The SBU apparently has some sort of initiative to make the National Pairs more inclusive, and is encouraging clubs to make their heat an ordinary club night, with the top 40% of the field qualifying for the next round (a semi-final, apparently). This seems likely to lead to much larger participation than the usual set up (in which the clubs hold a heat alongside their usual club night). It also seems likely to mean that a lot of people who don't usually qualify in national competitions sneak through to the next round - finishing in the top 40% on an ordinary club night is certainly within the powers of the majority of pairs. Anyway, Norman and I managed to sneak in (4th out of 11, so we actually had a place to spare), despite having what we initially thought was too many disasters. I think some of our early bad boards must have gotten better, like the one below...
Here's one where I just bid ridiculously, but somehow ended up with an above average result:
I counted my tricks on the enormous East hand, and somehow came to 8, and decided it was only worth a strong 2 in diamonds (Norman likes to play a multi with 5 strong options...), which led to this auction:
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After Norman showed a hand that wanted to play in 3 of my major if I was weak, I was afraid to go past 3NT (I still hadn't correctly counted my tricks). I'm not really sure how I came to 8, as 7 + 2 is clearly 9, but I was so convinced that I even argued with someone afterwards who made the clearly correct opening bid of 2♣ (Mike, if for some reason you end up reading this, I'm sorry, I was being an idiot - you were right). Amazingly, as you can see, 3NT + 4 was enough for an above average score on this board, which makes my bid even more terrible. With 14 top tricks, we really should reach the grand slam, but as it turns out, 6NT would have been good enough for all the matchpoints.
♠♥♦♣
Here's one that I misplayed, leading to a terrible matchpoints score (this was in the first round, which I think is partly why we thought we hadn't had a good score - the first and last rounds always loom extra large:
We bid to the normal contract of 3NT, and North lead the ♠7. South's 8 told me this was from a four card suit, but I didn't think it mattered - I could see a pretty clear line to making the contract. If you play both rounded suits to avoid South getting the lead, you have 4♠s, 2♥s and 3♣s. I did just this - win in dummy and play a ♥ to the J, ace of clubs, club to the K, and back to hand with a spade to play a third ♣. This line gets 9 tricks unless there is Qxxx of clubs with South, in which case you still have the chance of ♦A onside, or of the opponents not being able to cash diamond tricks (although this is pretty slim). It should still be good enough for 10 tricks - I can afford to cash the 4th spade and the ♥A before I exit in clubs, but I didn't do that, so I deservedly got a terrible matchpoints socre. Admittedly, lookinag at the traveller, everyone else got a diamond lead, which presumably made things much easier for them (they're forced to take the club finesse now, so should end up with 11 tricks) but that's no excuse.
Playing twice next week - the next round of the Winter Pairs, in which we'll need to register our first actually big score if we're to be in with a chance in the competition (there are only 4 rounds left), and just a friendly club game with Neil Wiley tomorrow, which should be good fun.
