Report by John Auld

Notts secured two good wins in the Dawes and Porter matches, easing us to middle table security and lifting us from bottom place respectively. The teams: 

Dawes: David Burgess and Gordon Fullerton; John and Irene Auld; David Hodge and Mark Goddard; Rob Atkinson and Sandy Fulton

Porter: Lloyd Eagling and Keith Rodgers; Martin Mellor and Carol Fisher; Steve Mulligan and Gerry Franklin; Tim Anderson and Bernard Scanlon

Markham: Bernard Moore and Mary Cook; Mike and Daphne Coggles; Sylvia Goodlud and Nick Clark; Janet Jacques and Will Irving

There was some talk of players ignoring the percentages. Rob Atkinson was one such declarer who upset the odds on board 24:

Rob played 3NT on the ten of H lead and had to develop spades. "In isolation" the percentage play is two top spades-but suit combinations are never in isolation and in this case South had unwisely shown red suit length and even more significantly North had paused over 3NT clearly considering a double based on his spades. None of this was lost on Rob who won the J of hearts and played a spade to the 9. A slip in defence subsequently yielded 10 tricks and +430.

 Against David Hodge and Mark Goddard declarer was given little chance in the same contract. A complicated auction with East bidding diamonds and clubs put North on lead. Mark led a heart and David started diverting Mark from hearts to diamonds by playing the ten at trick one. Subsequently he threw the nine of hearts as declarer tackled spades in the conventional fashion. The 7 of diamonds switch ducked by David did for 3N and  more careful defence led to two off. A nice piece of play from our youngest pair ; it is not all about preemptive leaps and strange Italian systems. 

The most stressful percentage choice was declarer`s on board 22: 

West`s 3C showed majors and my 3NT probably showed an unsound mind. It was part of a tactical plot which I cant quite remember. But Irene was there with 4C and fortunately she declared 6C.

West paused and cashed his spade. Then he paused and continued spades. Irene led a club and East played low. The odds are theoretically 52% on the 1-1 club break but it did not take Irene long to finesse for +920. The bidding maybe suggested a void with West and the leading is interesting; would West have anything to consider if he held a stiff King of trumps? Surprisingly this board was flat in our match as our opposing declarer also got clubs right after much agonising. And David Hodge made 6C with consummate ease- without a spade lead.

Congratulations to the Dawes and Porter teams. Commiserations to the Markham team on a narrow loss. The best pair on the day according to the sometimes disputed Butler imps were Steve Mulligan and Gerry Franklin.