It was good to see another 6 members back for their first night of the season.  As a result we had 7 full tables playing a 28 Board Mitchell with Match Pointing.

The top 3 NS were:

1st Tom and Yvonne with 201 points for 59.8% and 30 Masterpoints

2nd Peter and Dave C with 195 points for 58.0% and 20 Masterpoints

3rd Moira and Norman with 181 points for 53.9% and 10 Masterpoints

The top 3 EW were:

1st Ian T and David N with 219 points for 65.2% and 30 Masterpoints

2nd Vic and Marjorie with 178 points for 53.0% and 20 Masterpoints

3rd Sandra and Wendy with 174 points for 51.8% and 10 Masterpoints

Well done to all concerned.

The analysis sheet shows slams available to EW on hand 15 and to NS on hand 23.

On Board 15 all 7 pairs made 13 tricks but with the points split 16/15 no-one got beyond 3NT, 4 or 5 S, or 5C.

On Board 23 5 pairs made 12 tricks and one made 13 but the only pair to bid a slam made only 11 tricks in 6H.

On Board 6, David and Ian somehow ended up in 6C missing 2 As but managed to make 12 tricks.

There was one completely flat Board – Board 18 – where all 7 EW pairs bid and made 10 tricks in 4S although the analysis sheet shows that 11 tricks were possible.

There were however some very competitive Boards, none more so than Board 22 where NS played the hand 3 times in 5Dx, 5Cx and 6Cx while at the other 4 tables EW played in 5S, 5Sx or 6S.  The contract only made once, when Tom and Yvonne made 5Cx.  The analysis sheet shows the Optimal Result as 100 to EW by doubling 5D or 5C and restricting this to 10 tricks.

It was good to see some more members back from holiday so we had 6 full tables and played our first Teams of 4 night with a draw for teams at the start of the evening.  6 tables meant an unusual movement had to be used which led to some early issues but we eventually worked things out and the change of format added extra interest to the play. 

• Winners with a very impressive score of +95 IMPs were Sue W, Marjorie, Bob Y and Walter.  They each earn 20 Masterpoints
• Second with +11 IMPs were David N, Ian T, Syd and Eve.  They each earn 10 Masterpoints.

Well done to all concerned.

The website results show how each team scored against each other team.

The IMPs scores for the evening will go towards the Club Team Player Trophy played for over the Teams of 4 nights over the season.  The Masterpoints awarded go towards the Millennium Quaich.  We will be looking for the web pages for these Competitions will be updated to correctly reflect these scores.

The hands had been produced by Jane via HandyDup and they certainly threw up some interesting challenges.  There were 2 slam hands:

• Hand 15.  NS could make 6C. This was bid and made by Ian B and Sandra and by Peter and Basil.  However, Jane made the excellent sacrifice of 6Hx to prevent David and Ian T also playing in 6C.
• Hand 18.  EW could make 7H and 7S.  Adrian and Kay and Bob Y and Walter both bid 6H making 13 tricks. 

We had 18 members playing a 27 Board Howell.  There are still a number of members on holiday. 

The top 3 pairs were:

1st Sue W and Bob Y with 91 points for 63.2% and 18 Masterpoints

2nd Sue and Ian C with 79 points for 54.9% and 12 Masterpoints

3rd= Syd and Jennifer and Adrian and Kay with 78 points for 54.2% and 6 Masterpoints each

Well done to you all.

While the computer-selected hands threw up some very interesting distribution, the analysis sheet shows that there was only one potential slam hand – Board 12 where EW could have made 6H or 6D and  where the Optimal Result would have been for NS to sacrifice in 6Sx for 500 points to EW.  None of our pairs bid to slam with 2 EWs making 12 tricks in H while at the other 2 tables S made 10 tricks in 5S and 5Sx.

It was good to get back to Clubnights with 20 members playing a 25 Board Mitchell with Aggregate scoring.

This was the first night when we were playing hands produced from our new HandyDup equipment.  The analysis of the hands on the website confirm the impression we got from playing the Boards – EW had the majority of the points (average 21.56 v 18.44 for NS) with S being particularly hard done by with an average point count of 8.32.  The computer produced Boards are totally random so variations in point distribution will occur and we are not running any checks before the play to see how skewed the distribution of points is since that would mean that the checker would have some prior knowledge of the Boards so could not fairly take part.

Well done everyone for correctly calculating your scores so the final results are as announced at the end of the evening:

Top NS were Sue W and Bob Y with –210 for 20 Masterpoints

2nd were Ian T and David N with –2420 for 10 Masterpoints

Top EW were Marjorie and Vic with +3560 for 20 Masterpoints

2nd were Sue and Ian C with +3140 for 10 Masterpoints

Well done to all concerned.

The analysis of the hands shows that there were potential slams available to EW on Boards 6, 7, 16 and 18.  Marjorie and Vic bid and made 6H on Board 6 and then on Board 18 Marjorie and Vic, Sue and Ian, Ann and Malcolm and Ann And Jennifer all made slams on Board 18 though Sue and Ian were the only couple to have bid 6NT rather than 6S.

Clubnights resume on 6 September in our new venue in the Buckstone Suite.

We will be using computer selected boards at our clubnights which will have been put together using the HandyDup system we have purchased.  This will allow those playing to take away a print of the Hands and/or to review the hands which will appear on the Results page of the website.

We are to extend the range of competitions played for during the season.  We will continue to play for the Millennium Quaich, the President’s Salver and the Summer Saucer as in previous years but we are also to introduce a Club Pairs Competition and a Club Team-Player Trophy.  Details of these appear on the Competitions pages of the website.  We have also decided to participate in the Eastern District Simultaneous Pairs on 8 November.  The last clubnight before Christmas will then be our Xmas Party Night on 20 December.

We look forward to another successful season.