Evening League
Congratulations to the A Team which won its first match of the season on 22nd October against Aylesbury Aces by 77 IMPs to 52 (12.76 - 7.24). The team was Sandra & Krys, Steph & Steven, Ann & Paul, Holly & Zahir with John & Trevor standing by as reserves.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks & congratulations to those who played in the match on Thursday 13th November against Oxford E and won by 68 IMPs to 59..
The team was: Sandra & Krys, Steph & Steven, Holly & Zahir, Kati & Tunde. Thanks also to the reserves: Trevor & John
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had our final match of the season on 5th March, and won by 76 IMPs to 55 (= 13.32VPs to 6.68). Thanks to the team
Sandra & Krys,
Steph & Steven,
Trevor & John,
Paul & Roger
and to Ann as reserve.
Indeed thank you to everyone who played this season, and to those of you also who volunteered but were not required.
There is still one match to play in the division, and the overall outcome is still open. However we are currently in a comfortable 3rd spot (out of 6), and the most likely result is that we will stay there.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daytime league
I'm delighted to report that on 17th December Summertown A achieved its first win of the season, against Abingdon A. This is a strong team so it's very well done to the four players - the Blisses and the Pavelins - who beat their opponents by just 4 IMPs, after a ding-dong battle hinging mainly on two slams (one bid and one not by either side), and a couple of NT games.
The result in VPs is 11.08 - 8.92, which leaves us lying in fifth place in the division, with an average so far of 9.4. However, our three matches so far have all been against the teams who are currently in the top three places, so we might hope for some better results further down the line. Congratulations and many thanks to today's players, and also thanks to Robert for standing by as reserve.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our daytime B team had their first outing on 15th October against Wallingford Assendon. At the end of the first half they were 18 IMPs down, due largely to two big swings which cost 25 IMPs between them. However, they picked up during the second half and when I logged in to see how they were getting on at the end, there was just 1 IMP between the teams with one board left to play. Unfortunately the game bid on this board by our side turned out not to be quite there, so we lost the match by 4 IMPs, equivalent to 8.92 - 11.08 in VPs.
Many thanks to the team, who on this occasion were Betty, Bridget, Moira and Cliff; and to Tunde for standing by with me (Sandra) as reserve.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sorry to have to report that the daytime B team lost its match on 5th November against Oxford Cherwell, by 49 IMPs to 63 (6.59 - 13.41 in VPs).
The team of Bridget and John with Tunde and Kati were ahead at half time, with three out of four big swings going their way, and what looked like a useful lead of 17 IMPs. However the second half sadly was a different story, with another two big swings going in favour of the opponents, together with enough part scores to reverse the position completely.
There were some exciting hands with several slams bid and made, and some fairly wild distributions. Unfortunately our team ended up on the wrong side of this hand:
When our pair were N/S, North opened 1S and was quickly left to play the hand in 3D, going just one down. At the other table, though, North chose to open 1D. Our E/W at this table naturally doubled for takeout and after some lively bidding, they ended up in 3S, which North was happy to double. When dummy appeared it looked as if 3S should be a reasonable bet, but the excruciatingly bad trump break resulted in two off.
Thanks and commiserations to all the players, and thanks also to Sara, who kindly agreed to act as reserve again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The afternoon A team match on 4th March against Abingdon A was almost neck and neck until boards 18 and 19, both of which turned into big swings for the opposition after some aggressively competitive bidding. They actually gained 24 IMPs on those two boards, which in the end was exactly what we lost the match by (43 - 19, translating into 15.28 - 4.72 in VPs).
Many thanks to the players: Moira and Cliff, and particularly Steph and Steven, who were originally reserves but kindly stepped in at the eleventh hour when Robert couldn't play due to technical problems.
That was our last match, and we thought it must mean we'd be heading back to Division 2 next season; but in fact Banbury have also just had a bad result against Wallingford Berrick, so it all hinges on the result of their last match on 23rd March.
|