Report by John Auld

It is  always surprising the level of interest to be found in 32 boards of bridge once you start looking. Sundays match against Lincolnshire was no exception.

The teams:

Dawes: John Rolph and Gerry Franklin; John and Irene Auld; William and Daniel Crook; Graham Lee and Frank Ball

Porter; Mike and Daphne Coggles; Carol Fisher and Martin Mellor; Graham Brindley and Nick Clark; Shirley Ashtari and Ian Dovey

Markham; Judith and David Cadwallander; David Landon and Frank Turton; Chris and Dorothy Close; Will Irving and Janet Jacques

Things started with a bang on board 1 with partner`s opening lead against 4S:

I understand that not everyone passes as North but my view is that 3D as dealer is a wild guess; could work - could be ridiculous. Left alone the opponents bid sensibly to 4S and Irene found a killing lead of a trump. Declarer- not yet warmed up- made a rapid analysis and decided he did not want to lose trick one. He played the Ace to cash top hearts and discard a diamond. Now he tried two top clubs  preparing to ruff clubs but Irene was there first with a ruff and followed with K and another spade to lay waste to the contract. Three losing clubs without a home meant only 7 tricks in total.

This defensive expertise deserted us on board 8: 

The spade game was bid nine times (including four times in the Dawes match) and made nine times. It should I think have been defeated nine times. After leading Ace of hearts the best chance to defeat 4S must be to negotiate a club ruff so next up is Ace of clubs. The spotlight now is on North who has to help. Whatever your methods on Ace leads this is about entries for a ruff. Everyone can see that South has played a singleton Ace of clubs- the defence knows, declarer knows, even the passing tea lady noticed- so North must play the 2 of clubs to show his diamond entry; to request a heart ruff he would have played a high club. Simple? Apparently not.

The declarer play hand of the day was board 23:

Having read the latest literature on opening leads I almost chose a heart but fortunately chose a spade like almost everyone. Now the spades were cleared and declarer unhappily played three rounds of diamonds won by South as I also unhappy shed a spade winner to hang onto my hearts and clubs. South played a club and declarer resignedly played low to go off. I was marked with the K of clubs by my spade discard but also as Willie Crook pointed out by Souths pass as dealer. If declarer thinks it through he will play Ace of clubs and ten of hearts (covered) before cashing diamonds and endplaying me with a club.

3NT was bid eleven times and was off ten times. The eleventh time an unlucky North led Q of hearts.

Overall then a modest performance from Notts who missed some regular players and won just the Dawes match.