Derbtshire v Notts - 11^th October 2009

Notts amazing run continues! All three teams came away with a win against Derbyshire - not a result that I was expecting, but very welcome all the same.

The Teams:

Dawes - Keith Rodgers & Lloyd Eagling; David Burgess & Gordon Fullerton; Frank Ball & Graham Lee; Geoff Topol & Mark Goddard.
Porter - Ellen Overton & Martin Mellor; Graham Brindley & Roger Staton; Steve Mulligan & Gerry Franklin; Janet Jacques & Will Irving.
Markham - Richard Kowalski & Nick Clarke; Chris Clark & Barbara Hatfield; Phil Dale & Ray Furlonger; Frank Turton & David Landon.

Board 3 was bad for us:

E/W Vul - Dealer South

Derbys managed to play 3NT from the right hand. It now needs a red suit lead and club switch to defeat the contract, but predictably I lead 10♣ - contract made.
Generally, when played by East the contract went off. The best score obtained was by Martin & Ellen who gained 1100 in 4♥* by South!.

At teatime we were 20 IMPs up in the Dawes match, 63(!!) up in the Porter, and 3 up in the Markham.

Board 30 was also a disaster for us:

N/S Vul - Dealer East

After 2 passes West found an opening bid of 2♦ Multi. After a double by North, East bid 3♥ pre-emptively in whichever major partner possessed.
Then came 3♠ from South leaving a difficult decision for North. I elected for 4♠ which went off after 3 rounds of hearts.
Remarkably, 3NT was made by North no less than 8 times, making +2. 4♠ also made twice and only one pair bid 5♣.

The final results were 14-6 (+ 26IMPs) for the 1st team, 18-2 (+53 IMPs) for the 2nd team and 13-7 (+20 IMPs) for the 3rd team.
Congratulations to everybody especially to Frank & Graham, and Phil & Ray for the best cards on the Butler IMP scoring.

Our next match will be on 13th December at home to Gloucestershire. I will be sending out information later..

Match Report by Lloyd Eagling