the question would be: how do you play once LHO switches to a club at trick 2?
Instead, LHO continued a low diamond. I ruffed with the Jack in dummy, cashed the ace of spades and ruffed a spade with the 9. I claimed: draw trumps in as many rounds as necessary, cross to the ace of hearts and pitch the diamond on the king. 10 IMPs here got us 14 VPs.
When the results are all accounted, we see there is something of a gap in VP totals between 8th and 9th - in other words, the top 8 and the bottom 5. Some will argue that any of the top 8 are still in with a chance of winning. Since we were playing the best team in the bottom five, who are more or less guaranteed a 9th place finish the way things are going, and the team that has led from the outset (although they were 1st= after round 1), we consider 32 a great night's work. We currently lie 5th; not high enough to trouble the leaders I feel, but what else is there to play for?
The aforementioned WATSON and HAY played each other last night, with a 13-7 win for WATSON. Congratulations to them; that is the biggest shock that I can remember in this competition. I will say I know nothing about the match or how the result came about. Others will say I could've stopped after the first six words of that last sentence.
Things are certainly interesting. It still remains in MOWAT's hands. Their grip may have slipped a little with a defeat last night, but we are the only team that has managed to beat them so far, and every other team has lost more than one match so far. We are one of only three teams that have only lost two matches. The resurgent ROSS team has come back from a disastrous 6/40 in Round 1 to climb into second place with scores of 37, 38 and 35. HAY sits 3rd and will play MOWAT and ROSS on the final night. McGUIRE, who hammered us 17-3 on the first night, still have title aspirations, and we sit 5 behind them. Don't get me wrong - I intend to win the Sybil Hay District Teams of Four one day. But I'm not putting money on it being this year.
HIGHLAND BRIDGE CONGRESS; COYLUMBRIDGE
This Congress is already a favourite of mine - perhaps because of everything that comes with it. (The company, etc, etc). It really deserved a blog post of its own, but unfortunately I never got round to it, and giving hands from it now seems just a wee bit off - although there are plenty good ones.
Having missed out on the Pairs Final by one place last year, we made sure of it this time, qualifying as First in our section. Our bridge was solid for the first two thirds of the evening, and it seemed that was enough. By the time McLeod Senior broke free of the reins and took some actions that I'd rather he didn't, we must've been in the Final.
We even started the Final pretty well, but before we reached the half way stage, partner suddenly decided he wanted to play in a Slam missing an ace and three kings and came crashing down. Now we all know that playing Match Points, all you do is get back up and carry on. But a combination of bad luck and bad bridge ensured we never really did that, or by the time we did, we finished just shy of the top 3rd. Apparently this was just high enough to get 2 reds, which I gratefully accept. Phoenix pair Bill Ross and Emily Garden were Runners-Up for the 2nd year running.
The teams went well too. I thought we had a predominantly good card, and whether right or wrong about that, we qualified for the final. We raised our game for the final, and were rewarded with a 3rd place finish.
LEAGUE TEAMS OF EIGHT
So far, not so good for Phoenix Rising this year. It has been a hard battle just getting the matches organised, not to mention actually playing them. We agreed 18th December to play Banchory, and despite snow finally hitting Aberdeen on that day, we played the match. We fielded our youngest ever team and, in fairness, it showed. Division 2 is a step up in class from Division 3, one that some of our players were not quite ready for. We lost 17-3, and are rooted to the bottom of the table. For avoidance of doubt, our season's objective is to stay up.
On the plus side, we have a match in hand over most teams. Our match with Fraserburgh has been postponed until the spring. There is still a lot to play for. Our next match is against Torphins, and I will field as young a team as I can for that one too.
PHOENIX TEAMS OF FOUR
This is the Phoenix Club's premier event, and two rounds of three have been played since I last checked in. It is run as a Double Elimination event, with sixteen board matches. The first round was a random draw, and as we were drawn against one of the possible favourites, one win and one draw was the best we could hope for. It was close - the one win was by 2 IMPs; we scraped into Section B for Round 2.
This was slightly different. One potential winning team was in our section, but the other team we were up against was an outright underdog. Lessurl and I did not cover ourselves in glory, but somehow (I think with a lot of thanks to our team mates), we won the match comfortably. While Lessurl and I played the underdogs, there was a change to the team line-up of the other team, which suited us as it turned out. We won both matches on the night and therefore qualified for the Semi-Finals in Round 3.
CAMROSE
I write this with three of five matches completed in the first weekend of the Camrose. Scotland emerged on top in the battle between themselves and the SBU, although I understand it went right to the wire. Both Scottish teams got a crack at England today. SBU led by more than thirty IMPs half way through, but eventually lost convincingly. Scotland were down at Half time, but could (and should) have grabbed a draw in the second half.
This morning, Scotland found themselves 41 IMPs behind Wales before all of us were wide awake and ready to watch. The deficit was shortened by the end of 32 boards, but Wales still took the spoils. They followed that up with the aforementioned narrow defeat to England, so I'm crossing my fingers that they fire on all cylinders against both Irish teams from the outset tomorrow.
As for the SBU, they finished the day by grabbing their first win, against ROI, so hopefully the improvement continues into Sunday.
Bottom line: Neither Scottish side are doing well right now, but there is still time for that to change completely. Fingers crossed.
So, Happy New Year.
I hope 2012 is very prosperous.
As for the Bridge, I live in hope. We (my Dad & I) followed up our Tuesday win with a win at Phoenix on Thursday, with significant help from our team-mates. Coupled with last night, it seems I'm unbeaten in 2012, so long may that continue. After all, it's the final of the Rayne next week.
Friday, 4 November 2011
Come on you Reds...
For those of you who don't know, I committed a crime in a past life and have been subsequently punished in this one by developing at a young age an incurable condition known as dura mortis fautor Aberdonia - die hard Aberdeen supporter. This has several symptoms including, but not limited to: mood swings, depression, nausea, the incapacity to get round to writing a letter that you've been intending to write forever, cynicism, pessimism, tendency to snort derisively whenever someone supporting any other football club claims a referee has been biased, and in severe cases, madness. Don't get me wrong, it has its advantages - an ability to spot a cheat at three hundred paces, a thorough understanding of corruption within the establishment, and the unparalleled high that comes with beating Glasgow Rangers. Last Saturday I travelled to Pittodrie, as always, in hope rather than expectation, of achieving that high, and would inevitably find myself chanting Come on you Reds!
I maybe didn't expect to win, but I knew what I did expect: cheating from players wearing blue shirts and a referee letting them away with it. And Willie Collum didn't disappoint with a perfectly inconsistent and incompetent display guaranteed to rile the home fans. Yes, referees have an extremely hard job. That doesn't mean to say I'm willing to let them off with it when they are so obviouslyright word-that-rhymes-with-the struck-through-word. Glasgow Rangers kept their end of the bargain too; cheating their way to a 2-1 win.
Legal Disclaimer: This is my blog; my views that I express are entirely my own and I will say what I see fit, when I see fit. If any representative of the aforementioned football club wishes to try and convince me they are not a bunch of cheating b******s (you know what letters the six asterisks are in place of - leeper), I'd be most interested in listening, we can discuss it for a length of time and at the end of the discussion conclude that I am right. (To paraphrase Brian Clough). The same invitation is extended to Willie Collum, but of course he shall be hiding in his glass house claiming that ten thousand football fans are wrong and he is right. Scottish referees bleat on and on about respect; I'd instantly have a lot more respect for them if they came out and said: "We hold our hands up, we admit it; we are rubbish at our jobs and the main reason for this is that we are human" - it is their pretence that they are actually good at their job that annoys me.
So, with the fiasco of football over on the Saturday, I could turn attention to a different type of Red that interests me - Red Points. Two opportunities presented themselves this week. First up was the Gall Cup on Sunday. This was a Teams-of-4 event; a Swiss system over 6 rounds. We had a late pair change so we didn't expect to do too well.
The field was a mixed, but predominantly accomplished strength. We drew one of the harder teams for the first round and were consequently sent upstairs (where the bottom end of the field plays), and we didn't come down all afternoon. We won the second match against a visiting Central District team with a +800 swing on one board being the difference. In the third round, we thought we produced a strong score card, but apparently not - we lost the match 20-0. That loss was to prove costly, as it was our last loss of the day, yet we didn't get to above average VPs.
The next match was fairly uneventful - what swung it for us was a game swing including 5SX for +200 at our table. That 13 cancelled 10 IMPs out on the last board. That was against a strong, Grand Master headed team from the shire - the fact they stayed upstairs all day was a sign of how hard it was to do well.
There was a certain importance to Match 5 as it was against a team that included McLeod Senior. Bragging rights were at stake - not that I do any bragging when I win, I just don't want to be the bragee. We kicked off with a 3 Hearts contract played by me. I don't remember anything about it which means it must have been a par score. Unfortunately, my counterpart was in 2NT and made 9 tricks, so we were headed for -6 on that board. The second board we played - Board 29 - was a nice pick-up as we pushed our opponents to 3 Spades Down 1, while my Dad played in a 3NT contract that surely wasn't there so did well to come 1 off. Board 30 was what my Dad would later point out was the board that could've drawn the match. Indeed, having scored boards 25-29, the score was at 12-12, and we picked up 4. Lessurl and I beat 3 Spades by 1, but apparently we should beat it by 2, because our team mates were allowed to make 2 Spades owing to defensive error, so I'm told. Deep Finesse disagrees and tells me 8 tricks are there. As far as I am concerned, that was not what lost them the match. Board 25 did that.
10 8 7 6 3
A 10 7
J 4 2
J 5
A J
Q 6 5 4
A K Q 10 8 6
6
I, North, am the bottom hand. As Dealer at Favourable, I open 1 Diamond. Lessurl says 1 Spade. I reverse with 2 Hearts and Lessurl bids 3 Diamonds. Since we play Blackout, we are now in a GF auction. Since the clubs are wide open, 5 Diamonds is where we play. Now, ten tricks is all I have, and my counterpart is in fact only in 3 Diamonds and making only nine.
East leads Ace of clubs and now looks for a switch. He chooses a spade and that is enough. The queen appears and I win with the ace before cashing Ace and King of Diamonds. They are 2-2, so now I play the Jack of spades to force the King. My heart entry/stopper is forced out too late as I have three winning spades. I gratefully put 400 in the plus column. This was only technically a defensive error - there was no real indication which major to attack and I'm sure about 50% of defenders would do the same.
Then I got this hand:
A Q 9 8 5 4 3 2
K Q J 6
---
A
There are three passes to me. I open 2 Clubs and Lessurl bids 2 Hearts - showing 1 ace. I bid 3 Spades to set the suit and Lessurl bids 3NT, intended to play but understood as serious. (We haven't got that far in the system file writing yet). After that, I cue bid 4 Clubs, partner 4 Hearts, and after 4NT finds no Kings, I say 5 Spades. Dummy is:
---
A 9 8 7
Q 7 6 5 4
Q 9 7 3
As it turns out, when I get in and play Ace and a small spade, the King drops, so 12 tricks are there - but it's not a contract many will be in. A solid Game against us not bid at the other table lost 6 on Board 27 but we won 16-12 for a 12-8 VP score.
The last round was another match I was keen on winning. I won't go into details about the play, but the winning board this time was 1NT by me, making +1 when really I should be getting slaughtered. That put us on 55VPs; five below average. Still, in an event like this, 5 below average with 4 wins is better than 5 above average with 2 or 3 wins, so I'm quite content with 0.72 Red Points.
The next Red Point opportunity was in the Scottish Cup. It was a long shot - a home draw against HUNTER. When faced with a match like this, you want to be on your best form and unfortunately, none of us were. Despite the odd major swing in, IMPs leaked everywhere and we lost by just under 100 IMPs. 2 Reds would've been all we would've had for our efforts anyway; SPEARS was waiting to destroy us in the next round had we found a way to win.
I've never won a Scottish Cup Match, but that's not important right now. It is still one of my favourite competitions to play in - largely because of the 32 board matches. Most bridge enthusiasts enjoy nice, long team matches. The Scottish Cup is Scotland's best offering.
I say most bridge enthusiasts, but I can't really be right about that. Otherwise, there wouldn't be only thirty-something entries. I worry for the future of bridge when less than 200 players in the entire country are inclined to enter that country's most prestigious event. The guarantee of defeat (which I grant you would be the case for certain players) surely isn't/ shouldn't be a factor. It's never stopped me!
I maybe didn't expect to win, but I knew what I did expect: cheating from players wearing blue shirts and a referee letting them away with it. And Willie Collum didn't disappoint with a perfectly inconsistent and incompetent display guaranteed to rile the home fans. Yes, referees have an extremely hard job. That doesn't mean to say I'm willing to let them off with it when they are so obviously
Legal Disclaimer: This is my blog; my views that I express are entirely my own and I will say what I see fit, when I see fit. If any representative of the aforementioned football club wishes to try and convince me they are not a bunch of cheating b******s (you know what letters the six asterisks are in place of - leeper), I'd be most interested in listening, we can discuss it for a length of time and at the end of the discussion conclude that I am right. (To paraphrase Brian Clough). The same invitation is extended to Willie Collum, but of course he shall be hiding in his glass house claiming that ten thousand football fans are wrong and he is right. Scottish referees bleat on and on about respect; I'd instantly have a lot more respect for them if they came out and said: "We hold our hands up, we admit it; we are rubbish at our jobs and the main reason for this is that we are human" - it is their pretence that they are actually good at their job that annoys me.
So, with the fiasco of football over on the Saturday, I could turn attention to a different type of Red that interests me - Red Points. Two opportunities presented themselves this week. First up was the Gall Cup on Sunday. This was a Teams-of-4 event; a Swiss system over 6 rounds. We had a late pair change so we didn't expect to do too well.
The field was a mixed, but predominantly accomplished strength. We drew one of the harder teams for the first round and were consequently sent upstairs (where the bottom end of the field plays), and we didn't come down all afternoon. We won the second match against a visiting Central District team with a +800 swing on one board being the difference. In the third round, we thought we produced a strong score card, but apparently not - we lost the match 20-0. That loss was to prove costly, as it was our last loss of the day, yet we didn't get to above average VPs.
The next match was fairly uneventful - what swung it for us was a game swing including 5SX for +200 at our table. That 13 cancelled 10 IMPs out on the last board. That was against a strong, Grand Master headed team from the shire - the fact they stayed upstairs all day was a sign of how hard it was to do well.
There was a certain importance to Match 5 as it was against a team that included McLeod Senior. Bragging rights were at stake - not that I do any bragging when I win, I just don't want to be the bragee. We kicked off with a 3 Hearts contract played by me. I don't remember anything about it which means it must have been a par score. Unfortunately, my counterpart was in 2NT and made 9 tricks, so we were headed for -6 on that board. The second board we played - Board 29 - was a nice pick-up as we pushed our opponents to 3 Spades Down 1, while my Dad played in a 3NT contract that surely wasn't there so did well to come 1 off. Board 30 was what my Dad would later point out was the board that could've drawn the match. Indeed, having scored boards 25-29, the score was at 12-12, and we picked up 4. Lessurl and I beat 3 Spades by 1, but apparently we should beat it by 2, because our team mates were allowed to make 2 Spades owing to defensive error, so I'm told. Deep Finesse disagrees and tells me 8 tricks are there. As far as I am concerned, that was not what lost them the match. Board 25 did that.
10 8 7 6 3
A 10 7
J 4 2
J 5
A J
Q 6 5 4
A K Q 10 8 6
6
I, North, am the bottom hand. As Dealer at Favourable, I open 1 Diamond. Lessurl says 1 Spade. I reverse with 2 Hearts and Lessurl bids 3 Diamonds. Since we play Blackout, we are now in a GF auction. Since the clubs are wide open, 5 Diamonds is where we play. Now, ten tricks is all I have, and my counterpart is in fact only in 3 Diamonds and making only nine.
East leads Ace of clubs and now looks for a switch. He chooses a spade and that is enough. The queen appears and I win with the ace before cashing Ace and King of Diamonds. They are 2-2, so now I play the Jack of spades to force the King. My heart entry/stopper is forced out too late as I have three winning spades. I gratefully put 400 in the plus column. This was only technically a defensive error - there was no real indication which major to attack and I'm sure about 50% of defenders would do the same.
Then I got this hand:
A Q 9 8 5 4 3 2
K Q J 6
---
A
There are three passes to me. I open 2 Clubs and Lessurl bids 2 Hearts - showing 1 ace. I bid 3 Spades to set the suit and Lessurl bids 3NT, intended to play but understood as serious. (We haven't got that far in the system file writing yet). After that, I cue bid 4 Clubs, partner 4 Hearts, and after 4NT finds no Kings, I say 5 Spades. Dummy is:
---
A 9 8 7
Q 7 6 5 4
Q 9 7 3
As it turns out, when I get in and play Ace and a small spade, the King drops, so 12 tricks are there - but it's not a contract many will be in. A solid Game against us not bid at the other table lost 6 on Board 27 but we won 16-12 for a 12-8 VP score.
The last round was another match I was keen on winning. I won't go into details about the play, but the winning board this time was 1NT by me, making +1 when really I should be getting slaughtered. That put us on 55VPs; five below average. Still, in an event like this, 5 below average with 4 wins is better than 5 above average with 2 or 3 wins, so I'm quite content with 0.72 Red Points.
The next Red Point opportunity was in the Scottish Cup. It was a long shot - a home draw against HUNTER. When faced with a match like this, you want to be on your best form and unfortunately, none of us were. Despite the odd major swing in, IMPs leaked everywhere and we lost by just under 100 IMPs. 2 Reds would've been all we would've had for our efforts anyway; SPEARS was waiting to destroy us in the next round had we found a way to win.
I've never won a Scottish Cup Match, but that's not important right now. It is still one of my favourite competitions to play in - largely because of the 32 board matches. Most bridge enthusiasts enjoy nice, long team matches. The Scottish Cup is Scotland's best offering.
I say most bridge enthusiasts, but I can't really be right about that. Otherwise, there wouldn't be only thirty-something entries. I worry for the future of bridge when less than 200 players in the entire country are inclined to enter that country's most prestigious event. The guarantee of defeat (which I grant you would be the case for certain players) surely isn't/ shouldn't be a factor. It's never stopped me!
Friday, 28 October 2011
Another catch-up
So, two and a half weeks since my last post makes another hiatus - so many things have happened since then, all of them worthy of their own post. But no; I haven't got round to writing, so a lot of subjects have to be covered. I'll start with the
Phoenix Cup
At the end of my last post, we'd just finished the first round. Last night was the second round. Lessurl and I are still hanging onto the coat-tails of the leaders, Jim and Jun. The gap has not widened any, as we tied for first place last night. But we will have extended the lead on those behind us - if only slightly in some cases. Whereas in the last round there was no point in looking back, this time I can't help it, since one more Match Point would've sufficed.
Qxx
Q8xxx
xx
Axx
Here is a decision I lived to regret. It was in the last round - the very round after a good round against Jim and Jun (or a round that seemed good but was in fact a draw, so I guess a fair result). Partner opened 1 Club (Better Minor) and bid 1NT over my 1 Heart reply. Initially I reckon 2 Hearts is my bid - gets across my five hearts and that I don't have a Game-going hand as I didn't Check Back. Then I remember it is Match Points, and NT should score better, given lessurl may not have any real support for hearts and should have a diamond stop. So I pass, and am thoroughly disappointed to see 5 diamond tricks cashed by RHO off the top. The eventual one down was a bottom.
Never mind, there was still plenty good stuff. Not that I'll talk (boast?) about it here, but let's look at the first two hands we played, as they were quite interesting.
J x x x
A K Q x x
? ? ?
K
A Q x x x
J x x
? ? ? ?
A x
Yeah, first hand - long time ago, I can't remember the diamond position other than the fact that when the hand went down I had no losers there. This board was played 6 times. Half of the pairs our way played (justifiably) in 6 Spades. We were in 4 Spades (my hand, Declarer, bottom), and the spades broke 0-4. I couldn't avoid two losers although I do remember I deliberately ruffed the Ace of Clubs. It's one of those occasions when you're relieved to see a bad break against you.
The second hand was a point of Match Point bidding. After two passes to me, I opened 1 Heart with 5 hearts and nine HCPs. This met with a 1 Spade overcall, thus initiating our special defence. Lessurl bid 3 Diamonds (alerted), and it is passed to me. I say 3 Hearts (minimum sign-off). LHO asks about the 3 Diamonds; I explain it is normally strong with 4 card support, but in this sequence must be a maximum pass with 4 card support. RHO throws in 3 Spades which is passed twice and gets a "pairs double" from Lessurl. The contract went down by 1 trick. The double was the difference between top and second top, as the only other plus score for our direction was a 50 for beating 3 Spades (undoubled) by one. In pairs we often talk about a narrow margin of error. There is a narrow margin of success equally.
Although not favourites to be the "best pair" in the Phoenix Cup, we did win the Phoenix Summer Pairs trophy - I think largely thanks to turning up over the summer. Still, a trophy is a trophy and deserved too I feel. So we're going to keep up the chase in the Phoenix Cup. That will be possible if we don't have a night like the....
National Pairs
From our point of view, the less said about this, the better. Entries were slim; some of the reasons I accept and some of the reasons I don't. In most cases the reasons I do not know. The field was random. Don't get me wrong - most - but not all - players were accomplished players that are always difficult to beat. But some were there to throw in strange results to skew the scores somewhat. A complete underdog won the event, which I am pleased about. What I am not pleased about is that lessurl and I came in dead last, although anyone who had kibitzed our evening might well have concluded we were trying to do just that.
District Teams of 4
The Sybil Hay as we call it, is in a new format thanks to yours truly. Well, not really. We had 13 entries so we cut our cloth to suit. We wanted to keep the all-play-all format, but we didn't want people sitting out. Thus we are running a scrambled American Whist movement, so that we can have each team playing 2 complete matches a night. (If I was as good at bridge as I was at fixtures and movements, I'd probably be somewhat better...) Still, the increased length of matches (12 boards) has been generally well received. We had one win and one disappointing loss, above average overall. However, the 20-0 win was against the outright underdog, so we didn't emerge with too much credit.
District League Teams of 8
I wear two hats in this competition - Phoenix Rising Captain and League Convener. Both roles have been tested so far. Phoenix Rising have not yet played a match, and I am in the process of trying to get a team out to Fraserburgh on the 25th November. That is by far the most difficult match organisationally. I also have a match against Banchory to arrange. Meanwhile, in our league, Fraserburgh beat Ellon 13-7, and Bridge Club Tartan play against Torphins tonight. Yes, that's right - Torphins were promoted as well as us to Division 2. One team from last season's First Division withdrew and re-start in Division 3.
The team may experience something of a "culture shock" (I don't think that's the term but I don't know what is). Last season the juniors could compete and our more experienced players could bring the team on and win matches comfortably. There is a gulf in class between Division 3 and Division 2, and this year we will do well if we avoid relegation. It doesn't help when certain individuals underestimate the strength of Division 2 teams and expect us to walk to promotion. We do not have strength in depth. Whilst it is true that our four best players would most likely beat the four best players from one of the other teams in a Scottish Cup match, our next four are nowhere near as experienced. Besides which, we are going to be fielding younger teams than we did last season (if possible). And how would we respond to defeat? Some of our players have never tasted defeat in the Teams of 8. (I have; I've played for Ellon).
Being Convener is not without its challenges. Already I have had decisions to make that I did not expect, but all in all, things are running smoothly. I am quite happy to advise players and Captains on matters of rules etc, and have done so on a couple of occasions. There has been a minor "breach" of the rules, but, unforeseen circumstances applied and common sense will prevail. The rules I wrote allow for that; no harm has been done. On a couple of occasions I have seen the result on the website before receiving the Match result sheet; again, no problem there as long as the Match result Sheet arrives. There may be an interesting season ahead.
That's the blog all caught up again. I'll try to write in a week's time or less as there is another couple of big events coming up - one which I'll definitely be involved in and one which I hope to be involved in. Also, at the weekend, Jim and Jun are competing in the final stage of the trials. I'm rooting for them and will be delighted if they make the top 6. So I'll be keeping a keen eye on that too.
Phoenix Cup
At the end of my last post, we'd just finished the first round. Last night was the second round. Lessurl and I are still hanging onto the coat-tails of the leaders, Jim and Jun. The gap has not widened any, as we tied for first place last night. But we will have extended the lead on those behind us - if only slightly in some cases. Whereas in the last round there was no point in looking back, this time I can't help it, since one more Match Point would've sufficed.
Qxx
Q8xxx
xx
Axx
Here is a decision I lived to regret. It was in the last round - the very round after a good round against Jim and Jun (or a round that seemed good but was in fact a draw, so I guess a fair result). Partner opened 1 Club (Better Minor) and bid 1NT over my 1 Heart reply. Initially I reckon 2 Hearts is my bid - gets across my five hearts and that I don't have a Game-going hand as I didn't Check Back. Then I remember it is Match Points, and NT should score better, given lessurl may not have any real support for hearts and should have a diamond stop. So I pass, and am thoroughly disappointed to see 5 diamond tricks cashed by RHO off the top. The eventual one down was a bottom.
Never mind, there was still plenty good stuff. Not that I'll talk (boast?) about it here, but let's look at the first two hands we played, as they were quite interesting.
J x x x
A K Q x x
? ? ?
K
A Q x x x
J x x
? ? ? ?
A x
Yeah, first hand - long time ago, I can't remember the diamond position other than the fact that when the hand went down I had no losers there. This board was played 6 times. Half of the pairs our way played (justifiably) in 6 Spades. We were in 4 Spades (my hand, Declarer, bottom), and the spades broke 0-4. I couldn't avoid two losers although I do remember I deliberately ruffed the Ace of Clubs. It's one of those occasions when you're relieved to see a bad break against you.
The second hand was a point of Match Point bidding. After two passes to me, I opened 1 Heart with 5 hearts and nine HCPs. This met with a 1 Spade overcall, thus initiating our special defence. Lessurl bid 3 Diamonds (alerted), and it is passed to me. I say 3 Hearts (minimum sign-off). LHO asks about the 3 Diamonds; I explain it is normally strong with 4 card support, but in this sequence must be a maximum pass with 4 card support. RHO throws in 3 Spades which is passed twice and gets a "pairs double" from Lessurl. The contract went down by 1 trick. The double was the difference between top and second top, as the only other plus score for our direction was a 50 for beating 3 Spades (undoubled) by one. In pairs we often talk about a narrow margin of error. There is a narrow margin of success equally.
Although not favourites to be the "best pair" in the Phoenix Cup, we did win the Phoenix Summer Pairs trophy - I think largely thanks to turning up over the summer. Still, a trophy is a trophy and deserved too I feel. So we're going to keep up the chase in the Phoenix Cup. That will be possible if we don't have a night like the....
National Pairs
From our point of view, the less said about this, the better. Entries were slim; some of the reasons I accept and some of the reasons I don't. In most cases the reasons I do not know. The field was random. Don't get me wrong - most - but not all - players were accomplished players that are always difficult to beat. But some were there to throw in strange results to skew the scores somewhat. A complete underdog won the event, which I am pleased about. What I am not pleased about is that lessurl and I came in dead last, although anyone who had kibitzed our evening might well have concluded we were trying to do just that.
District Teams of 4
The Sybil Hay as we call it, is in a new format thanks to yours truly. Well, not really. We had 13 entries so we cut our cloth to suit. We wanted to keep the all-play-all format, but we didn't want people sitting out. Thus we are running a scrambled American Whist movement, so that we can have each team playing 2 complete matches a night. (If I was as good at bridge as I was at fixtures and movements, I'd probably be somewhat better...) Still, the increased length of matches (12 boards) has been generally well received. We had one win and one disappointing loss, above average overall. However, the 20-0 win was against the outright underdog, so we didn't emerge with too much credit.
District League Teams of 8
I wear two hats in this competition - Phoenix Rising Captain and League Convener. Both roles have been tested so far. Phoenix Rising have not yet played a match, and I am in the process of trying to get a team out to Fraserburgh on the 25th November. That is by far the most difficult match organisationally. I also have a match against Banchory to arrange. Meanwhile, in our league, Fraserburgh beat Ellon 13-7, and Bridge Club Tartan play against Torphins tonight. Yes, that's right - Torphins were promoted as well as us to Division 2. One team from last season's First Division withdrew and re-start in Division 3.
The team may experience something of a "culture shock" (I don't think that's the term but I don't know what is). Last season the juniors could compete and our more experienced players could bring the team on and win matches comfortably. There is a gulf in class between Division 3 and Division 2, and this year we will do well if we avoid relegation. It doesn't help when certain individuals underestimate the strength of Division 2 teams and expect us to walk to promotion. We do not have strength in depth. Whilst it is true that our four best players would most likely beat the four best players from one of the other teams in a Scottish Cup match, our next four are nowhere near as experienced. Besides which, we are going to be fielding younger teams than we did last season (if possible). And how would we respond to defeat? Some of our players have never tasted defeat in the Teams of 8. (I have; I've played for Ellon).
Being Convener is not without its challenges. Already I have had decisions to make that I did not expect, but all in all, things are running smoothly. I am quite happy to advise players and Captains on matters of rules etc, and have done so on a couple of occasions. There has been a minor "breach" of the rules, but, unforeseen circumstances applied and common sense will prevail. The rules I wrote allow for that; no harm has been done. On a couple of occasions I have seen the result on the website before receiving the Match result sheet; again, no problem there as long as the Match result Sheet arrives. There may be an interesting season ahead.
That's the blog all caught up again. I'll try to write in a week's time or less as there is another couple of big events coming up - one which I'll definitely be involved in and one which I hope to be involved in. Also, at the weekend, Jim and Jun are competing in the final stage of the trials. I'm rooting for them and will be delighted if they make the top 6. So I'll be keeping a keen eye on that too.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Ellon season begins
From here on through to March, I know what I'm doing on Monday nights. It's time for a new season at Ellon Bridge Club. It is no secret that I do not particularly enjoy my bridge there; who wants to play Match Pointed pairs of less than 30 boards in a small field which produces almost completely random scores? (Not that THAT should discourage any new members... my views are entirely my own and certainly not the views of Ellon Bridge Club, otherwise we obviously wouldn't be playing Match-Pointed pairs.) With my regular partner from last season not available to be regular this season, I made it clear that with no regular partner (and therefore no chance of winning the championship), I had no interest in returning. As it happens, a lapsed player was keen enough to return to the game, so there I was last night, at it all over again.
Our recruitment drive has not been a great success. We might have one or two new partnerships appearing, but there is a worry we will lose just as many if not more. One of our long standing members had spent most of last season insisting that she would not play at Ellon on the Mondays any more; that last season was indeed her last season. That is a loss of one whole partnership if true. One of the other pairs will only manage 3 of every 4 Mondays - and last night was the 1 in 4 they can't play. With one of the other regular/almost-regular players away on holiday, last night was expected to be a melting pot of the regular partnerships who are gunning for the title, one or two regular partnerships who, with the best will in the world, I don't expect to mount a title challenge, and one-off partnerships having a bounce game. Not that this was particularly a randomising factor - how do you randomise a random field? Perhaps insert an expert player, of which we have none. In actual fact, the last type never turned up, so there were 7 regular partnerships plus us, who hope to be regular.
But you can say what you like about Ellon. The Ellon Club Championship (or Advertiser, as we still call it) trophy is still prestigious and still very much a trophy I want to get my hands on. It is, very much, difficult to win. That's because you cannot play so well that you can guarantee yourself first place, which means in turn it is also difficult to win consistently at Ellon. I attack the standard of the club constantly (again, all the more reasons for new players to JOIN - we have no sharks), and it is no surprise that the (or at least most of the) pairs in the running for the Championship include one of the club's three players that are also members of Phoenix. Although, it remains to be seen whether I'll be part of the title hunt this year. It'll depend on how much I can bring on my new partner and how quickly I can do so. IF you include myself and my partner in the running for the Championship, I think it could be a four horse race - although I'm open to the possibility that there will be a dark horse that emerges. But that is like a football pundit saying the Premier League will be won by either Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or Man City - but that Tottenham or Arsenal might be a dark horse. For those of you who want a slightly bolder prediction: Okay, I'm pretty sure the winning partnership will include a Phoenix player. What's that? You think that because I used the horse analogy I should make an on-the-nose bet? Okay then. Mike and Morton. You heard it here first.
Now, I have a slight confession to make. Since it takes me a considerable length of time to write these blog posts, I actually started writing this post on Monday - before I actually went to Ellon. I have come this far without knowing what the first night was like. Why am I admitting to this? Simply because, since I made a few predictions in the last paragraph, I wanted to be clear that they were made without the benefit of last night's results. (Although, since I do the scoring, I guess I could've just written this blog before doing the scoring... sigh) It doesn't really matter if Mike and Morton came bottom last night (which is actually this evening... er, ahem - just to be clear: No butterflies were harmed during the making of this blog post) I am at least committing myself, by continuously saying "last night", to actually coming back and concluding this tomorrow.
Where was I? Oh yes, I remember... it hasn't been a day since I was working on this; honest! (No, seriously, it hasn't - it's still Monday; still me typing some random stuff about an event that hasn't actually happened yet...) Yes, there are up to four (maximum five) pairs that are title contenders, I expect an actual title race, but maybe between two and not three (depends how well my particular horse does) to go all the way - the title race might still be a race right on up til the final night and it certainly won't be done and dusted (mathematically anyway) before February. I know where I was: the predictions. Actually, I'd just finished that. If I was a real expert pundit, I'd run through all the horses and say how I rated them and what their individual strengths were (just the positive stuff), but since (a) I'm not an expert pundit, (b) I don't really want to talk about all of them on the Internet, even though I'd only say good things, and (c) I generally can't be bothered, I'm not going to.
I have just opened up the Excel file from last season for an interesting look back. It is interesting to note that as far as I am concerned, last year's Champions are not my favourites to win this season (just as in the Phoenix Cup). As a matter of fact, Mike finished 10th last season, but then he switched partners mid-way through the season which made that rather inevitable - he'd been in the race until then. I expect last season's Champions to finish 2nd, with myself and partner finishing anywhere between 3rd and 10th, depending on various factors. I don't expect it will be as close as last season, since it was very close at the end - my Dad and Kathleen getting only half a point more than us. The eventual 3rd and 4th pairs from last season are dark horses but nothing more.
The Championship works thus: 12 points to the winner, 11 points to 2nd and so on (two pairs get 12 in Mitchell Movements). The total throughout the season is recorded, and the three lowest scores dropped. This is because it is near impossible to guarantee perfect attendance, so a good pair can keep themselves in the running even if they have to miss three nights. (Obviously, if you do have perfect attendance, you can give yourself a slight advantage, because you can afford 3 bad nights - very useful in the Ellon field.) We all start at 0 - bring on the race to the 200 points it'll take to bag the Championship. Note that figure is a guesstimate based on last year's winning score being 170. The Champions had 195.5 points in total, but were ever-presents so 3 scores didn't count.
The stage was set when a full four tables - 8 pairs - turned up to play. As it was the first night, we played a Howell movement of 21 boards. A 28 board Mitchell would've been preferable, but never mind. I was also called into action as the TD for the first time of the season, for failure to play a major penalty card - nice and interesting. I also made a faced opening lead out of turn (must remember to teach partner the "no questions" procedure) and partner made an inconsequential revoke. Even by Ellon's standards, that's eventful.
Partner and I were handed a baptism of fire. First up were my Dad and Kathleen (incumbent champions), followed by Mike and Morton (Champions elect). But then I certainly contributed to said fire. On the very first board, RHO opened a strong 2 Diamonds. With a long heart suit headed by KJ10, I bid 4 Hearts. This was doubled, and went 2 off for -500. As our opponents were also vulnerable and could make 3NT with room to spare, this was an outright top. I then made 3NT+1 when partner didn't correct to 4 Spades holding AQJxxxx - certainly a teething trouble. We won the head to head against my Dad and Kathleen (not that we had any idea at the time), and proceeded to get a bottom on the first board against Mike and Morton when we stumbled into a 4 Spades when we really should have got out of the auction much lower. Then I was presented this play problem.
Our recruitment drive has not been a great success. We might have one or two new partnerships appearing, but there is a worry we will lose just as many if not more. One of our long standing members had spent most of last season insisting that she would not play at Ellon on the Mondays any more; that last season was indeed her last season. That is a loss of one whole partnership if true. One of the other pairs will only manage 3 of every 4 Mondays - and last night was the 1 in 4 they can't play. With one of the other regular/almost-regular players away on holiday, last night was expected to be a melting pot of the regular partnerships who are gunning for the title, one or two regular partnerships who, with the best will in the world, I don't expect to mount a title challenge, and one-off partnerships having a bounce game. Not that this was particularly a randomising factor - how do you randomise a random field? Perhaps insert an expert player, of which we have none. In actual fact, the last type never turned up, so there were 7 regular partnerships plus us, who hope to be regular.
But you can say what you like about Ellon. The Ellon Club Championship (or Advertiser, as we still call it) trophy is still prestigious and still very much a trophy I want to get my hands on. It is, very much, difficult to win. That's because you cannot play so well that you can guarantee yourself first place, which means in turn it is also difficult to win consistently at Ellon. I attack the standard of the club constantly (again, all the more reasons for new players to JOIN - we have no sharks), and it is no surprise that the (or at least most of the) pairs in the running for the Championship include one of the club's three players that are also members of Phoenix. Although, it remains to be seen whether I'll be part of the title hunt this year. It'll depend on how much I can bring on my new partner and how quickly I can do so. IF you include myself and my partner in the running for the Championship, I think it could be a four horse race - although I'm open to the possibility that there will be a dark horse that emerges. But that is like a football pundit saying the Premier League will be won by either Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or Man City - but that Tottenham or Arsenal might be a dark horse. For those of you who want a slightly bolder prediction: Okay, I'm pretty sure the winning partnership will include a Phoenix player. What's that? You think that because I used the horse analogy I should make an on-the-nose bet? Okay then. Mike and Morton. You heard it here first.
Now, I have a slight confession to make. Since it takes me a considerable length of time to write these blog posts, I actually started writing this post on Monday - before I actually went to Ellon. I have come this far without knowing what the first night was like. Why am I admitting to this? Simply because, since I made a few predictions in the last paragraph, I wanted to be clear that they were made without the benefit of last night's results. (Although, since I do the scoring, I guess I could've just written this blog before doing the scoring... sigh) It doesn't really matter if Mike and Morton came bottom last night (which is actually this evening... er, ahem - just to be clear: No butterflies were harmed during the making of this blog post) I am at least committing myself, by continuously saying "last night", to actually coming back and concluding this tomorrow.
Where was I? Oh yes, I remember... it hasn't been a day since I was working on this; honest! (No, seriously, it hasn't - it's still Monday; still me typing some random stuff about an event that hasn't actually happened yet...) Yes, there are up to four (maximum five) pairs that are title contenders, I expect an actual title race, but maybe between two and not three (depends how well my particular horse does) to go all the way - the title race might still be a race right on up til the final night and it certainly won't be done and dusted (mathematically anyway) before February. I know where I was: the predictions. Actually, I'd just finished that. If I was a real expert pundit, I'd run through all the horses and say how I rated them and what their individual strengths were (just the positive stuff), but since (a) I'm not an expert pundit, (b) I don't really want to talk about all of them on the Internet, even though I'd only say good things, and (c) I generally can't be bothered, I'm not going to.
I have just opened up the Excel file from last season for an interesting look back. It is interesting to note that as far as I am concerned, last year's Champions are not my favourites to win this season (just as in the Phoenix Cup). As a matter of fact, Mike finished 10th last season, but then he switched partners mid-way through the season which made that rather inevitable - he'd been in the race until then. I expect last season's Champions to finish 2nd, with myself and partner finishing anywhere between 3rd and 10th, depending on various factors. I don't expect it will be as close as last season, since it was very close at the end - my Dad and Kathleen getting only half a point more than us. The eventual 3rd and 4th pairs from last season are dark horses but nothing more.
The Championship works thus: 12 points to the winner, 11 points to 2nd and so on (two pairs get 12 in Mitchell Movements). The total throughout the season is recorded, and the three lowest scores dropped. This is because it is near impossible to guarantee perfect attendance, so a good pair can keep themselves in the running even if they have to miss three nights. (Obviously, if you do have perfect attendance, you can give yourself a slight advantage, because you can afford 3 bad nights - very useful in the Ellon field.) We all start at 0 - bring on the race to the 200 points it'll take to bag the Championship. Note that figure is a guesstimate based on last year's winning score being 170. The Champions had 195.5 points in total, but were ever-presents so 3 scores didn't count.
The stage was set when a full four tables - 8 pairs - turned up to play. As it was the first night, we played a Howell movement of 21 boards. A 28 board Mitchell would've been preferable, but never mind. I was also called into action as the TD for the first time of the season, for failure to play a major penalty card - nice and interesting. I also made a faced opening lead out of turn (must remember to teach partner the "no questions" procedure) and partner made an inconsequential revoke. Even by Ellon's standards, that's eventful.
Partner and I were handed a baptism of fire. First up were my Dad and Kathleen (incumbent champions), followed by Mike and Morton (Champions elect). But then I certainly contributed to said fire. On the very first board, RHO opened a strong 2 Diamonds. With a long heart suit headed by KJ10, I bid 4 Hearts. This was doubled, and went 2 off for -500. As our opponents were also vulnerable and could make 3NT with room to spare, this was an outright top. I then made 3NT+1 when partner didn't correct to 4 Spades holding AQJxxxx - certainly a teething trouble. We won the head to head against my Dad and Kathleen (not that we had any idea at the time), and proceeded to get a bottom on the first board against Mike and Morton when we stumbled into a 4 Spades when we really should have got out of the auction much lower. Then I was presented this play problem.
With my partner and I not having agreed any methods, I had to take the
3 Spades bid as natural. Indeed it was. I got a spade lead.
Initial prospects are all
right. I seem to have 3 spade tricks and I can hopefully find the heart ace
onside if they attack hearts. That just leaves the clubs to figure out. LHO is
more likely to hold the queen so the finesse is odds against. The ten of spades
holds the first trick. I therefore cash my Ace and King of clubs, and when the
queen does drop on my left I have no
qualms about preserving my Jack and playing up to it. Now then. 1 spade and 3
clubs are safely in the bag, and I can cash out two diamonds and 3 more clubs
for nine tricks. But hang on – it is
Match Points. With reasonable chances of the heart ace on my right, should I
not establish two more spade tricks first? Dilemma. Teams instinct demands I take the nine tricks
and run. But I go for it. I play a spade and the ace appears. This turns out to
be a bad decision – LHO has the ace of hearts. Thankfully, RHO did not switch
to hearts, electing instead for a diamond – 11 tricks and an outright top were
mine; 9 tricks would’ve been a top equal. The match is tied, and we win it when
the opponents bid a 4 spade contract that comes 2 down.
On the first board at the next
table (I skip one bad round delicately here as the 2nd and 3rd
rounds were played at the same table), RHO opens 1 Diamond and I hold:
X x
H H x x x x
K x x x
X
I lay a trap with 3 Hearts, which works like a charm. LHO bids 4
Diamonds, partner 4 Hearts, RHO 5
Diamonds and I double. I lead a club to partner’s ace. I get a ruff and we take
enough tricks off the top for a good score. Declarer made it better for us by
miscounting trumps and the contract went 5 down for 1100.
All these hands, by the way,
appear on the first half of the night, during which partner and I barely have a
clue what we are doing! Even scores that we thought were bad were Ok when we
opened the ticket; all in all, we did rather well – especially considering we’d
never met before last night. In the end, we had to settle for 56.35%, which was
only good enough for third. Still, we will take that, as six of the eight pairs
scored above 50%. Mike and Morton finished 1st, Dad and Kathleen
second – never mind the bridge; my predicting seems spot-on.
My initial thoughts are not
bad. I don’t expect we shall mount much of a title challenge, but in so doing
we might have some fun. And if we can do
that at Ellon, I’m actually looking forward to it. The season has only just
begun.
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