Leicestershire v Notts - 12^th October 2008

Our captain Lloyd Eagling selected 24 players for this match and left me in temporary charge before pushing off to the Black Sea. He did not explain that Stan Kujawinski would drop out to visit a new grandchild, leaving Phil Dale to learn Polish in four days. Nor did he say that we would need an emergency replacement at 1pm on the day of the match. Many thanks to Terry Lynex for stepping in with no notice.

The Teams:

Dawes - John and Irene Auld; David Burgess and Gordon Fullerton; Ellen Overton and Martin Mellor; Andrew Scott and Geoff Topol.
Porter - Keith Rodgers and Robin Fisher; Graham Brindley and Graham Lee; Mike and Daphne Coggles; Janet Jacques and Will Irving.
Markham - Phil Dale and Richard Kowalski; Sally Cook and Carol Fisher; Sylvia Goodlud and Nick Clarke; Joan Burgess and Terry Lynex.

This match was one of the best I can remember with many interesting hands. Irene and I played board 13 against Leicestershires top pair Nick Stevens and Tony Kitson.

All Vul - Dealer North

Our opponents bid to 6♦ as follows:

Having bid a restrained 3♦ East was not stopping short of a slam. I led the 8 of spades and Kit gave the hand much thought.
A simple approach is to draw trumps and try for a 3-3 heart break. That is odds against so thoughts turned to a cross ruff. Following text book lines - cashing side suit winners before taking ruffs – works here: i.e. Take A of spades, K of clubs, 2 top hearts and back to hand with a top trump. Now A of clubs and ruffing clubs and hearts gets you home. You score 2 ruffs in dummy and 2 small trumps in hand. This works because South has a doubleton heart but if she has three you still have good chances - after ruffing the last club you can exit with a spade and hope to ruff back to hand with 8 of trumps.

However there is a reasonable third line. Cash K of Clubs and the top hearts but try to ruff a third heart before touching trumps. This may allow you to establish hearts if they break or revert to a cross ruff if they do not. That looks good to me but unfortunately for declarer Irene discarded a club on the third heart and foiled the cross ruff.
I have been thinking about this hand for a week with no firm conclusion so unsurprisingly Kit went off at the table.

Thanks to this hand amongst others we stormed into a 30 IMP lead at half time in the Dawes match. Meanwhile our Porter team stormed into a 55 IMP deficit and the Markham team were steady at +5 IMPs.

Leicestershire struck back in the third quarter to be 1 IMP up in the Dawes and the final set began with another great hand, board 25.

E/W Vul - Dealer North

I opened 1♠ as North and East jumped to 5♣ which came back to me. I bid 5♦ ,Irene bid 5♠ and West doubled.
East led K of clubs, West played the A and I ruffed. Now A of diamonds and a diamond ruff revealed the distribution. I saw the need to lead up to dummys hearts ASAP so ruffed a club to do that. East won the A and fell from grace by continuing hearts. If he plays a third round of clubs his partner can pitch his last heart and prevent me enjoying the K - but I had already made a mistake: I should return to hand with a top trump to lead up to the hearts. I got away with it and scored +650.

Some E/W pairs were smart enough to keep bidding clubs and some Norths were driven to 6♠, doubled by West. No one made it, but on the same club lead I think it should come home. You need A of hearts to be right so should lead hearts at trick 2. That works and it remains only to infer from the bidding that West has the K of diamonds. Now a diamond finesse and cross ruffing sees you home (You need to return to hand with a trump after ruffing a diamond).
My lifetime partner thinks I am being wise after the event. Surely not.

We won the Dawes by 1 IMP, technically a draw in VPs but a win really. The Markham team disrupted by late changes eventually succumbed 1-19 VPs but the Porter team rallied to win by 17 IMPS, 13-7 VPs. Will Irving and Janet Jacques deserve special credit with the best Butler IMPs score.

Match Report by John Auld