Report by John Auld

Notts played this match as second favourites with the usual alibi of unavailable players and late changes leading to scratch pairings,

The teams:

Dawes: John Rolph and Frank Ball; John and Irene Auld; Keith Rodgers and Gordon Fullerton; Ian Dovey and Shirley Ashtari

Porter: Janet Jacques and Will Irving; Martin Mellor and Carol Fisher; Ray Furlonger and Phil Dale; Tim Anderson and Bernard Scanlon

Markham: Daphne and Mike Coggles; Bernard Moore and Mary Cook; Dorothy and Chris Close; David and Judy Cadwallander

In fact the Markham team had a good win and the Dawes lost by a few imps only. I do not think we can deny having some good luck especially on the big hands like board 23:

I chose 6S for reasons that are unclear now. Certainly a 5-3 or 6-3 fit is not always inferior to a 4-4 fit and often better contrary to conventional wisdom. 6S was cold but I admit that the Derbyshire choice of 6H makes sense in theory. Fortunately for us Frank Ball and John Rolph took a spade ruff to defeat the heart slam and get 17 imps.

In fact 6S is very slightly better than 6H but 6NT is ideal. Anyone with a sequence to find 6NT please let me know.

We also had some luck with another scratch pairing on board 5:

Keith Rodgers doubled 3C and Gordon Fullerton passed happily. When asked Gordon explained that the double was penalties as per the convention card, but he added (accurately) that Keith may have forgotten! (Presumably the double was not intended as  penalties but who knows?) This unlikely situation disrupted declarer who unable to place the cards went 4 off for -800, a lot more than  seems necessary.

At our table Irene doubled a 2C overcall (for takeout) and I bid a cowardly 2D. That looked a bad choice when East cashed top clubs and switched to his heart singleton but things went fairly well. I assumed from lack of bidding that spades were 4-4 and the play suggested a heart singleton with East. So I played a second heart-ruffed ,suffered a club ruff ,but ruffed the spade return. Now I cashed Ace of diamonds and Q of hearts before cross ruffing my way home. At trick 12 I made J of trumps as West had to play from K9 of trumps ahead of me. 90 was a small plus but a plus nonetheless.