Report by John Auld

Worcestershire have a cunning plan to confuse opponents by adopting ever more remote rural locations. Nonetheless all 24 Notts players sat navigated their way to Bradley Green Village Hall in good time. Regrettably the sat navs were then turned off and all three teams left alone lost their matches.

The teams:

Dawes: John Rolph and Gerry Franklin; Irene and John Auld; Daniel and William Crook; Mark Goddard and David Hodge

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

Markham: Tim Anderson and Bernard Scanlon; Ray Furlonger and Phil Dale; Shirley Ashtari and Ian Dovey; Mike and Daphne Coggles.

The big hand and the big swings came on board 19:

My partner on lead against 6S  led her singleton heart. How should declarer play this contract? Not as our man  did- nor as most of us would-by winning in hand and playing a trump. I was not then taxed to give partner a ruff.

A better answer to how to play is quickly and confidently. Most experts take their time but one or two specialise in speedplay to disturb the opponents. Such a player would immediately win in dummy dropping the 9 from hand and play a small trump from table. It should not work but may in practice.It is another example of Tony Forrestor`s advice about leading towards the closed hand.

In fact the contract can be made legitimately by discarding hearts on clubs before touching trumps, but there is danger in that line.Which approach to take depends on how likely the lead is to be a singleton (very likely I think) and how likely you are to slip a spade through from table ( I do not know).

The excitement at our table was eclipsed by that at David Hodge and Mark Goddard`s. Here David opened 3D and West viewed to punt 6H. It is not sour grapes to call that lucky. However North compounded the problem by leading Ace of spades. He will agree in the light of day that that was unwise. Even if West has made a wild bid with losing spades where are they going? Left to guess spades declarer may find club length with South and play for a 3-1 break. Probably not is my guess but maybe. That was -17 imps.

Another hand with lots of play was board 6.

I played 4S as North and got the Ace of clubs lead. Now East has a crucial decision. The evidence is that by bidding 4S I have 6 spades; partner`s preference to 2S normally shows a doubleton so that seems clear. Overall a 6421 shape for my hand is probable. Certainly if I have Q of diamonds it is essential to lead hearts now. Sometimes a diamond switch will work stopping me from drawing trumps and ducking a diamond to establish the suit for discards. Overall a heart switch will work most often to beat 4S. What wont work is a club continuation as happened in practice. Three rounds of trumps were followed by diamonds.

It looks necessary for the defence to cash the club before establishing hearts; if for example a heart is led and ducked I can cash diamonds to discard the club. West must ruff with the 9 (to prevent overruff ) and despite some complex variations 4S makes.

I am not sure that I am worth my bid of 4S in theory but admirable restraint never seems to be a winning policy. It certainly was not on board 20:

When dummy went down I thought "admirable restraint". Unfortunately (for opponents) West was into the same thing so they did not try 3N. Perhaps a rebid of 1N by West is the best compromise. Not that 3N is great but William had no trouble endplaying South to make game. Not too much restraint from the Crooks of course.

Congratulations to Worcestershire who won all three matches 17-3, 12-8, and 14-6 and provided an excellent tea.