Well, here we are again!  It's the teams weekend at Brighton 2003!  Gillian Lonsdale, Nigel Wilkes, Mike Brown and Clive Keep travelled down on Friday 15th August to do battle against the Country's finest.  The event is organised into 14 eight board matches; three being played on the Friday evening, Seven of Saturday and four on Sunday.  At least the temperature was a bit cooler than the previous weekend - so maybe we would get some sleep at nights!

All went according to plan on the Friday evening - finishing the day on 36vps out of 60, with two wins under our belts.  Saturday too, was a good day, finishing on 123 vps and with another 5 wins out of seven.  The penultimate match on the Saturday was one I would not like to experience again.  This was match 9 in the whole tournament and it's the first board......

You pick up (hand 16), green against red

            3
            A9
            83
            J10987432

What do you bid?  Pass, 3C, 4C?
well I decided to bid the lot and the 5C card hit the table.  My LHO doubled in a voice of thunder (figuratively speaking) and my RHO goes into a trance and bids 5Ds - two off for +200 with 4S cold and bid by our team-mates.  5C goes only two off, even with AKQ of clubs missing!

Then came a quiet 3N making by the opposition, followed by another that Mike and I should have set, where we need to unblock the club suit in the end game.  Then came a part score hand where we judged to play in 3S making.  Then you pick up (hand 12) the following as North, red against green-

        3
        A
        KJ964
        AK10852

and the bidding proceeds-

        North                East                South                West
                                                                                  2D*(multi)
        3C                    3H*                pass                    pass
        ?

Now what?  West has a weak two in hearts and it looks like East was prepared too to play in 3 spades.  Has partner got any diamonds?  Even Qxxx or Qxx will provide a play for 5 diamonds........ so I bid 4 Diamonds, suggesting a 6-5 hand in clubs and diamonds.  Mike bids what appeared to be a reluctant 5 clubs and my LHO decides, after a great deal of thought, to whack it.  Partner goes down with -

        Q10954
        K762
        75
        J4

LHO has Q9xx of clubs and this contract goes for 800.  Disaster!  It looks to me as though we are now sitting on a 20-0 defeat and this hand is dealt to you as dealer (hand 13), game all:

        Q4
        KQ9643
        -
        AKQ87

Nice hand isn't it!  Any how, you open 1H and partner bids 3H.............. how to proceed?  partner needs only heart ace and spade K for a probable cold 6H, but there again, we could have three losers off the top.........  bidding slowly might be the 'bidding challenge' way to go but I decided at what I thought was the state of the match, to bid a direct 6H to give the minimum of information to the opposition.  Maybe the opposition wouldn't take their AK of spades!  Well, everyone passes and Mike puts this collection on the table, the lead being the 6 of diamonds-

        97
        J1072
        KQJ1083
        10

Ouch!........  But at least the opposition have not taken the AK spades!  I play the K and I ruff when RHO plays the ace.  I have to get rid of two spade losers before playing a trump, and I decide, with 6 cards in each minor to play the clubs first, so I play AKQ of clubs, but LHO ruff the Q with the 8 of hearts.  I over-ruff and play two top diamonds throwing two spades from my hand.  I exit with a heart and the hand is over.  The full hands were-

                                    Q4
                                    KQ9643
                                    -
                                    AKQ87
        AJ103                                            K8652
        5                                                    A8
        A75                                               9642
        J9542                                            63
                                    97
                                    J1072
                                    KQJ1083
                                    10

How often have you bid and made a slam with the ace of trumps, an outside ace, and a cashable AK in a side suit missing!!  It was my lucky day!  justified, I thought at the time, by the state of the match.

On to the next board (hand 14), with I think, the match all-square-ish....

It's love all, Mike opens a weak no-trump (12-14) and RHO doubles.  You hold as North
        K97
        K75
        85
        KQ765

Christmas has come!  The bidding proceeds-

         North                    East                    South                        East
                                                                   1N                          Dble
         pass (forcing)        pass                    redble (forced)          pass
         pass                      2H                       pass                         pass
            ?

Mmmmmmm.  I've doubled before with these 11 counts.... Mike hasn't doubled.....  Anyhow, I steel myself and double again, which is passed out.  I'm hating this!  Anyhow, we manage to get this 2 off for +300, so I think the match is won, with no game on for us with Mike having a 12-count.

The final hand for us (hand 15) passes off peacefully for +170 and then we score up.........

We've gained 13 on hand 16, as expected, hands 9&10 are more or less flat (our opps didn't defeat 3N either), we gain 6 for making three spades, only lose 3 on hand 12, gain 13 on 13 and lose 5 on hand 14 for a 19-1 vp win.  What happened at our partner's table on hand 12 you might ask!  Well the opps wound their way up to 5N(!) in a totally confused sequence.  Our side felt sorry and didn't double as the opposition went seven off for +700 to us!  not a usual sort of score is it!!  It just goes to show, you can never tell or guess what has happened at the other table.  I felt the need to reach for my newly prescribed Beta-blockers - I don't want to play in a match like that again...............

We win the last match 16-4 and so off to bed, laughing all the way back to the Imperial!  But I could have been crying..... that's bridge!

Four matches to go on the Sunday!  we have 123 vps and are in the frame.  The top 16 teams have been creamed off for the A and B finals and we are playing for the Brighton Bowl.

We wander into the playing area and as nominated 'cap'n' for the weekend I go and pick up our assignment card..... Oh no! Not John Collings again!  We are due to play Collings/Jones and Gary Watson/Roy Edwards.  Well we take up our places and Collings fails to show.  A quick phone call and a substitute appears.  Not any old substitute.. not anyone dragged off the streets... no.....! A Mr. Paul Bowyer.   Anyway, the directors have taken a board away, so it is a 7- board match.  However, all goes well and we win 16-4.  That is match 11.  A quick breather and I go and get the assignments again....... no ..... John Armstrong/Danny Davies playing with Tom Townsend/David Gold.  Yet another set of England internationals!  Neither side managed to bid a cold seven spades and we gained 8 imps 'cause John Armstrong doubled Gillian in four hearts, up one - we win 11-9.  Can this continue?  By now we are sitting on table eight with two matches to go.

Match 13 it is.  Mike and I defend 4H doubled by the opposition for +1400 (Gillian and Nigel were a bit worried with -800 on their card) and somehow we stay in 2H just making on a combined 26 count - with Gillian and Nigel taking their opposition for -400 in 3N.  When the dust has settled we win 17-3 and we are on 167 vps.  That puts us on Table 2 for the last match against Jeremy Baker/Steve Auchterlonie and Dave Hugett/Steve Preston.  Can we maintain our form under the pressure?

Hand 25 is a 4S contract - one off in both rooms
Hand 26 - Our opposition bid to a vulnerable 3S that needs the singleton King to drop with four trumps missing and to drop the doubleton heart Queen with AKx opposite Jxx.  That was -7 imps.
Hand 27 - Our Opposition then bid a non-vulnerable 4 spades that needs the spades 2-2 with QJ dropping and Mike and I to have four clubs each in order that declarer can ruff three clubs in dummy without us over-ruffing.  Not surprisingly that was not bid at the other table - 8 imps away.
Hand 28 - GiIlian is doubled in 6 Hearts making up one for +8 imps.
Hand 29 - Four spades one off at both tables
Hand 30 - 3N made at both tables
Hand 31 - We lose 2 imps in part score battle
Hand 32 - We are (if we had known!) 10imps down in the match and we are playing the very last board of the competition.  You pick up as North-

        Q2
        QJ732
        K83
        1076

and the bidding proceeds (opposition vulnerable)

        North                East                South                West
                                                                                  1N
        pass                   2C*                pass                   2D*
        pass                   2N                  pass                   3N
        All pass

I lead my fouth-best heart and dummy goes down with -

        9875
        K9
        J109
        AK54

Declarer wins with the K (Partner playing the 8) and runs the Jack of diamonds.  I duck this in order to get a count from Mike (or he might even have the Ace), but declarer repeats the finesse and I take the trick, Mike petering with the 5 and 2 of diamonds.  I'm now on lead.  What do I know?  Presumably declarer has not got the heart 10, or he would let it run to hand.  Mike's peter tells me that declarer has five diamonds.  So how many tricks does declarer have?  Two hearts, four diamonds and the Ace-King of Clubs in dummy makes eight.  Declarer has also turned up with 10 points.  If he has the ace of spades, then the hand is over, so I assume Mike has that card.  What has declarer got?  If he has the King if spades I must play a heart to knock out his Ace, before he plays a spade.  If I play a spade now, then that is declarer's ninth trick.  But what if Declarer has the queen of clubs?  Then he has nine tricks now and I must attack spades, playing partner for precisely AK10x(x), in  order that we can take four spade tricks to go with the king of diamonds.  I trance now for about 2 minutes.  What is more likely?  I think Mike has not got five good spades 'cause he has not bid two spades over East's two clubs.  He needs the spade 10 too........  I therefore decide to play a heart as that is the better odds.  Which Heart?  I need to tell Mike we have them all, in order to ensure that he rises with the spade ace when a spade is played from dummy, so I play the Queen of hearts back.......... disaster....... the full hand is-

                                    Q2
                                    QJ732
                                    K83
                                    1076
        J43                                                9875
        A6                                                 K9
        AQ764                                          J109
        Q83                                               AK54
                                    AK106
                                    10854
                                    52
                                    J92

We lose 10 imps on the board and the match 17-3 vps.  Gillian and Nigel stopped in two no-trumps, their no trump range being 12-15.  If I had found the spade switch then we gain 5 imps on the board instead of losing 10 and we narrowly lose the match by 5 imps - 13-7 in vps.

Would you have found the spade switch?...... Answers on a postcard...... Anyhow we finished a very creditable 12th in the Brghton Bowl - out of 217 teams.  It's a pity that our luck deserted us at the last minute - but that's bridge I guess.  We had had a superb weekend.
 

clive keep August 2003.