Board 25 has the balance of power roughly equal.

Both sides contesting the auction with some vigour.

Our auction had some misgiving's;

   N     E     S     W

   1C   2H   P    3D    all Pass.

All bids seem reasonable, until the play.

East's 2H bid with a weak 6 card suit and 6 points is a little pushy, vulnerable.

West's 3D is understandable with 15 points and wishing to see if there is game.

Most systems use 2NT as an enquiry about strength.

Board 2 has South opening 1NT 15-17 balanced.

North has immediate visions of slam in D's, S's or NT.

How to proceed?

Obvious firsts steps are to transfer to spades, showing a 5+ card suit.

Then North could bid 3D to show a second suit, 5-4 shape.

South sensibly signs off in 3NT. Nearly all pairs making 12 tricks.

Suppose North takes control and asks, finding 1 ace and king missing.

Now 6NT and 6S look suspect.

As it happens 6NT makes because West doesn't lead a heart.

Board 14 is a chance to show off your declarer skills.

Every E-W pair were in 3NT and mostly had the 4S lead.

Counting winners (as you do in NT) there are 10.

5 D's, 2 S's, 2 H's, 1 C. With possibilities for 2 more.

2 pairs only made 9 tricks, WHAT ???  Very generous.

1 pair made 10, 2 made 11 and 1 made 12 tricks.

This highlights a lack in skill, in playing NT, in our club.

An 11th trick can be found in hearts after taking a losing finesse.

The difficulty in declarer play, lies in entries to dummy.

There are 3: KS, KH, 7D.

Defending a contract is full of risk and reward.

Occasionally the road is clear, as in Board 22.

East opens 1D, South bids 1H and North leaps to 4S.

East has 2 possible leads in either minor suit.

All chose a club lead, some the A but mostly the K.

As a preference, lead the K, as it promises the A or Q.

Dummy puts down the QJ1052 of clubs.

It would be very high risk to continue with the AC.

This may set up the remaining club suit with 2 aces as entries.

Best to start an attack on those 2 entries.

You have a 10-card fit in a suit, missing K and J.

The A and Q are in opposite hands.

You cannot afford to lose one trick in the suit.

What is the best line of play?

Do you play the Ace hoping to drop the singleton K.

Make your decision.

Board 22 shows 6D by West is makeable.

Seeing a definite heart loser, the diamond situation has to be guessed correctly.

33% chance the K is singleton. 

It appears only one West made the right choice, collecting 12 tricks.

A great hand to test your declarer play.

It's rare to get a hand with game in all 4 suits.

Points have to be shared and shortages abound.

Both sides have great double-fits.

In this unusual case, spades is out bossed by diamonds.

Bidding must have been frenetic.

When West overcalls 1S, East must leap to game.

This is to try to shut out N-S, who will be concerned about vulnerability.

One cool cucumber bid 5H and was lucky.

Albeit the defence has to be very good to take 5H down.

Consider defending 5H doubled.

A good 9 card trump fit requires 25 HCP's when both hands are balanced.

If one hand has a void opposite a poor 4 card suit, then 20 HCP's will do.

If opposite hands each have a void, well Christmas has come early.

Board 25 is a great example.

N-S have a good fit in hearts, and North has a poor diamond suit opposite a void.

Souths points in spades are mostly wasted opposite a Norths void.

Essentially a 12 HCP game in hearts.  Who would bid such a game?

The killing lead when voids and singletons abound is of course a trump.

Board 6 is a great hand where there are only low-level contracts.

With 3 hands having 11 points each, who opens the bidding?

As opener, is East too balanced to open 1C?

It does matter, if they Pass, E-W will not find their spade fit.

If South opens 1D, West will Pass and N-S will find 1NT.

If North is left to open 1C, again they will find 1NT

There are systems over 1NT for East to use to get to 2S.

Brozel, Capelletti, Don't, Landy, Ripstra, Roche, Scum, Suction.

Well done to 3 Easts who opened 1C. VULNERABLE !!  Brave people.

Last Friday our club celebrated a very special birthday, our club Patron Jan Jarrett turned 99 years old. Members joined in with our usual Friday Bridge plus a shared lunch with Jan. In recent months Jan has been unable to attend her usual Bridge sessions at the club so it was lovely to have her back at the club playing again and as the photo  shows she was in fine form .