Well, well, it rained, it poured, the lightning was frightening, thunder was reverberating throughout the building, but the brave few soldiered on, brows furrowed in concentration. What a night!
A funny thing happened tonight, not on the way to the forum, but at our club. Strange it certainly was, and it was board 24, the last board of the evening for us at table 1. Jerome opened the bidding with 1NT and their final contract was 3NT, by West. When the score was entered, our Bridgemate registered a zero for us and a 100% for E/W. When we opened the traveller to see why we had a zero, we saw that the previous four declarers, AT 3NT, all West, all had a 3H lead, the same as ourselves, but every one of them went one down, making only 8 tricks. The computer says that 5NT is on, so we held Jerome to 10 tricks, which I suppose is reasonable defense, but every one else that played the same contract, all from West, all received the same lead, but all went down by one trick!

I asked Jerome if he would be prepared to run a small workshop to help those of us that are having problems with no trump contracts. He says he will think about it. But, before I leave this board, let me say that after the lead of the 3H, he ducked the first trick, then calmly ran off 10 tricks without giving us the slightest chance. So, what am I missing about the play at the other 4 tables?

My brow is still somewhat furrowed! An undeserved bottom! And I’m always hearing it’s because it’s ‘Benoni’.

Remember that next week Thursday Deirdre will be buying us all a drink in remembrance of Alan and that we’ll also have some snacks.

Geoff is looking for a partner for Thursday. Please call him directly if you’re available.

I’m going to bed now, but before I do that I just want to see who the West declarers were.

Whew!

Bye for now and goodnight from Troy and myself.

Roy
PS Just look at board 24.

Results

Hand Records