Congratulations to everyone!  That was a good win.  For what it's worth, Abingdon A have been solidly in Division 1 throughout this decade (the 2020s).  Never getting relegated, always coming 4th or 5th out of the seven teams in the division.  They beat us heavily when we were in Division 1 two years ago.  Today's result will have shocked them.

Blewbury won with 12.02 VPs (which was 125-101 IMPs)

Here's the RealBridge link to play through the hands again.

CROSS-IMPS

BLEWBURY: Finn Clark & Stuart Forsyth = 0.85
BLEWBURY: Diane Bell & Shirley Moore = 0.75
ABINGDON: Nigel Wilkes & Gillian Lonsdale = 0.44
ABINGDON: David Walton & Peter Dunsby = 0.18
BLEWBURY: Dermot Paddon & Nigel Carter = -0.42
BLEWBURY: Malcolm Cochrane & Mike Allen = -0.51
ABINGDON: Peter Litchfield & John Briggs = -0.51
ABINGDON: Peter Jackson & Alison Jackson = -0.78

BOARD 1 = 11 IMPs

Stuart and I opened our 2D trash multi (18-20 balanced or a load of garbage with a 5-card major).  Peter Jackson overcalled 3D and played there, making three overtricks, when all the other East-West pairs were in game.  Personally, I think his partner should have replied 3NT with her chunky 11-count.  Partner should have an opening hand (even if you haven't discussed this exact sequence) and you have K98 of his suit.

BOARD 2 = 24 IMPs

Nigel and Dermot made 4H+1, while Alison Jackson went off in the same contract.  Stuart and I started with three rounds of spades and Stuart ruffed in with the jack, promoting a trump trick for me.  On getting in with the heart ten, I led a fourth round of spades, forcing declarer to use her last trump.

She could still have made her contract by guessing correctly in diamonds, though, and I think she should have.  The North hand has shown up with six spades and three hearts by that point, so the fall of the diamond ten on the first round of the suit looks like a clear finesse opportunity.

BOARD 3 = flat

Everyone's in 4H+3.  Stuart and I bid it 2NT 3D (transfer) 3H 4H, but afterwards Stuart and I agreed that he should have broken the transfer by bidding 4H instead of 3H.  You've only got three of them, yes, but sometimes you've got the kind of hand that wants to bid game even if partner's sub-minimum.  Here, that'll get you to slam.

BOARD 4 = -2 IMPs

Everyone's in 4H and most people made an overtrick.  At IMP scoring, this doesn't really matter.

BOARD 5 = flat

4H and 3NT are both as safe as houses.  Both contracts were bid.

BOARD 6 = 9 IMPs

Congratulations to Diane and Shirley for stealing the hand in 5H+1.  All other tables saw the opponents find a cheap sacrifice in 6C the other way.

The auction at our table was interesting.  East opened 1H and West leapt straight to 4H (which looks bonkers to me on a hand with strong slam interest), but that wasn't enough to shut me out sitting North since I had 0256 shape and favourable vulnerability.  I bid 4NT to show the minors.  It's the Unusual No-Trump, but forced a bit higher than usual.  It's definitely not asking for aces!  Technically it's showing two places to play, but partner won't be in doubt what those are since the opponents have bid 4H and North's 4NT is bypassing spades.  Anyway, East found the surprising bid of 5H (despite holding basically a weak no-trump) and Stuart came in with 6C.  A double thereupon ended the auction...  but of course East-West can make slam.  Had they bid 6H, I'd have made a Lightner double for a spade ruff at trick one.  This would give West the opportunity to correct to 6S, which can't be beaten, but Stuart would then be able to say 7C.  (If he knows I'm ruffing spades, as per the Lightner double, this isn't a difficult bid to find.)

Had Stuart and I held the East-West hands, though, we'd have started with 1H 2S (fit-jump with both majors).  East supports spades, no matter how energetically North intervenes, and now West goes kind of berserk.  That said, though, it's a dodgy slam since it depends on a 2-2 heart break (in the teeth of the extreme bidding you've been hearing from North).

BOARD 7 = 4 IMPs

Everyone's in 3NT, but the only declarers to make an overtrick were the two Blewbury tables.

BOARD 8 = 2 IMPs

2H-2 by South vs. ten or eleven tricks in either minor by East-West.  The computer analysis says that eleven tricks are cold, but that's because it knows to drop the doubleton club queen offside.  Also, the diamonds break 4-1.

BOARD 9 = -13 IMPs

A scrappy part-score board on which Abingdon got three plus scores.  No one did anything terrible.  Nigel and Gillian played well to make 2H+1 on their tricky 4-3 trump fit.

BOARD 10 = -6 IMPs

Passed out almost everywhere, except when Shirley made an aggressive third-seat opening and the result was 1S-1.  I think the bid's perfectly respectable and indeed normal, I do the same kind of thing all the time myself and I think Shirley and Diane were just unlucky.  No problem.

BOARD 11 = 26 IMPs

Stuart and I bid the perfectly normal but unlucky 3NT, which should go off on the bad club break but the defence went awry and let Stuart make it with an overtrick.  Diane and Shirley, on the other hand, defeated 2NT-2 by two tricks.  That's a pretty impressive difference.

The other two tables stopped in the pessimistic but safe 3C and made it.  For what it's worth, North-South have 11 points opposite 12 but good intermediates and a 9-card club fit.

BOARD 12 = -4 IMPs

1NT by everyone, but this time it was the Abingdon declarers who made an overtrick.

BOARD 13 = -10 IMPs

Again, a scrappy part-score hand where Abingdon got three plus scores.  All four tables played in a different denomination, with clubs being the only one that wasn't declared somewhere.

I made a stupid mistake here as declarer.  I missed a spade discard and didn't realise that I had two spade winners in my hand at the end (admittedly after the defence had gone berserk).  I had AJ765 of spades opposite the singleton 2, so frankly it hadn't occurred to me that I'd be able to set up the suit for four tricks (only losing one) without even ruffing anything on table.  But that's what the defence tried to give me.  Play it through and be amazed.  Anyway, the outcome was 2H-1 when I could have made my contract.

BOARD 14 = 10 IMPs

East-West went off everywhere...  except when Nigel and Dermot passed the hand out.  Also, Shirley managed to go only one off in 2S, whereas both Abingdon declarers conceded two undertricks.

BOARD 15 = -21 IMPs

3NT everywhere, but with a different number of tricks at every table.  Different declarers made 8, 9, 10 and 11 (with computer analysis saying that 12 are available).  Unfortunately, the unlucky 3NT-1 declarer was from Blewbury (Nigel and Dermot).  Playing it through, I think declarer didn't realise that even after the 4-1 break, you can still pick up all the clubs by taking the marked finesse against Gillian's 105.  The pips are important here, with a singleton 9 having fallen on the first round.

BOARD 16 = -2 IMPs

Stuart and I pushed our opponents up to 5S, but then didn't find the defence to beat the contract.  I had a heart guess at trick one.  Other declarers were making a comfortable 4S.

BOARD 17 = 15 IMPs

A pretty wild board, with East playing 3NT-3 and 3H-2 while at other tables North buys the hand in 2S+1 or 2D-2.  Stuart doubled 2H (with AKJ43 of the opponents' trumps) and I took it as a takeout bid...  which, in hindsight, still doesn't look unreasonable.  It's a slightly fuzzy situation since it's his third round of bidding, but it sounds as if Stuart has the black suits.  He'd passed on the previous round, admittedly, but a double in that position would have been penalties/lead-directing because that was opener's second suit.

The good news, though, was that at least I made my contract after bidding 2S.

BOARD 18 = flat

2H everywhere, twice making and twice going one off.  Double-dummy play yields an overtrick, but that's computer analysis for you.

BOARD 19 = 24 IMPs

The Blewbury declarers made their contracts (2S and 2NT+2) while the Abingdon ones went down (2NT-1 and a wildly optimistic 3NT-3 against Diane and Shirley).  South has a fairly unremarkable 18-count opposite a horrible flat 5-count.  Congratulations to Malcolm and Mike for stopping in the only safe denomination (2S).

BOARD 20 = -2 IMPs

4H+1 or 4H+2 everywhere.  The extra overtrick hardly matters at this form of scoring.

BOARD 21 = flat

1NT made 7 tricks everywhere...  but twice by West and twice by South!  (The two sides' points are 19 vs. 21.  No one has a long suit.)

BOARD 22 = -11 IMPs

Eight tricks in no-trumps is the norm...  but Stuart and I played in 3NT-1.  Whoops.  In fairness, though, we have 24 points between us with long suits and the contract only goes off because diamonds break 4-1 with A1072 sitting over the KQJ83.  Also, Nigel Wilkes defended well to unguard his spades at the end and keep clubs.

BOARD 23 = -23 IMPs

Nigel and Dermot played in 2H+1 when the rest of the room is making 11 or 12 tricks in 4H, 4S or 3NT.  It's an interesting auction.  West opened 1H, North doubled and East redoubled.  South dutifully bid 2C (having five of them) and West now rebid hearts.  East was now worried that West had a poor opening since he'd bid pre-emptively instead of giving him the chance to double 2C (which as it happens would have been worth 1100).

Looking at it in hindsight, I think West's options on his second bid are pass (ironically a stronger action than bidding again, for the reason given above), 2H (not wrong as such but open to misunderstanding and partner is unlikely to read you for something as chunky as two ace-kings) and 2S (upgrading the hand to a reverse since you're 5-5).  I don't hate the 2H rebid if you're playing four-card majors (it makes less sense if you're playing five-card majors since you're giving partner no new information and hence slightly misleading him), but I think I've talked myself into the conclusion that the best bid is pass.  You have lots of quick tricks in defence and you expect all four to be standing up since partner hasn't supported your hearts even though you opened them.  Despite your shape, you're definitely interested in defending a vulnerable doubled contract.  Pass gives you the best chance of a four-figure penalty...  and you know that it'll give you another chance to bid.  The redouble announces that your partner has no intention of letting the opponents play at the two level undoubled.

BOARD 24 = -7 IMPs

3S by East, going off everywhere...  but the Blewbury declarers went off two and three while the Abingdon declarers went off one and two.  (Computer analysis says that 7 tricks is the perfect result, so no one was ridiculously off the mark.)

So, congratulations again to everyone!  Next up, Menagerie B this time next week.