Report on the match V Cambridge Alumni 24 November 2014

The report below was compiled by Tony Scouller with additional editing by Dominic Flint. The hands include some interesting techniques including a Scissors coup, defensive signalling and discovery play.

The club was represented by two teams of four captained by Tony Scouller. Tony was partnered by Ross Cope and their team mates were Pamela Reiss and Dominic Flint. Team 2 was represented by Marina Chaning Pearce with Terry Smith and Lester Pereira with David Glass. Scored as two separate Teams by IMPS and aggregated. We lost overall by 40+IMP which represents roughly four games – not much! As a result it is easy to understand that all players were less than pleased with their personal performance. I have therefore retained some anonymity in this report.

At all tables South opened after two passes with 1♠ West doubled and North went to 4♠. The J♦ was lead and won. The problem is where are the 10 tricks?  After the X it looks as though both black Ks are wrong. It is possible that AK♥  are on the left but in that case would he not have lead one “to have a look”? So it is obvious something must be done about the ♥ suit not least for transportation. So lead a ♥ at trick two. The variations are too numerous to mention but after this move declarer should prevail. Only Cambridge Alumni  in T1 made it the contract.

DF writes. I was sitting West on this hand and decided not to double. In fact if you do and North raises to 3 Spades, East has a dilemma on whether to show his diamond suit, the risk being that it will push South into the contract into 4♠. Looking at all 4 hands South will probably take the plunge regardless of wheather East bids or not.

The double dummy analysis of this hand is that 4♠  spades makes from South but goes one down from North. The difference being that if East is on lead he fires through the killing lead of a club. When South is declarer he can counter this threat with a scissor coup described by Tony of playing a heart at the first opportunity. East wins and plays the 10♣ but South is in control and lets this run to the J♣  in dummy. West must duck this otherwise the club suit is set up.  

Board 8 Featured some amazing results.

West - Ross dealt and chose to open a Benjamin 2♦ (game force, why not 2♣  I ask an Acol 2♠ ?) and I bid 3♥  (at least an A and K and 5♥ ) now South came in with 4♦  and Ross went 4♠. I thought he must have a solid suit but feared 2 losing diamonds. However I reflected – when did I last have such a good hand opposite a game force? I had one last try with 5♣ and Ross bid 6♠. +980. We thought it routine at the time. However our team mates got the bidding 1♠  and a 1NT response, Dominic sitting South stayed quiet which worked well when West raised to 3NT. Dominic skilfully cashed his 7♦  tricks having given no thought to doubling! and letting West escape back into spades - RAC +15!

In T2 RAC found the 4-4 Club fit for 6♣ but they broke 4-1 for -50. Unlucky yes – but it is worth noting that 7-4 hands almost never play well in the 4 suit. The West hand is known in the trade as an “eau de cologne” 4711.This only cost 4 IMP as Cambridge Alumni stayed out of game!

This was the final board before the break.

East in one team opened 1♠. South bid 3H (must be good at the Vul) and West scraped 3♠,  North 4♥  and East 4♠ . South to his partner’s annoyance went 5♥ H and got doubled for   -200. In the other room South passed and North doubled. On the lead of the K♥  played the 5♥  and South took this as a suit preference signal to switch to clubs, when in fact the intention was for the 5 to be encouraging, playing reverse attitude signals. With hindsight North can afford to overtake the K♥  and continue hearts,  forcing dummy. There are variations from here but provided North covers the attempted second Spade finesse Declarer must go down. However when south switched to 10♣  at trick two East could now make the contract. In the other match both teams went one down in 4♠  undoubled.

The second half was less dynamic but Board 20 was very costly, RAC going down in 3NT twice giving Cambridge Alumni 24 Imps. It offers the opportunity for a classic piece of discovery play.

Both sides played in 3NT and both rooms got a spade lead but because of the different 1NT openings employed they were from different sides.

In one room the Q♠ was lead, which drew the 9 from partner and was won by the K♠ This was followed by 9♣ and North unaccountably ducked with K10x when declarer continues he now has three Club tricks and although he loses to the Q♦ has 10 tricks.

This is a find the lady problem, and like any finesse which looks like a 50-50 proposition the correct technique is to delay the decision as long as possible. By playing on clubs you will discover that they are divided 3-3, and the play of the spades reveals that North started with 4. So it looks as though the hearts are divided 4-5. Therefore the diamonds are either 2-3 or even 1-4. Since South has longer diamonds the odds favour taking the finesse into the North hand.

Taking care to count the hand brings it just rewards on this occasion, and if you are wrong at least you will win the post mortem.

A most pleasant match played in the right spirit, and whilst the result didn't go our way, the Alumni paid us the compliment of bringing several players that represent their counties.