Thank you all for taking part in the match against the other week – unfortunately it did not go as hoped, but we were missing a couple of regular pairs and Warwickshire are probably the county with the most strength in depth, so whilst it is never nice losing, sometimes the opposition is too strong. I particular want to thank our debutants for stepping in.

The scores were:

A team – 6 - 14 (almost another comeback)

B team – 1 - 19

C team – 0 - 20

The cross-imps (as usual based on the MCOL results across all matches) were:

Particular credit to Frank and Graham for being positive. I would also note Clare and Graham for stepping up to the B team and doing well, Patrick and Keith (on their second run out) doing well in the A team and Louise and Mervyn for their effort in the C team.

One board that has been pointed out to me is Board 5 of the first stanza. That was played in 6H eight times in our match, making five times (sadly mainly by the opposition) and went down three times. In the whole MCOL it was played in 6H 16 times (out of 36) making nine times. First off, should you be in it – the answer is yes (if hearts break you have lots of chances to make). My suggested auction would be:

Some points – I would open 1H rather than 2C as in my books I am not strong enough to GF. If you are playing Benji, you would open 2C/2D (though if oppo were brave with 3D, the auction could get difficult). In traditional ACOL, you may consider a 3H response rather than 2H, but I prefer a bit more strength and the balanced shape puts me off. The 3C bid is a long suit trial, which will obviously be accepted with a maximum (East is always going to game, but if West signs off in 3H then you will not look for slam).

In terms of the play, assuming you get a diamond lead, you will win in hand and would appear to have 4/5 hearts, 3 clubs, 2 diamonds and a spade – so 10 tricks of the top, with 11 if hearts break and chances in spades and clubs for more tricks.

There is no reason not to start on trumps, so you should play 2 or 3 rounds, ending in dummy (it is essential to end in dummy as you have few entries). When you find out about the bad break you only have 10 top tricks and so will need the spade finesse, so you should lead a spade to the Q. When that wins you have 11 tricks and can make another if clubs break, or via a squeeze. In order for the squeeze to work you need to lose a trick to rectify the count – as such you should clear trumps, giving south their trick. Assuming a diamond is returned, you win the ace and discard a spade. You then come back to hand with a spade and cash the last heart – North is squeezed at this point. He can’t keep four clubs and the top spade and the contact rolls home. If you are unsure about squeezes, then I suggest you play this one out – it is a fairly common position where it does not cost to play out your winners before tackling a long suit – you just need to remember to lose the heart to rectify the count.

The final match of the season is 20 June – please respond to Shirley with availability. You will have also noticed that the opposition have requested we use RealBridge – whilst this may be a good idea for people to try it out (it has become fairly standard in EBU events), if people respond that they do not want to use RealBridge and prefer to stick to BBO, then that is what we will do.

Mark Goddard