Thanks to all that played today.  After a couple of late dropouts, we ended up with 13 ½ tables.

So, to the results and analysis of a few of the hands. 

Board 2 – The first of the slam hands, and one of the many distributional hands, today as EW can make 6D or 6S.  6D was the easier one to bid as West had 8 diamonds and two pairs bid and made that, one of them was doubled.  One pair did bid the 6S and make it which would have been the top if the 6D had not been doubled!

Board 7 – Another one of the distributional hands, East has 7 good Diamonds, West 6 reasonable Hearts and NS 10 Clubs between them (5 each).  The par contract here was 4D by EW and a few pairs bid and made that.  The top score for EW was NS in 5C -2 and the top score for NS was EW in 5DX-1!

Board 8 – 4H+1 by NS is the par here and all but one pair were in 4H, though only four made the +1.

Board 10 – one of those interesting part score hands as the par is 1S+2.  Every pair apart from one were in 1S, most making +2 but a few making +3.  The one pair in 4S went the expected -1.

Board 17 – the second and final slam hand of the day as NS can make 6H.  No one bid the slam with most pairs staying in 4H or 3NT and making overtricks.

There are other interesting hands and you can see the details of all the hands, results and people’s scorecards on our BridgeWebs site https://www.bridgewebs.com/radlettu3a/. You can also see this, together with the bidding and play, on the RealBridge site using the link you logged in with today – or with this link - https://play.realbridge.online/dq.html?p=230330129980&q=RadDup30Mar

Remember RealBridge has a new ‘Double Dummy’ analysis which allows you replay a hand to see when someone played the correct card or played a card that was ‘wrong’ and allowed the contract to make, when it shouldn’t have done, or go down, when it should have made.  Details of this are available on the BridgeWebs site here - https://realbridge.online/double-dummy-and-explore-play.html

So to the results:

Ties for 5^th and 20^th this week and as usual close at various points in the table but congratulations this week go to Christine Essex & Duncan Moffat

We next play online on the 13^th and 27^th April. I am going to have another go at organising a face to face only session on Thursday 4^th May. If you have not already done so please let me know if you will be playing then or not, particularly if you want to play in the Face to Face game at 14:00 on the 4^th May (there will be no online game that day).

The Borehamwood and Elstree group play again next Monday on 3^rd April then on 17^th and 24^th April (all Mondays). 

Your season ticket entitles you play with them for free as well.   If you are interested in playing on any of those dates, and have not already told him, please contact Malcolm Walker ASAP at borehamwoodduplicatebridge@outlook.com.

Some reminders

• Please send all messages about playing, or not, for the Thursday games to duplicate-bridge@radlettu3a.org.uk
• Normally you should get an acknowledgement of an email received within 24-36 hours.  If you do not see such an acknowledgement, please send the email again – it is better that we get it twice rather than not at all.
• If you know you can’t play on a particular session please let us know ASAP and at the very least, unless it is a last minute emergency, in reply to the message about the being on the provisional list or not that is normally sent our 5-7 days before the game.  Getting such messages just before or even after we send out our ‘final’ list causes us a lot of extra work in having to reshuffle partnerships.

Thanks in advance for your help with the above.

You may have noticed there is a new feature with the round time which goes Red if you are playing slower than you should be to complete the hands on time.  The text below the timer shows the number of hands you have left to play and the amount of time left per hand.  The time limit in not enforced but do please try to keep up as being behind slows down other players starting the next round.

If I don’t see you before then have a good Easter / Pesach and hope to see you on the 13^th April.

Regards,
Gary Harding

eMail:  duplicate-bridge@radlettu3a.org.uk or Gary.Harding@Gmail.Com

Mobile or WhatsApp: 07949 141214

Thanks to all that played today. 

There was a bit more confusion than usual about the playing list for today.  I have been very busy over the last week so asked Tony Hyams to organise it and overall he did a good job.  However some of you sent messages just to me, and not to the duplicate bridge account.  Tony gets to see the messages sent to the duplicate bridge account but the ones sent to me will only get through if I spot them and forward them. The problems were also compounded by the BridgeWebs system, which we use to send the emails, being down at various points!

So before I get to the results and analysis a few things I would like to ask you all to remember:

• Please send all messages about playing, or not, to duplicate-bridge@radlettu3a.org.uk – that way we should both get to see them. 
• Do not only use WhatsApp or my personal email.  When I am busy and have someone like Tony helping these messages may not get picked up in a timely manner (and occasional not at all before the session!).
• Normally one of us will respond with an acknowledgement of an email received within 24-36 hours.  If you do not see such an acknowledgement, please send us the email again – it is better that we get it twice rather than not at all.
• If you know you can’t play on a particular session please let us know ASAP and at the very least, unless it is a last minute emergency, in reply to the message about the being on the provisional list or not that is normally sent our 5-7 days before the game.  Getting such messages just before or even after we send out our ‘final’ list causes us a lot of extra work in having to reshuffle partnerships.

Thanks in advance for your help with the above.

We had several people drop out today as we clashed with a U3A trip to Guys & Dolls.  There shouldn’t have been a clash but the coach had to leave earlier than planned.  Even after this we had 15 1/2 tables.

So to the results and analysis of a few of the hands. 

Board 2 – EW can make 4H here and all but one pair were in game contracts in Hearts, some making 11 tricks.  NS have good sacrifices in 4S of 5C and the one pair that were in 5CX-2 managed to get a top!  Congratulations to Linda and Melvyn Bloomfield.

Board 3 – 3NT by NS is the par here and though most pairs were in NT contracts no one bid the game.

Board 5 – the first slam hand of the day as NS can make 6H.  Though every pair was in a Heart contract only two bid the slam.  One went -2 but the other made – congratulations to Michael Frankfurt and Shirley Conn.

Board 12 – the second slam hand of the day as NS can make 6C or 6D.  No one bid the slam and of those that were in 5D only one made.

Board 18 – the final board and the final slam hand of the day as EW can make 6H.  Six pairs bid the slam but only three of them made.

There are other interesting hands and you can see the details of all the hands, results and people’s scorecards on our BridgeWebs site https://www.bridgewebs.com/radlettu3a/. You can also see this, together with the bidding and play, on the RealBridge site using the link you logged in with today – or with this link - https://play.realbridge.online/dq.html?p=230323128859&q=p7H7d8EzEDom.

So to the results:

A tie for 17^th this week and as usual close at various points in the table but congratulations this week go to Brian & Terri Shalson.

We next play online next week 30^th March and then on the 13^th and 27^th April. I am going to have another go at organising a face to face only session on Thursday 4^th May. If you have not already done so please let me know if you will be playing then or not, particularly if you want to play in the Face to Face game at 14:00 on the 4^th May (there will be no online game that day).

The Borehamwood and Elstree group play again next Monday on 27^th March and then on 3^rd, 17^th and 24^th April (all Mondays). 

Your season ticket entitles you play with them for free as well.   If you are interested in playing on any of those dates, and have not already told him, please contact Malcolm Walker ASAP at borehamwoodduplicatebridge@outlook.com.

Remember RealBridge has a new ‘Double Dummy’ analysis which allows you replay a hand to see when someone played the correct card or played a card that was ‘wrong’ and allowed the contract to make, when it shouldn’t have done, or go down, when it should have made.  Details of this are available on the BridgeWebs site here - https://realbridge.online/double-dummy-and-explore-play.html

You may have also noticed there is a new feature with the round time which goes Red if you are playing slower than you should be to complete the hands on time.  A time limit in not enforced but do please try to keep up as being behind slow other players as well.

Hope to see you next week on 30th March.  The initial invite should be out tomorrow, Friday.

Regards,
Gary Harding

eMail:  duplicate-bridge@radlettu3a.org.uk or Gary.Harding@Gmail.Com

Mobile or WhatsApp: 07949 141214