December Peebles, Part 1: Friday

We arrived at Peebles on Friday afternoon at around 1.20 with exactly 11 players. No one seemed to be too bothered about this, and it worked out ok - Alex got Trish Matheson to play with him, and so we had three teams of four. The teams were: Team Stephens (Martin, Sally, Phil and Peter); Alex Wilkinson, Trish Matheson, Jake Corry and Jun Pinder; I played with Yvonne Wiseman, and our team-mates were Ian Angus and Phil Morrison.

We did well enough, winning our section, which was good enough for joint 6th overall. There were 3 different boards in the set where one hand had 8 solid in a major... 

This one produced a variety of results. The auction shown in the one Yvonne and I managed, although I'm not sure I should admit to it. The one bid I think I got right was 1♠... Yvonne's 2/1 was game forcing, and I should definitely have rebid 3♠,  after that neither of us really knew what the other was doing - 4♦ was the only bid I could think of that Yvonne definitely wouldn't pass, although we did at least manage to make it to the 6 level. I managed the play ok, counting to 13 like a pro and putting my hand on the table. We were somewhat disappointed to have missed the grand, but that was enough for a big swing in, when the opposition decided to open the West cards 4♠, and were left to play there. Here's a question - if you do decide to open 4♠ on the West cards, do you raise when partner bids 6♠? (I think you probably do have to bid 6♠ with the East cards, even though it might be wrong. Partner is first in, so should have something) I think probably the answer is no, but that's part of the reason why I think 4♠ is clearly the wrong bid - it's pretty unlikely you're going to be unable to bid 4♠ later if it's necessary.

We went into Peebles for dinner, grabbing food in the Crown Hotel before going back to the houses we're staying in. Frazer Morgan and Ed Jones joined the party at some point before the evening session, and I'm playing in a team with Ed, Martin Stephens and Peter Stephens. Phil and Frazer are getting some practice in before the Camrose, and that leaves Yvonne and Jake to play with Ian Angus and Jun in the other team (we like to mix things up a bit).

I played this board in 4♠. Not perhaps the greatest auction, but I found the play interesting. the defence led a diamond, and I won and immediately played a ♣ to the K. East took this trick, and the defence cashed two ♥ tricks. If they now force dummy with a third ♥, I think I might be in some trouble, but they played a second ♦. I spent quite a while trying to figure out how I could ruff two ♦s and a ♥ and still not lose another trump trick before finally realising that I was going to have to bring in the club suit - which means I'm going to need 3 ♠ entries to dummy, and so the queen has to be on my left. I played a ♠ to the 9, ruffed a ♣ and when both opponents followed I was home - cross to the ♠J, ruff another club with the ♠A, and claim.

The board that generated the most discussion in the bar afterwards was the final board of the set. 

This generated a huge number of different auctions around the room. Assuming it starts Pass Pass, what do you open the East cards? The most popular choice among the people I polled was 1♦, the second favourite was whatever strong artificial bid you have available. There was a minority who chose 1♠, but I think this is probably pretty clearly wrong - it pretty much always loses the ♦ suit permanently. The 1♦ opener does have it's problems though - what are you going to do if it comes back to you in 4♣ or 4♥? Does 4♠ really get this hand across? How would you bid the same hand if you took out both of the aces? Anyway, this was the auction at our table, 4NT was a specific ace ask, and 5NT showed both. 7♦ is a reasonable shot now, but you're probably regretting the fact that you didn't get to find out about ♠s. 

When the bidding came back to me in 7♦ with the North cards, I quietly passed and hoped partner would be able to find a ♣ lead for himself. I actually thought for about 5 seconds before passing, which could have caused my partner a problem, as the only thing I think I could possible be thinking about is a Lightner double. However, I think it's pretty clear not to double on this hand, as you really have no reason to believe that the opposition can't make 7NT. No-one managed to right-side 7♠, so the winners on the board were those who somehow managed to stop in a small slam.

At the end of day 1, we're sitting at the top of the pack, with 51 VPs from 3 matches. We should be playing either Liz McGowan or Derek Sanders team in the next round on Sunday morning, but first, there's a pairs event - I'm playing with Phil Stephens, and it will be another chance for me to practice Polish leads, which I played for the first time yesterday with Peter. Good start to the weekend, let's hope it continues.