Report by John Auld

Some last minute issues affected the line-ups for this match. Firstly the Aulds judged themselves still too jet lagged for the Dawes team - one of their few good judgements on the day- and family illness caused captain Mark Goddard to stay home to look after his two young children. Unfortunate but on the other hand he escaped the pleasure of managing twenty plus cantankerous bridge players. Everyone hopes the Goddard family is now fit and well.

The consequence was that Graham Brindley stepped in for the missing Mark; Andrew Scott formed a scratch partnership with David Hodge to play in the Porter with the Aulds, and John Rolph & Gerry Franklin plus Lloyd Eagling & Stan Zygadlo played in the Dawes. 

The teams with Butler imps:

Dawes

Steve Raine & Willie Crook                              26

Sandy Fulton & Frank Ball                               -9

John Rolph & Gerry Franklin                           -12

Stan Zygadlo & Lloyd Eagling                          -19

Porter

David Hodge & Andrew Scott                             3

Irene & John Auld                                             0

Bill Whalley & Pravin Tailor                              -4

 Graham Lee & Dick Milne                                -18

Markham

Keith Spencer & Steve Fordham                         7

Toni Smith & Maciej Lejman                               2

Graham Brindley & Patrick Gaudert                   -9

Dorothy & Chris Close                                      -11

It was the scratch pairing of David and Andrew who struck the first blow on board 2:

Andrew showed his values by responding at the 2 level and bidding spades at the 3 level over 3H forcing. Now David recognised how good his hand was and took control. I like this auction because it relied entirely on the judgement of two players who had never played together. (No Artificial Ingredients were used in the bidding of this Slam).

At 11 other tables NS failed to get beyond the 4 level. A typical other auction was 1H-1S (wrong)-3H(non-forcing and wrong)- 4H. The South hand cannot be described as 17 points and 6 hearts; it is worth much more.

That was a step on the way to +117 for the Porter team at half time. Meanwhile the Dawes were -34 and the Markham -89. The Markham staged a fightback to recover 66 imps in the second half. By contrast a relaxed and happy Porter team began the process of handing back their big lead.

First up was board 17: 

I opened 2S and we sold out to 5H. That was good in that the oppos had missed a clear slam but bad in that we missed our cheap save. The problem is that partner has little clue of your hand. Passing works better because after 1H and double from partner you are in control and will keep saving with Spades over Hearts until the cows come home, or the opponents double. In the Dawes match Lloyd started with a Lucas 2S raised to 4S by Stan. When Stan subsequently doubled 5H Lloyd sensibly removed to 5S (doubled).

The damage on the board was caused by one Porter declarer who had a brainstorm in 6H going one off. Something to do with counting trumps. We lost 68 imps on this one.

Next board 18 cost 42 imps mainly due to another  players brainstorm which led to a hopeless slam.(Miscounting keycards- an old problem).

And then a few boards later came another large donation to Staffs & Shrops,

I  received a spade lead to the ten and quickly lost a club and three spades leaving me to try a heart/diamond squeeze for 9 tricks. No such luck. David Hodge who saw his partner experience the same thing nobly suggested that his hand was not worth a No Trump raise. That is too clever for me. The key point is that 1NT over the double was a rotten bid. Do you really want a lead through partner to your featurelss collection?  2C is clearly better.The S & S declarers both made 3NT played by South. One got a small heart lead which may not be best but illustrates the point.

The final reckoning was 7-13 in the Dawes, 9-11 in the Porter and 8-12 in the Markham. This desultory series of narrow losses was reflected in the Butler imps with Steve and Willie the  only double figure positive. The sratch pairs-David & Andrew and Graham & Patrick - performed creditably in the circumstances. 

Yes board 17 featured a 9 card heart suit. I think that a nine carder occurs every 2000 deals, but if so nobody has told the hand dealing software. Facing a weak NT partner decided to lead from one of the minors. Given that C Q763 is a bit better than D Q753 she led a club. It has to be a diamond, as led by the strong No Trumpers who started with 1D. It is not all about skill!

Thanks to Staffs & Shrops for a nice match played in a good spirit throughout.