Déjà Vu

Tuesday night and I am back playing Max, Eileen, Maida and Sheila. Still a 32-board match but this is now the Scottish Cup and I am playing with David with Roy and Alec in the other room.

Unlike the Gold Cup, the Scottish Cup is played as two sets of 16 with compulsory change of opponents so I faced Max and Eileen for the first time.

I was only just able to curb my enthusiasm on board 10.

♠ J987x ♥ AQx ♦ x ♣ Axxx

♠ KTxx ♥ KJTxxx ♦ KJx ♣

West	North	East	South
Paul	Max	David	Eileen
		1♥	p
1♠	2♦	4♣	p
4♦	p	4♠	p
5♣	p	5♠	p
p	p

After David's splinter I was motoring to slam, but his understandable reluctance to cue bid anything else slowed me down sufficiently. Even then, you need to get the trumps right. I managed to do this, taking the simple line of running the ♠J, whereas the line taken at the other table was unsuccessful. As it happened the contract should be defeated by West leading a singleton heart at trick 1.

We ended the first half with a modest lead, 38-17 IMPs.

David and I had a very solid second half, giving nothing away and doing some good things, including bidding this hand on 28.

♠ x ♥ Kxxx ♦ AKQT98 ♣ Axx

♠ AQxxx ♥ Ax ♦ Jxx ♣ xxx

West	North	East	South
1♦	p	1♠	p
2♥	p	3♦	p
3NT	p	4♥1	p
4♠2	p	4NT3	p
6♦	p	p	p

¹ Roman Keycard Blackwood for diamonds
² 3 of 5 key cards
³ Asking for queen of diamonds

When hearts behaved this contract made easily. They played 3NT at the other table.

The final score was 77-37 IMPs.

Back at the table

Alex and I are playing with Finlay and Harry in the Gold Cup this season (a trek for Alex but I did the opposite a couple of seasons ago). Our first round opponents were Max and Eileen (Grand Masters from the West) and Sheila and Maida, part of the successful Scottish Lady Milne team earlier this year.

Harry did his job as captain losing the toss, and then put Alex and I against Sheila and Maida. We gained 11 IMPs when an aggressive slam went down and a further 13 IMPs on board 4:

Board 4; IMPs

	♠ AJTx ♥ Ax ♦ JTx ♣ QJxx
♠ Qxxxx ♥ KQxx ♦ xx ♣ xx		♠ Kx ♥ JTxx ♦ Ax ♣ Axxxx
	♠ xx ♥ xxx ♦ KQxxxx ♣ Kx

West	North	East	South
Paul	Maida	Alex	Sheila
2♥	p	3♥	p
p	p

My opening bid showed 3-8 points with both majors and this, combined with Alex's raise, made it awkward for North-South to enter the auction. Of course it's debatable whether they actually want to! I made nine tricks on a diamond lead.

In the other room Harry and Finlay bid to 3NT (somehow). On a club lead, Harry played the king to encourage a club continuation and made 9 tricks when they failed to find the heart switch.

We finished the first set leading 37-10 IMPs.

No change of opponents and a quiet second set. The only significant swing was on board 15 when we lost 7 IMPs. Alex and I bid a game that needed ♠KQ108x opposite ♠A2 to play for 5 tricks (51%). Alex played the best line (play the three top honours) but went down when Maida held jack fourth. They were in the partial at the other table.

We finished the second set leading 37-20 IMPs.

Our choice of opponents in the third set and Harry left the lineups unchanged. Board 22 was the only double digit swing:

♠ AQ9xx ♥ QJTxx ♦ A ♣ xx

♠ KJT ♥ ♦ JT9xxxx ♣ Qxx

West	North	East	South
Paul	Maida	Alex	Sheila
		p	p
1♠	X	2♣1	2♥
p	p	2♠	3♣
p	3♥	4♦	p
4♠	p	p	p

¹ transfer to diamonds

An initial trump lead would kill the contract as it removes an entry to dummy prematurely, but reasonably Maida led the ace of hearts. I could now ruff two hearts, assume spades are 3-2 and just concede a top heart and two clubs for the contract. A simple 11 IMPs when they played in 3♦ in the other room.

We finished the third set leading by 52-25 IMPs.

Strangely they kept the same lineup for the final set. Alex played the first hands in game, but the fourth was a doubled partscore and when it made the match was effectively over. They were good in the other room too and the final score was 84-33 IMPs.

Coming home

I've been in India for the last three weeks, watching the World Scrabble Championships (Hels' record) and searching for tigers. I arrived back at midday yesterday to broken central heating, weather at least 30C colder and a Gold Cup match in 24 hours.