It was third stanza of the recent Scottish cup final and my right hand opponent was Barnet Shenkin, bridge author and legendary Scottish player. In the illustrated auction he opened 1NT not what you want to hear when 5-5 in the majors and 25 points! Too strong for the ''Landy convention'', only a penalty double would do, in a desperate attempt to get across the power of the hand. Brian Spears bid 2♣ a standard rescue manoeuvre indicating clubs and a higher ranking suit. This came back to me and the second double was for take out, to which Gints was compelled to bid his heart suit.

I reasoned that given he had by passed diamonds, crucially a singleton in my hand it was likely he had five hearts and along with the ♣K sitting over the opening bid things looked good for a pot at 6♥.

Meanwhile it was a long wait for Gints , while Barnet pondered a lead but when ♣A did not appear on the table, the Latvian drew trumps and discarded clubs on the spade suit and despite not a point in his hand managed all thirteen tricks! Not bad.

In a desperately tight finish the Scotland open team over came the South African open team by 5 imps in a 24 board clash on Sunday. Scotland were in front  by 24 imps at half time but then South Africa rallied. The featured hand was a 'disaster for Scotland' when after a non convincing auction to 6♦. I lead ♥ A with the hope of collecting the ♦K later in the hand. The 2H response by west showed a strong hand and 2NT bid inferred something in clubs. I was worried that declarer might have a singleton heart and would be able to discard it on dummy's clubs. As it turned out this was not the case and my ace was ruffed setting up lots of winning hearts on the table for an easy 12 tricks(-1370) and a catastrophic 16 imp loss for Scotland

Post mortem: Had i led a club the 'unbid suit' it was going to be extremely unlikely declarer would have made 6D 

It was Tuesday evening at the Carlton Bridge club... the Russel cup (Edinburghs top match pointed pairs event) when playing with Stephen we came across Athena and Sam. Sam was east and opened a very good 3C pre-empt. I was south and overcalled 3D, meanwhile Athena sitting west made the sensible response of 4H. Stephen with good diamonds and a useful singleton heart raised to 5D. However Sam felt we had overstepped the mark and 5D could not make so doubled. Holding a surprise club void this action got 'the full treatment' with a redouble. There was no problem in the play and 11 tricks were easy enough, so +800 for the boys

It was the first hand of the day on Sunday morning in the subsidiary teams final of the Scottish winter fours at the Melville bridge club when I woke up with the north hand. After a 2C opener and 2D semi positive response the auction was natural. West made a Lightner X of 7C sugesting his partner make an unusual lead and now the odds were perfect for a redouble. Its only an extra -100 for one down but you get a lot more if the slam makes...east did not lead a spade, so that was +1960, not a score i am familiar with. Meanwhile back at the ranch team mates also doubled 7C, but this is only-1630 so an 8 imp gain to team Sanders.

My Mum played this hand well to help us win the Melville Bridge club teams Championship a few years ago. Her partner was  Jeff Bond playing North and his 4NT bid was Roman key card Blackwood. The subsequent auction established one ace and the Queen of trumps so 6♥ was reached.

West lead the ace of diamonds and continued the suit. Declarer correctly saftey played the trumps playing ♥AK enabling her to pick up the ♥J985 onside. However this was still not enough because there was now a diamond loser to deal with. No problem, rather than risk an immediate club finesse to provide a discard she cashed all her winners and then the last trump. A text book automatic squeeze! East could bare ♣K or discard ♦Q. It was the ♦Q that went into the muck and now my mums ♦J was a winner (best here for the defender to bare ♣K rather than throw a winner, its harder for declarer to drop a single king off side than cash a winner!!). Anyway that was 12 tricks, two more tricks than were made at the other table against Jack Paterson and me in the same 6♥. Hooray 14 imps to team Sanders... great play Mum (Top dog) !

It was the 2nd round of the Camrose (home internationals) and i was the Scottish south when my partner Alex opened a pre-emptive 3S. We generally play these bids as sound so i felt my hand worth a go at slam. Nothing looked straightforward so i asked for keycards* with 4NT and when partner showed two felt this was enough and had a pot at 6S.The excellent Welshman Julian Pottage sitting west had a club void so made a classic Lightner double indicating he had a void! If his partner could guess to lead a club this would defeat the contract by 1 trick for but on any other lead 6S would make. A great time for a redouble...risk an extra 100 or get the Jackpot of 1620! No problem for me...i gave it the full treatment and when East led a diamond it was all all over for a huge swing to Scotland!!  *Key cards are aces and the king of trumps

Every January the top Scottish teams compete in The Winter Foursomes. This year my team flopped in the main event and had to battle our way through lots of matches to reach the final of the secondary event. Still it was quite tough and a lot of good play would be required to win. Sadly one of my team mates Iain 'Smuggers' an experienced Scottish international massively failed on the above hand. I appreciate for most players this one is far too hard but for somebody who gets into the Scottish team on a yearly basis he really should have wrapped it up.

I have translated their auction into one we can understand. The 2D jump shift shows a very good hand and suit, expressing an interest in slam. 3H is a cue showing first round control.Meanwhile East who also had strong hand with good support felt he had enough to drive to slam. Sadly the cards did not fit well and there appeared to be two losers in the minor suits. Most of us would feel resigned to going off not having read too much about squueze play. However two squeezes are availble 1) play the positional squeeze on north, for long clubs and ♠ Q ... ruff a club first and then raft out diamonds squeezing north in the black suits and potentially hearts but its all very messy and requires north to hold everything. Still not a bad line and the excellent young John Faben took this option to land his slam (well played John). 2) Play for the rare and exotic ruffing squeeze which operates on both north and south! This includes the options John took. Simply duck a club then take ♣ A.Now raft out your winners and on the 2nd last trump pitch dummy's small spade. If a club gets discarded you can cross over with a spade and then ruff out the last club. Thats 12 tricks with the established club...Iain failed to find either line... !! Anyway despite this disaster  we ran out comfortable winners in The 'Scottish Punchbowl' 

It was round 4 in the Gold Cup and my team were drawn against the UK number 3 seeds captained by Brian Senior. The venue of this clash was the Darlington Bridge club, a midway location for their Yorkshire team and my Scottish team. We were a five man squad and they were six, consisting of professional players employed by the excellent Sandra Penfold.

This board came up in the 2nd Stanza of the 48 board match. I sat north and after opening 1C my 2D rebid was a reverse which shows a strong hand. Jacks 3C raise was game forcing and suggested we might have a slam. I now jumped to 4S, a classic splinter bid indicating a singleton spade. With great fitting cards Jacks hand improved no end, so he was now able to bid the rock solid 6C. Meanwhile at the other table after 1C-P-1H- my team mate... 'The Garve' (an English friend, one of their best players and only non Scot in the team,) overcalled with the good 4 card spade suit. This induced his partner to make a pre-emptive raise and now the pro players were in trouble. Not able to untangle their hands they ended up playing 5C. A crucial gain which helped us get through to the last 16 teams in UK!

This hand was from the Scottish Winter Fours a three day event held in Falkirk. I was playing with my regular partner for this tourney Stephen Peterkin when we came across his girlfriend, the excellent top lady international Sam Punch. We had a convoluted but essentially natural auction to 5D. Sam was not convinced given her partner had showed values with a takeout double and decided we needed a lesson so doubled. Not fully appreciating the quality of her opposition she was now in trouble. My hand was better than it might have been and trusting her boyfriend i gave it the full treatment and redoubled. After a spade lead this was an easy make for +800 to team Sanders!

 Sunday after Christmas was the excellent Melville bridge Club congress teams superbly run by Bob McPaul. Some players use the 2C opener to show a strong hand or a weak two in diamonds, I presume this is to scare players into not bidding. It works against inexperienced players and also caught out 13 year old Kath Dempsie. Kath had the west hand and after a 2C opener by Liggat/McGowan (South) she felt frightened to bid. Kids tend to beleive adults so taking the mindset that a 2C opener is always strong, Kath passed throughout instead of making the normal 2H overcall. 2D made in comfort but when the other pair overbid to 4H down two it was a flat board.The hand was key because after a massive charge in the 2nd half The Edinburgh No Fears bridge club team overtook the McGowan team by 1 VP to grab 2nd spot. Well done Malkie, Iain, Kath and Jake... great result.

This hand came up when Scotland played the Czech Republic in round six of the Paris youth tournament. Jacob was tiring so i brought on Yvonne to play with Kath. Its not often you see some one play just about play a card perfect set in an 18 board match but Yvonne managed it in this encounter. In a match of superlatives this was my favourite because it shows that even when you dont open a weak NT you have an edge in a competetive auctions. After Kath opened 1D (denying a 1NT opener) Yvonne sitting North was able to judge that she was sitting opposite weak unbalanced hand with a very likely singleton heart so could bid the excellent 5D. The Czechs made a good sacrifice in 5H and this was given the full treatment for a score of +300 to Scotland. The nature of of playing a strong NT meant that all the other norths could not accurately judge the south hand because it might well be a weak NT hand and given the unfavorable vulnerabilty they all ended up defending 4H. Only Scotland  got to 5D and goes to show that if you know the ins and outs of your system you are always well placed. Well done Yvonne great stuff!!

In a desperately close Gold cup round 5 match this hand came up to decide the winners in a 48 board encounter. With nothing between the Scottish and English teams Jack and I bid to the sound 6H contract. Our bidding was strong and the 5NT bid from Jack asked me to chose a slam, naturally I picked 6H which made with an overtrick when the suit broke 2-2. Meanwhile at the other table top English internationals the Hackett twins got to 7H and this will make about %52 of the time. Disaster for my Scottish team..victory for them. Never mind there is always next year!!

 This hand came up in the preliminary Scottish trials and Tim and I bid to 6H (for an explanation of the bidding go to show answer). Superficially it looks like the slam depends on the club finesse but when declarers did not receive a diamond lead a significant extra chance became available. I received a trump lead, so drew trumps then cashed AK , followed by one top club. Dummy was entered with a trump, then I discarded a diamond on Q and exited with the  K . If east won A the club finesse would need to be taken but if west held the card he would be forced to lead a club into my AJ or concede a ruff and discard to give me the contract. This line dramatically improves the odds from %52  to well over %80 and was found at four of the eight tables. One unlucky declarer got a diamond lead and was forced to take the losing club finesse. But one declarer took a totally different line and played the clubs from the top hoping to drop the doubleton Q this failing, he would then eliminate the hand and exit with K. This 2nd chance works when the hand holding A also started life with two or less clubs because now the defender would be forced to lead a card and concede a ruff and discard. As it turned out the Q was doubleton and he was able to discard the losing diamond and scoop all 13 tricks! Interesting line and probably about a %78 chance. Any way we finished 3rd and will play two more weekends in the final trials.

It was the summer Peebles congress and being near my birthday my Mum paid the entry fee. The only catch was I had to play in the same team. Anyway playing with Tim we made the final and this hand came in the 2nd board. Our opponents were two top Glaswegian players. I judged to pass as east rather than open a weak 2S and south's weird 1D opener showed either clubs or diamonds. Tim knowing their methods guessed it was clubs, so doubled for take out.  I now made the action bid of 4S which got doubled by north. Aware that they did not know the situation and that my hand was well disguised, gave it the full treatment with a redouble. North now had to back himself and hope his partner had diamonds (misfit)....disaster it was clubs (fit). The A was lead and a club continued, I could not avoid a diamond loser so that was +1080 for the good guys! Meanwhile my Mum and her partner reached 5C doubled making.... but only +750 for a gain of 18 imps to team Sanders. Sadly we could not quite make the money and repeated our finish of last year ending 4th. Never mind Tim and me won the consolation pairs in the evening and had our photo taken):

This hand came up in the No Fears and after north opened 1NT some of the souths bid directly to 6S. This is the most practical approach and will land you in a good slam almost all the time. If you look at the deal it appears this should be easy enough, that is until west leads 2. With both red aces singleton dummy's honours are all blocked, so winning with the  A would appear to cut you off from the table and leave you nowhere to discard your losing clubs. Ian was faced with this dilemma and hoped that Stephen had led small from an honour. He played low there by retaining his entry to dummy. Holli won with the Q and reasoned that the lead could only be a singleton acurately returned the suit, giving the ruff and setting the slam. The winning and correct line which will work even if the lead is from an honour... is to win the A and play one round of trumps. When the 8 appears you now have a miracle entry to dummy. Unblock your two Aces then cross to dummy with 7 and discard all your clubs on the red suit honours....13 tricks!! Note: Even if 8 does not appear just draw trumps, unblock the two aces and exit with a club hoping for the honours to be divided. If they are who ever wins and with only red cards left will have to present you with an entry to dummy and now you can discard your remaining clubs!!! But it was Clare and Hazel who cracked the hand by playing in the no problem 6NT by north making an easy 13 tricks on  J lead for all the match points (How cool was that)!!