Warwickshire v Notts - 5^th April 2009

909 Warwick Road in Solihull is the benchmark Bridge Club, a large solid building more like a golf clubhouse than the usual county match venue. As I said when we drove in it is a nice place to come and lose a bridge match.

The Teams:

Dawes - John & Irene Auld; David Burgess & Gordon Fullerton; Keith Rodgers & Lloyd Eagling; Sandy Fulton & Gerry Franklin.
Porter - Mike & Daphne Coggles; Janet Jacques & Will Irving; Ellen Overton & Martin Mellor; Robin Fisher & Geoff Topol.
Markham - Phil Dale & Ray Furlonger; Sally Cook & Bernard Moore; Graham Brindley & Nick Clarke; Chris Clarke & Barbara Hatfield.

Team mates decided to take a more positive view and we started brightly. This was Board 4.

Both Vul - Dealer West

I played 2♦ doubled minus one as East, after partner opened 1NT. Really careful defence may yield two off but no one managed that. I vaguely hoped that 3NT might be on for N/S but clearly not - not that is for anyone except David Burgess who was South in this auction:

The first redouble said bid 2♣. The second redouble said try something else.

West led ♠3 won by South. Since East had very little, declarer decided to finesse ♥J won by ♥Q. Now came ♦J covered by the Q, and W played A, K & 4 - won by E. The deal was now:

With only 6 top tricks David needed all the rest. E lead ♦8, S won the 9, and W was triple squeezed - nothing was safe so he threw a club. David discarded ♥4, played ♥7 to the A (Vienna coup) and took ♣A K.

Now the hand was:
And ♣J squeezed West again. As the commentators say on Bridge Base Online - ‘Wow!’

The only defence is for West to unguard spades at once which stops a repeat squeeze, (thanks to Easts heart 8), but no one gets these defences right at the table.

We were 20 up after 8 boards in the Dawes but unfortunately the second set saw my attempt to fulfil my gloomy forecast. On board 16 as East I played 2♠, doubled by South (Dave Kenward):

E/W Vul - Dealer West

1NT was 12-15, Irenes 2♣ was for majors and I do not know about Norths double because I did not notice it. In fact I did not know about it until the 7th April. Nobody tells me anything. Had I known I would have passed and let partner play 2♥ - in my world South had made an aggressive solo double.

South led club 9 (strange choice I thought) which I won to lead a heart to the Q. South won and played out three rounds of spades. I cashed the last trump throwing a club and played a club won by North.

The hand now was:

To my surprise North led the ♦A. When he continued diamonds I won and cashed ♣Q on which South threw a heart. That had to be a mistake whatever he held. When I led a heart South falsecarded with the 9 and there it was - make the last 3 tricks for +790 or lose them all via a finesse for -800. I finessed.

On the next board I considered a shaky 2♠ overcall of 1NT. Refusing to be intimidated I made the bid. Dave Kenward doubled me again (He used to be such a nice fellow when he played in Nottingham).
Another dubious line conceded 1100 this time. Partner eyed me uneasily - she was considering the implications of this progression and wondering if I would move on to -1400, -1700 and beyond. But no problem I was intimidated now and stopped the sequence.

Half time saw us -19 in the Dawes and -40 in the Porter but doing well in the Markham (+55).

With 8 boards remaining we were trailing by 30 IMPs in the Dawes match and encountered the big hand of the day:

Both Vul - Dealer North

West always opened with a game forcing bid but only 4 pairs out of 12 reached 6♦. Three pairs fancied their 5-0 heart fit for some reason, trying 2♥, 4♥ and 6♥ (honestly). Others managed 3NT or 4♠. Players were handicapped by such methods as game forcing 2♦ or double negatives as well as bad judgement.

Fortunately our Dawes pairs found the slam. Sandy Fulton and Gerry Fulton used the Kokish 2♥ convention and judged well to reach 6♦ (details available from Eric Kokish of Toronto or Sandy Fulton of Worksop). However I humbly suggest that the Aulds had the optimum sequence:

We picked up 41 IMPs to win the Dawes match! - only 12-8 but that was great against Warks. The Markham team won 16-4 with Graham Brindley & Nick Clarke having a big card and the Porter team lost 6-14 despite a good card from Ellen Overton & Martin Mellor. Had there been a best played hand award David Burgess would have won it.

As we left Solihull the West Midlands Bridge Club looked better than ever.

Match Report by John Auld