Six tables this evening and the winners were Colin and Stephen, runners up Daphne and Ann , with 3rd spot going to Jim and Irene with Clare and Maurice taking fourth place! A very well done them!

Meanwhile the live No Fears is on every Thursday 6:45 at the Carlton. Anybody who does the double, that is... winning the Tuesday BBO No Fears and then the Thursday live No Fears in the same week will receive a 'jackpot' prize🍾🍾🥂! Well done last weeks winners Jim and Irene who went onto to win the Thursday at the Carllton and claim the jackpot prize!!!

BBO master points are awarded to those finishing in the top places. This means that you get a number next to your username which goes up as you pick up more points. Please let me know if you would like a couple of No Fears pens🖋🖊, they have conductive nozzles great to use on touch screens📱.

Board six was a sequel to last week's hand but this time it was twenty-one points opposite a 1NT opener. The winners had no problem and when Colin opened the weak NT hand, Stephen with the good twenty-one points clicked the 6NT button. After a ♠J lead Colin set about the club suit and when Nanna took her ♣ A that was twelve tricks and a top equal board.

Meanwhile at one table after east opened 1NT, west 'wheeled' out the rarely used Gerber convention. This is a direct response of 4♣ to a 1NT or 2NT opener and asks partner how many aces they have. Unfortunately, east got into a muddle with the Blackwood convention and responded 4♥ indicating one ace (5♥ after Blackwood shows two aces). West thinking, they were missing two aces signed off in 4NT and that was two overtricks.

See how West got the maths wrong with twenty-one points in hand and twelve in partners. The total of thirty-three points meant they could not be missing two aces and ergo no need for the Gerber convention in the first place. Never mind it's a long time since I have seen Gerber in action, definitely a blast from the past.

The Gerber convention was devised by the Swiss pair William Konigsberger and Win Nye in 1936. John Gerber of Texas introduced it to North America in 1938 and got its name (Wiki). Like the Blackwood convention it asks for aces but uses 4♣ instead. Gerber is best applied after no-trump openings and for this reason rarely makes an appearance since the 4NT quantitative slam invite is far more frequent.

The cards did not lie well on Board 13 and infact it was a deal where its better to play from the weaker of the two hands!

A few easts were distracted by the solid looking heart suit and opened 1♥. This ended up with them playing in suit contracts resulting in a couple of positive scores. But typically, most easts with the balanced 20 points opened a more orthodox 2NT. Not unreasonably west with the good eleven points and 5-5 in the minors felt they were worth a little more than a raise to 3NT and bid 4NT. This is a quantitative bid and asks partner to pass with a minimum and push on to 6NT with a maximum. East with the minimum passed. South lead ♠ 4 and with north holding the ♠ AQ over the doubleton ♠K the defence took the first four tricks. See how if south leads ♠10 the defence can prevent spades from becoming blocked and take the first five tricks!

Meanwhile Anne and Daphne found their way to an unlikely 4♥ contract and after a diamond lead emerged with eleven tricks and second top. Board 13 not so unlucky for them.

You are kindly filling in as a last-minute substitute in a Teams match.

You play the SBU Standard system: weak no-trump, weak 2s in ♦♥♠
You are West. What is your call?

Entries by 25th November with SBU number to:  liz.mcgowan@blueyonder.co.uk

Results and top scores will be published on December 1st.

Problem 1       Teams            All Vul             Dealer South

Problem 2       Teams:           All Vul            Dealer East

Problem 3       Teams:           EW Vul          Dealer East

Problem 4       Teams:              None Vul    Dealer East