Worcestershire v Notts - 28^th March 2010

We travelled to Worcestershire in contention for the Dawes trophy but returned with only the runners up place to aim for. It was Warwickshire who seized the day beating Derbyshire 20-0 and now lead the table with 113 VPs, ahead of Oxfordshire on 97 VPs who have a match in hand. Our last match is against Oxfordshire on 11th April.

The Teams:

Dawes - John & Irene Auld; David Burgess & Gordon Fullerton; Keith Rodgers & Lloyd Eagling; Willie Crook & Mark Goddard.
Porter - Ellen Overton & Jackie Parsons; Mary Cook & Bernard Moore; Roger Staton & Nick Clarke; Chris Clarke & Barbara Hatfield.
Markham - Richard Kowalski & Stan Kujawinski; Janet Jacques & June Marron; Phil Dale & Ray Furlonger; Dorothy & Chris Close.

Captain Eagling can at least congratulate himself on one selectorial decision. With only three regular first team pairs available he persuaded Willie Crook and Mark Goddard to turn out and they outperformed the established pairings.

On board 11 for example they were our only pair to land a good slam:

No Vul - Dealer South

Willie played 6♦ as South on the king of clubs lead. With 11 tricks on top he set about hearts ruffing high twice and using the ♦T as an entry. The fifth heart was the twelfth trick.
This line is over 80% likely to succeed. Even with a spade lead, the combination of a spade finesse with the chance of an even heart break is around 65% (but fails this time).

Against Irene and me, our opponents contrived to play 6♦ from the North hand which made the slam impregnable.

What is a typical hand for a response of 1NT to an opening bid? On board 9, Willie set a new standard:

E/W Vul - Dealer North

1NT on four points and 7411 distribution may seem eccentric but it was a judgement not a punt. If you bid at all then 1NT is best because it may allow you to scramble back to clubs without misleading partner.

In practice Mark now bid 3NT for nine easy tricks. Elsewhere South responded 1♥, raised to 4♥ which proved unmanageable. Some luck in all this but imagine North bidding spades over 1♥ and the merit of 1NT is clear.

Armed with this insight I picked up board 31 as East:

N/S Vul - Dealer South

Yet another 7411 four count! Naturally I responded 1NT to 1♠. There was a tense moment but partner passed 4♥ and all was well. ‘That was a cue bid’ I announced with what passes as a sense of humour in the Auld household. The opponents laughed politely and 10 tricks were not difficult.

On the day Worcester were clearly best in the Dawes match but well done to the Markham team for whom Phil Dale & Ray Furlonger had a good card.

Match Report by John Auld