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The PACHABO
London had a fine start taking a big early lead and remaining in first place until lunch on the second day. After a bad match against second placed Warwickshire, some further silly errors were made against other teams on Sunday afternoon and London finally dropped to 4th place, just in the prizes. A creditable performance but it could have been so much better.Here are a few hands.

Session 1 Hand 32 East West Vul. Dealer West
London East West
Contract 3NT by North, lead 7 Clubs.
A tricky hand that came up early in the weekend.

Declarer ran the club round to his Queen. Now he played the heart King,(ducked), and took a diamond finesse. West got off play with a low spade. Declarer gave this a long look ( 'point a board' type scoring) and finessed to Eas's singleton King. After a club to the Ace, declarer was now in big trouble. He gave East his heart Ace, but East was able to endplay the table by returning a heart! A second diamond had now to be lost in addition to the heart Ace, the spade King and the club King, one off. As a side issue, East must first cash the club King before endplaying the table, otherwise, declarer can throw East in with the heart nine to force a spade entry to hand! Unless East has ditched it! We would all do that wouln't we?
Our man Ian in the other room was not so greedy when faced with the spade switch. He was right. The spade finesse is an illusion.

Now a question of judgement for you.
Your partner opens a multi 2 diamonds (weak in either major) and you hold;
ª A K 9 5 4 2 , © Q J, ¨ A 7, § A K 7. Do you fancy your chances in 6 ©? Make your decision and read on.

Session 2 Hand 19 East West Vul. Dealer South
London North South
Have you ever played in a 2/0 fit? Well London did on this one!

The London South opened a multi 2 diamonds, a weak 2 in either major. West may have been here before and quietly passed! We don't pass many 8 card suits in London, they come up so rarely, but he was vulnerable, after all.
North (who shall be nameless to protect the guilty) abandoned any thoughts of slam. To shorten proceedings, he jumped to game in partner's major and all passed. The trouble was, he chose the wrong one! When dummy went down, the whole table collapsed in laughter.Try as he might, declarer could not manage more than 2 tricks for minus 400. In the other room, they found the spade slam. Seven hearts is a good save, even at red. I have not seen one of these hands since the early days of the multi many years ago.

Writing these notes reminds me of David Burn's very fine article on the 'Tolle' written few years ago when he wrote about the amazing errors made by County bridge players. We certainly made plenty! And look at the opposition's defence on this hand.

Session 2 Hand 24. Love all, Dealer West
Contract 4 Spades West, lead Jack of hearts.
London East/West

Four spades is a poor contract, especially as the bidding tells you that the trumps are likely to be 4/1.
You ruff the opening heart with a sinking feeling and play Ace and another diamond.. South forces you with another heart. Now you realize that you may run out of trumps and not make your clubs. Hoping something will turn up, like a singleton ª 10, you ruff a diamond, (North discarding a club), and play the ª K. North ducked.. Now see what happens! Ruff a heart, club to the Queen, ruff your last heart, cash the club Ace and lead your last diamond making the spade queen in dummy en passant. An amazing 420!
Team mates in the other room had doubled 4 spades. Oppo ran to 5 clubs, also doubled, for one off.