Suffolk V Essex 16/12/18: Captain’s report
Rick Hanley
Despite the unavailability of several players due to the proximity of Christmas, Suffolk were highly competitive in all three ECL matches against Essex.
The ‘A’ team lost narrowly (9VP-11VP), largely due to an excellent performance from the outstanding Essex pairing of Paul Spencer and Marc Chawner. In the ‘B’team, Suffolk fought back in the final stanza but couldn’t retrieve all of the deficit conceded in the eight previous boards (7vp-13vp). There were strong contributions for the second match running from Paul Whetton, Ralph Parish and Andrew Moore.
The ‘C’ team had a resounding 15-5 victory featuring excellent cross-imp scores from both Helen Mason/David Mathews and Richard Evans/Peter Bushby. Thanks to everyone who took part.
Declarers had contrasting fortunes when declaring 3NT from the North seat on board 23 following a spade lead. Only 3/6 were successful.
At Chris Chambers, Jeff Orton and Andrew Moore’s tables, West had shown a six-card spade suit having opened the auction with a multi 2♦. All three won the lead and led a diamond to the 9. This seems correct as four diamond tricks are likely if 10♦ is onside. However, East played the 8, West’s 10 won the trick and the spade suit was cleared. What would you try next?
At my table, Andrew got virtually every decision correct throughout the entire afternoon but was hit by an avalanche of spades when he tried a second low diamond from hand. Chris tried a top diamond and then tried unsuccessfully to drop a singleton club honour in the West hand. Jeff found the best line by crossing to the table with a heart to the ace and led J♣. West covered and the contract was now secure as the club honours were split. With an opening heart lead instead of a spade, success rate was 6/6. If the lead at trick 2 is from dummy, then an immediate play on clubs now seems more probable. A spade finesse will ultimately generate a 9th trick.
Cross-imps are available in the Results section on the Suffolk website.
Additional commentary on the match can be found on Chris Chamber’s website: http://www.dubiouslogic.com/bridge/eadt/2018/Dec22.htm
'A' Team: Karen Pryor / Malcolm Pryor; Jeff Orton / John Wilmott; Jane Moore / David Price; Chris Chambers/Peter Gemmell.
'B' Team: Rick Hanley/ Andrew Moore; Tony Shearman / Robert Green; David Willson / Simon Riley; Ralph Parish / Paul Whetton.
'C' Team: Richard Evans / Peter Bushby; Eric Newman / Diane Whitley; David Mathews / Helen Mason; Jenny Price / Cleopatra Hensby
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