Notts v Gloucestershire - 17^th February 2008

Notts had the daunting prospect of playing the National Teams of Eight champions in a county match which always proves challenging.

The Teams:

Dawes - David Burgess and Gordon Fullerton; Willie Crook and Sandy Fulton; Keith Rodgers and Lloyd Eagling; Graham Brindley and Graham Lee.
Porter - Ellin Overton and Evelyn Grainger; Mike and Daphne Coggles; Joan Burgess and Terry Lynex; Gerry Franklin and Rob Atkinson.
Markham - Sally Cook and Bernard Moore; Chris Clarke and Barbara Hatfield ; Jackie Parsons and Andy Coleman; Sylvia Goodlud and Nick Clarke.

The material for this report is provided by Lloyd Eagling and Sandy Fulton who have highlighted interesting errors as well as some good play. First our captain provides a hard luck story on board 10 where he and Keith Rodgers sat North/South:

E/W Vul - Dealer East

East might open 1♠ or 2♠ or pass - but this East opened 3♠. This is explained by his having the Q of clubs tucked in with his spades to create an imaginary seven card suit. Keith bid 4♥, West 4♠ and Lloyd 5♥. However East/West were not in the mood to sell out at the five level, and with a combined spade holding of AKQQTxxxxx who can blame them? The final contract was 5♠ which made. Some element of the hard luck must be reduced by the defence failing to hold up the Ace of diamonds to cut off dummy’s long suit.

Sandy and Willie also lost points on board 10 after Willie opened 2♠. South passed (!) and Sandy tried to buy the deal in 3♠. That went round to South (on loan from the Gloucester Poker League) who bid a straight faced 4♥. This reached Willie who doubled to show good defence in context.
As Sandy stated, 4♠ is the sensible initial raise but having bid 3♠ one must swallow hard and bid 4♠ anyway. 4♥ doubled made comfortably.

It may be that pass is the book bid with East’s poor spade suit but the problem with that was demonstrated at another table where David Burgess sat South and opened 4♥. East thought a while before passing this out - he was thinking ‘I wish I had opened.’

In the first 24 boards there were plenty of good scores for Notts. On board 19 Willie earned 10 imps in 4♥ - with four certain losers he caught the defence napping to take ten tricks before they took any of theirs.
And this was board 21:

None Vul - Dealer North

4♠ by East was the normal contract and Lloyd made after a diamond lead and continuation. He finessed the spade (ducked) and another to the K. Subsequently he ran J of hearts to the King and lost just 3 tricks.

When Sandy was North, Willie also started with diamonds. Now declarer fearing ruffs played A of spades and another, ducked by Sandy. Next came J of hearts but this was also ducked. When declarer played A and Q of hearts from dummy Sandy kept ducking and declarer misread the hand and ruffed. Now he lost control and Sandy eventually took his two trumps and King of hearts for one off and +10 imps.

After the third set Notts were looking at a lead of 4 IMPs in the Dawes match. Would Gloucestershire snatch a narrow victory from the jaws of defeat? Not exactly - they gained 111 IMPs and won 20-0. This may well be a world record turnaround in a county match.

The Porter match was lost 2 - 18 but the Notts third team won the Markham match 15 - 5. Congratulations to them and especially to Sally Cook and Bernard Moore and Chris Clarke and Barbara Hatfield our most effective pairs on the day.

Match Report by John Auld