Report by John Auld

This rescheduled match was the the last of the season. As I was one of a number of unavailable players I am indebted to others for material notably Lloyd Eagling and David Hodge.

The teams:

Dawes: David Burgess and Gordon Fullerton; Lloyd Eagling and Keith Rodgers; Carol Fisher and Martin Mellor; Graham Brindley and David Hodge

Porter: Ellen Overton and Jackie Parsons; Gerry Franklin and Rob Atkinson; Nick Clarke and Ray Furlonger; Bernard Scanlon and Tim Anderson

Markham; Janet Jacques and June Marron; Dorothy and Chris Close; Mike and Daphne Coggles; Mary Cooke and Bernard Moore

Board 12 seemed to depend on how to handle a fragile heart suit: 

After a routine auction and a club lead how should one play the trump suit? If you know that West is short in hearts a small one from dummy is correct. With nothing to go on the natural play is heart to the ten followed by the Ace-working against East`s doubleton honour as well as KQx or xxx with East. That is what I would expect 8 out 10 declarers to prefer. Regrettably in the Dawes match Notts had declarers 9 and 10. Our captain backed a hunch and tried the jack on the second round of trumps playing to pin the nine; and David Hodge saw an extra chance. He played a small heart from table and subsequently cashed the Ace. Now with the King outstanding he eliminated the black suits trying to endplay West; very neat and unerringly one down. As so often the normal play worked best. 

In fact most declarers went down especially those sitting South. A spade lead gives you no chance.

Hand 19 saw twelve declarers going off in a slam, eleven in 6S.

The East hand looks like some publicity material for Mr Blackwood (or indeed Mr Gerber). Having determined there is a missing Ace it looks to me that 6NT by West is better than 6S; if spades spring a leak you may get the Ace of diamonds led for tweve tricks or maybe on a different layout you could endplay South with his spades and the Ace of diamonds. I must admit though that placing 6S in the East hand might work best as it protects the Kings from another remote possibility ie AQ in the South hand.

The final scores of 13-7 (Dawes), 14-6 (Porter) and 1-19 (Markham) meant that in the Dawes league Notts finished 4th. The Porter result was 8th  and the Markham 6th.