Bridge Years in the Past

We drew Shirley Pritchard from Wimbledon in the first round and had a comfortable win with a concession after 24 boards.

In the second round we played Shireen MOHANDES. In an error-strewn match we eventually won by 74-73 IMPs after winning the final set by 21-3 IMPs.

We lost to the Lindons and Orams in the third round. We were 3 IMPs down going into the last set and came out worst on a wild set of boards. It felt a fairly random last set but we needed to get a couple of the boards going the other way.

Crockfords 2005

We lost to Richard HILLMAN's team in the second round. Conceding 25 IMPs in the first two boaards was not a good start especially against a good team. This remained the gap for the rest of the match aside from a late game swing in the last set. Disappointing.

After receiving a bye in round 1, we gained a little revenge for our Gold Cup defeat by beating Malcolm PRYOR (Malcolm Harris, David Harris, Jon Williams). Like the previous match, we went into the last set with a narrow lead but this time a good set by both pairs gave us a comfortable win in the end.

There were three major swings in the first set. Martin and Carl bid aggressively to a poor slam and lost -300, but the loss was held to 6 IMPs when Alex and I capitalised on declarer's error to beat the game contract. On the next hand, Martin and Carl played in their 4-4 heart fit (when one hand had 4441 shape) whereas, with less information, Jon Williams plumbed for 3NT with his 3433 hand when he discovered partner had 4 hearts (and any distribution). 3NT was solid for 10 tricks but 4H had no play, so we lost another 13 IMPs. A wild hand gave us 11 IMPs back when I took a save over 6H to go for -800, whereas Martin and Carl made a doubled overtrick to make +1310 (in 6H-X). We ended the set down by 8 IMPs.

The second set started poorly when Alex and I let through a doubled partscore (Alex needed to lead a minor rather than the trump) although this was pretty unlucky in our opinion. On the next hand we failed to bid a thin game so had lost 19 IMPs. However we did not bid a poor slam that failed in the other room and gained on the partscores to gain 1 IMP on the set.

I thought our opposition were pretty lucky in the third set. They failed to bid an excellent game which did not make (-8 IMPs) and failed to bid a good slam which would have failed on a ruff. However, in the other room they had not preempted with seven diamonds to the QJ and it needed the lead of the ace (from Axxxx) to beat the slam and it was not so obvious, so we gained 10 IMPs. Overall on the set we gained 12 IMPs to go into the last 8 boards with a small lead.

In the final set Alex and I defended six contracts defeating five of them, so were feeling pretty confident. In the other room, the defence let one of the (game) contracts through and Martin and Carl had a much better auction and bid a slam missed at our table (in fact they failed in a different game contract at ours), so we had a comfortable 28-0 IMPs last set.

Gold Cup 2005

Unfortunately we lost a close match to Malcolm PRYOR (Malcolm Harris, David Harris, Jon Williams, Rolf Alexander, Bill Hodgkiss) in the first round.

In the first set we gained a 10 IMP swing when Martin and Carl bid a game missed at our table. However we lost 6 IMPs when Alex and I misdefended a 5NT-X contract (reached when the opps had a misunderstanding) when the single trick defeat would have brought in 13 IMPs. We finished the set with a 16-10 lead.

The second set was mainly flat apart from Martin & Carl's bidding of a poor slam (due to a mild misunderstanding). It was still unlucky to go down but we lost 13 IMPs. Neither team distinguished itself by bidding slams missing a cashing ace and king, both due to the inability to cope with complexities of 4th-suit forcing auctions. We were losing after this set by 18-28.

In the third set we gained a game swing when we talked declarer out of a winning finesse and 9 IMPs when we defended a 1NT contract well to restrict it to 4 tricks. There was another 9 IMPs when the defence failed to find the right switch against a 4♠ preempt, but we had to give 11 IMPs back when the opponents bid a thin 4H contract that was missing three aces, needed a finesse AND the heart suit of ♥KQ10xxx opposite a singleton to play for one loser! At the end of a wilder set we were leading 51-44.

In the final set there were two swings, both to PRYOR. Aggressive bidding by Paul and Alex pushed the PRYOR pair into a 5 ♣ contract that required ♣AQ opposite ♣Txxxxxx to play for no losers, whereas Carl & Martin bid to the far better 3NT contract which needed the club suit to play for one loser. However, with both honours offside with length, 3NT failed by two more tricks so we lost 5 IMPs.

The other swing revolved about your bid holding ♠Kxx ♥QT9xx ♦KQx ♣AJ after your RHO has opened a 12-14 1NT. I doubled for penalty and could then not stop below 3♥, whereas PRYOR bid a simple 2♥ - 8 tricks were the limit so that was another 5 IMPs and we lost the set 0-11.

The final result was 51-55. A disappointing result as we had our chances, but we get the opportunity for revenge in Crockfords next month.

Brighton 2005

Our only matchpoints event of the year is the Brighton Swiss Pairs (13 rounds of 8-board matches) and we were well positioned with two rounds to go. However we lost both of these matches to finish a disappointing 43= (out of 513 pairs).

A new team for the Brighton Teams as Carl was away in South America. We played with Phil Lowry and Mike Bell and were reasonably successful but failed to make either of the main finals. In the end we finished the Swiss Teams (14 rounds of 8-board matches) in 11th position (really 27th) of 208, beating the England Bermuda Bowl team in the last round.

ACBL Summer NABC, Atlanta, Georgia

Another trip across the pond where we played with Ian Kidger and Jon Downing. Although not particularly successful at the table, we had a good time and saw some excellent baseball!

East Wales Congress 2005, Cwmbran

Playing with new teammates, Paul Martin and Bill Godenzie, we started the event slowly but eventually worked our way up the field to finish third. We lost to both the leading teams (by 2 IMPs and 1 IMP) and our other two losses were only by 3 and 4 IMPs.

This Congress, like all the events I've played in Wales, is really friendly. It has a good location with affordable Holiday Inn Express nearby.

National Swiss Team Congress 2005, Leeds

The annual trip to Leeds in January and our best result there, finishing 2nd. Despite losing two early matches to Berks and Bucks teams, we played consistently well although the winners were confirmed a match from the end.

Brown Cup 2004/05

The Brown Cup is the B&B County League for Teams of Four. This year we finished in the middle of the top divison, having finished second last year.

Gold Cup 2004/05

We made hard work of winning our first round match against Sheila EVANS (Blackman, Abley, Abley) after a comfortable first set. We handed back most of the lead in a poor second set when we let through one game and they conceded two big penalties at the other table.

Despite conceding partscore swings in the third set we bid and made our games to enter the final set with a small lead which we held onto reasonably easily.

A bye in the second round left us to face KAUFMANN (Shek, Smith, Czerniewski) in the third round. After a bright start they eventually made fewer mistakes, and got more decisions correct, to roll out comfortable winners.

Crockfords 2004/05

In the first round we had a comfortable win against Jake DUNN (Johnson, Jones, Jones) by 79 IMPs. A pleasant match played at the Andrew Robson Bridge Club and we won all four sets. At the end DUNN was stretching to recover the match and did generate sufficient IMPs to win, but fortunately for us they were in the right column and the final score was flattering.

In the second round we played Graham ALLAN (Wells, Pottage, Bird, Lee), from Hampshire, who beat club mates in the first round. After two close sets I let a couple of games through in the third quarter leaving us 21 IMPs down. However we got everything right in both rooms in the last quarter to leave us with a flattering score line for a tight match.

In the third round we played Jeremy BAKER (Auchterlonie, Preston, Huggett, Hughes). Bill and David came in as subs for us when we struggled to find a date but neither pair played well enough against a consistent team.

Brighton 2004

The biggest tournament of the year with Swiss Pairs in the first weekend followed by Swiss Teams in the second one.

Although matchpoints is not really our game, a good run on the final afternoon got us up to 9th place (out of 574) in the Swiss Pairs. Our best ever result in the event.

Our match scores were: 6-14, 15-5, 4-16, 17-3, 17-3, 9-11, 16-4, 13-7, 20-0, 2-18, 19-1, 19-1, 20-0, 19-1.

However our target for the Congress is to finish in the top 16 on the Saturday night in the Swiss Teams on the second weekend. You then play in the "A" and "B" finals.

Unfortunately a defeat to a local team, always bad news(!), in the final match on the Saturday afternoon left us with too much to do in order to qualify, so we continued playing in the Swiss on the Sunday afternoon. We climbed to 12th but the principal target had been missed.

Our match scores were: 16-4, 4-16, 15-5, 8-12, 19-1, 14-6, 5-15, 5-15, 20-0, 15-5, 5-15, 10-10, 17-3, 18-2.

ACBL Summer Nationals 2004, New York

National Swiss Team Congress 2004, Leeds

The annual trip to Leeds in January and our best result there, finishing 8th, for a few years. Despite losing our first match 4-16, our largest defeat of the weekend, we spent most of the tournament on tables 5-7 and had our largest win in the last round, 17-3, against Oram (Oram, Gordon, Macnair).

Gold Cup 2003/04

In the second round we had a comfortable win against CUMMINS (Sweeting, Barrett, Barrett, Messer, Taylor) who conceded after 32 boards. The match was effectively decided in the first 8 boards when Carl and Martin bid a slam that needed a lead of dummy's suit to beat it, and Alex and I bid a 22-point 3NT that required Axx opposite KTxxxx to play for six tricks (46%).

We lost in Round III to WATERLOW (Segal, Haase, Silverstone, Panto). They played steadier than we did and established a good lead in the third and fourth sets. We went into the last set down by 34 IMPs and a succession of 3NT contracts making seven tricks in a set of boring boards did not help the cause.

BBCBA League of Four 2003/04

This year our team was back in the top division of the County Teams of 4 League after winning the second division comfortably. We had a curious season, beating the three best teams (apart from ourselves) and then losing narrowly to the mid-tablers. However in the end a good final win propelled us to second place in the division, albeit some way behind the winners.

Crockfords 2003/04

In the first round we drew FORD (Hoskins, Southwell, Swanson, Ford, Lunn, O'Neill). Our record against members of this team is poor, including losing narrowly to Hoskins in Crockfords last year in Round 2.

We needed a substitute so Giorgio played with me and Alex played with Carl. It was a close match until the last set and we eventually won by 32 IMPs. A simple summary was that we chose the better times to be aggressive.

In the second round we played SOPER (Soper, Goldsmith, Oakford, Short) and lost in extra time after the match was tied after 32 boards.

Again we needed a substitute as Alex (Australia), Giorgio (USA) and Helen (still jet lagged from Borneo) were unavailable, and the rejigging of the team proved too much in the end.

Brighton 2003

We didn't achieve anything significant at Brighton this year, finishing in the upper half of the pairs and teams but never threatening to get a good result.

Gold Cup 2001

A comfortable win in the first round of the Gold Cup beating BUDD (Harris, Flockhart, Bates) by 52 IMPS. The set scores were 19-17, 11-11, 15-13, 35-5, 29-27, 30-14.

A comfortable win in the second round too where we beat PROBST (Rainsford, ) by about 70 IMPS.

We got a bye in the third round and played Patterson (Collins, Crouch, Lodge), the #14 seed, in the fourth round. Unfortunately a combination of atrocious play, a modicum of bad luck, and a good team playing in form meant that we were soundly beaten. The fact the most of us had not played since the 2nd round did not help.

Spring Foursomes 2000

Our annual trek to Stratford-upon-Avon for the toughest tournament of the year, a knockout competition run on double-elimination lines (i.e. you have to lose twice to be eliminated). For the first time we were seeded in the second group of sixteen and we were surprised to be as high as #20, full deserved as this was of course.

With only 48 teams entered, the event starts with triangluar matches, playing two 32-board matches with only the winners of the triangle keeping both lives and the other two teams losing a life. For the third successive year we won our triangle beating SPEARS (#13) and RYAN (#45) comfortably. This would prove to be the only time that SPEARS were beaten in 32-boards as they were finally defeated by MOSSOP (#1) only after extra boards in the semi-final.

In the next round we played BURN (#4) and conceded after 24 boards when we were 55 IMPS down. The problem with this match were the 45 IMPS that we lost in the first 8 boards, especially frustrating when you consider that we bid a 80% slam that went down for a 26 IMP swing, and lost another 12 IMPS when an anti-percentage line worked to make a game contract (and the percentage line failed). Our analysis of these first 8 hands was that we should have been 10 IMPS down at worse and level would have been fair. Of course BURN are certainly the form team (of the year) and would be the eventual winners here, but it would have been more interesting if we had kept it close at the start.

In the following round we played DICKSON (#28) and went into the last eight boards 13 IMPS up. Unfortunately some poor and unlucky play at the other table, combined with some good views by DICKSON's team, enabled them to overturn this comfortably and we lost by 18 IMPS. A very disappointing result.

One of the advantages of the Spring Fours is that there is still tough bridge to play in the secondary events. We now dropped into the Punch Bowl and had a one-session qualifier, playing five 5-board matches in a round-robin division. Perhaps as an after-effect of our recent loss, we started poorly losing the first two matches 3-17 and 4-16. We then won our final three matches to finish on 55/80, but this missed qualification for the knockout stages by 4 VPs.

After failing in the Punch Bowl, we turned up for the final day to play in the Swiss Teams. Again we started badly but finished by winning our last three rounds and came 9th - not too bad at the end of a gruelling 4 days.

If you like playing against the best teams in the country, and want four days of very competitive bridge, then the Spring Fours is an excellent competition and well structured, both the primary event and the secondary ones.

Gold Cup 2000

Unbelievably we lost our first round Gold Cup match by 6 IMPS, far and away the worst team we have ever been beaten by. The set scores were 5-24, 13-18, 23-30, 20-8, 21-13, 25-20. Another performance like that and we won't even be in the Silver Plate for very long, so hopefully we can repair some of the damage in Leeds in two weeks time.

Silver Plate 2000

A comfortable victory in the first round of this competition against friendly but innocuous opponents. In the end they probably regretted playing the last set and, although the score may suggest otherwise, they did play down the middle. The set scores were 25-15, 27-0, 22-7, 63-0.

In the third round of the competition we had a relatively easy victory, although there were times during the last set when it felt very close. The set scores were 35-18, 18-4, 13-20, 40-40. The major swings in the first set occurred when they misplayed two game contracts alongside a phantom sacrifice by us. The second set was relatively flat apart from this slam that we bid:

Board 14	Love All	Dealer East	IMPS
West		East
♠ A32		♠ 6
♥ AK764		♥ 8
♦ Q		♦ KJT832
♣ AK93		♣ QJT62

West	North	East	South
		Pass	Pass
1♥	3♠	Pass	Pass
Double¹	Pass	3NT²	4♠
Double	Pass	4NT³	Pass
6♣⁴	All Pass

¹Takeout
²The expert bid for the minors
³Extreme minor distribution (perhaps the bid that should have been made originally?)
⁴Time for a hand re-evaluation

The third set saw our opposition miss an easy slam, and our team bid a failing 50% slam on the same board that we failed to find the killing lead against 3NT.

The final set started with us bidding a no-play slam, followed by a making thin game and opposition missing game. Losing 1100 when the cards were badly placed in a freely bid game contract was unfortunately not repeated in the other room, but another thin game was sufficient to level the set.

We won our fourth round match by 65-47 IMPS, a match that was relatively close but always felt under control. The time constraints of this round, combined with holidays and lots of tournaments in August, meant that both teams had substitutes and we actually had two new partnerships - I was playing with John and Alex played with Martin.

We won the first set 15-3, the only major swing being the first board where a poor opening lead enabled me to drop the singleton king of trumps offside in 5♦ to gain 8 IMPS (instead of losing 3 IMPS for going off in game in both rooms).

We won the second set 17-13. The first major swing saw us gain 12 IMPS when Alex and Martin bid a solid slam whilst they rested in game in our room - the auctions started precisely the same way and our opponents really should have done better. The second swing saw us lose 8 IMPS when Alex and Martin lost 500 bidding a thin game and finding trumps breaking badly.

The third set was the most exciting and it was tied 25-25. First John and I bid a thin game missed at the other table. We gained 10 IMPS when the opps overbid against Martin and Alex and went for a large penalty; we lost 9 IMPS when Martin and Alex went for a penalty and a further 12 IMPS when the game they bid proved hopeless following another poor trump break. However we got 9 IMPS back on the last hand when the opps found a very poor sacrifice, losing 800 against a non-vulnerable game.

John and I were feeling quite content at the end of the final set as it appeared we had not done much wrong. It turned out to be a very quiet set with no major swings as we won it 8-6 with only one flat board.

We had easy wins in the next two rounds, eventually playing BEST (Green, Thornton, Elstow, Gordon, Jackson) in the semi-final. We won three of the four sets (10-11, 25-12, 25-9, 22-8) in a fairly comfortable win and will play PIKE in the final.

We lost the final by 18 IMPS, a match littered with mistakes by both teams but we achieved more of them, unfortunately. The set scores were 5-30, 22-14, 24-20, 20-20, 12-19, 18-16.

Despite our performance I still had the opportunity to win the match in the last set:

Swiss Teams Congress 2000

The format of the Swiss Team Congress in Leeds remained a two-day format and only seven board matches, but was only a Level 3 licensed event. With Carl in Tunisia again, it was Martin & Tony playing with Alex and I. We had the opportunities to do well, but kept on losing on Table 4 and then winning on Table 7. We didn't play as well as last year, but played better than in the Gold Cup and so some team confidence returned. Our VP scores were 1-19, 14-6, 20-0, 19-1, 9-11, 16-4, 9-11, 14-6, 6-14, 20-0, 3-17, 3-17, 14-6.

Crockfords 2000

I will report on our Crockfords progress in the year that we make some progress.

Brighton 2000

Disappointing performances this year in both the pairs and teams. In the teams we failed to qualify for either of the finals and never really played well enough at any stage. In the pairs we were well placed going into the final session but two heavy defeats ruined any chance of a decent finish.

EBU Summer Congress (Brighton) 1999

We generally spend two August weekends in the sunny resort of Brighton on the South Coast freezing in the air-conditioning of the hotel whilst the sane world is 50 yards award sunning themselves on the pebbles that are mysteriously called Brighton Beach.

The first weekend is fourteen rounds of Swiss Pairs. Alex and I play this primarily as an extended practice session, since it will have been a while since we played and our system is not really geared to matchpoints; in addition neither of us have any real love for the pairs game. Despite this we started well, winning our first two matches 20-0 and the third 15-5 to leave us near the top of the field overnight.

We lost our first match on Saturday afternoon 3-17 to drop down the field, but wins of 12-8, 16-4, 11-9, 11-9, 14-6, and 14-6 left us well positioned by the end of the day. Unfortunately, luck did not appear to be with us on the final afternoon, with three losses of 7-13 and a solitary 16-4 win leaving us in 41st position overall (out of ~500). More importantly, we appeared to be playing reasonably well.

Much more important, to us, is the second weekend which is Swiss Teams. This event is run over ten rounds of Swiss, at which point the top 8 teams then play in the Four Star Teams 'A' Final, the next 8 teams play in the Four Star Teams 'B' Final, and the rest of the field (~240 teams) play a further four rounds of Swiss.

Like the first weekend, we started well with wins of 20-0, 19-1, and 18-2 to lead overnight. After losing our first match on Saturday 5-15, we won the remainder 12-8, 14-6, 16-4, 16-4, 18-2, and 20-0 to mean that we were the leading qualifiers by 10 VPs. All our matches were well won except for the last, when Marc Smith's team were probably not concentrating as much as they were earlier in the day as they had already qualified for the final.

Unlike last year, we played poorly in the final and came 8th (sounds better than last). Although disappointing, we did put up a good showing over the weekend and it was an achievement to qualify so convincingly for the A Final. This was the third successive year that we have qualified for one of the finals (2 x 'A', 1 x 'B').

Interestingly, our results for the pairs and teams have a curious symmetry - win 3 matches big, lose a match, win 6 more matches, and score less well on the Sunday.

Gold Cup 1999

Our team for this event is the usual quartet (myself, Alex, Martin Levine and Carl King) joined by Tony Price. Tony can play with either Martin or Carl, and with the work commitments some of us have it will be necessary to have at least a team of five. The plan is that the five of us will play in each match if available.

Like 1998, we started the new year with an easy win in the first round of the Gold Cup, getting a concession after 32 boards. Hopefully this reflects a more serious attitude, as we normally play to ensure that no one ever concedes to us in the early rounds of this competition.

In the second round we lost a tight match to Ash/Ferrari/Chambers/Gobart by 18 IMPS. This was the largest lead either team had at any time during the match although there were always plenty of swings flying about. (The 8-board set scores were 22-37, 41-13, 13-34, 21-18, 15-23, 6-11). Unfortunately the last set was the tamest, with five flat boards and little scope to make up the 13 IMPS we needed. So it's now into the Silver Plate for the first time in living memory.

Subsequently ASH has progressed well in the competition, beating the #1 seeds (TOWNSEND) in the round of 16, but little consolation for us.

Silver Plate 1999

We had an easy win in the second round of the competition with the opposition conceding after 24 of the scheduled 32 boards when they were 66 IMPS down. As they had only scored 10 IMPS in the first three sets, and this included 7 IMPS when we let through a game by trying to get it two down, they were unlikely to get the points back.

A second easy win in the third round of the competition, surprising since our opposition had already won two matches in the event. Again they conceded after twenty four boards when we were winning by 144-1 IMPS (32-1, 52-0, 60-0). We did not find anyone guilty of a culpable error in losing that solitary IMP.

Our cumulative score in the Silver Plate to date is 220-11 IMPS after 48 boards. It can only get tougher.

A far less impressive performance in the fourth round of the competition, although the opposition was not very tough. We eventually won through by 17 IMPS (15-2, 5-28, 20-13, 28-8) but none of the team played particularly well. Luckily the opposition did not make the most of their chances either. Lowlights included both teams bidding no-play grand slams.

A close but seemingly comfortable win in the fifth round by 26 IMPS (15-9, 20-25, 20-8, 18-5). Although our opposition played the cards well, I think our bidding was far more solid and that proved the major difference between the teams. Carl was away for this match, so Tony and Martin played all the boards.

I was away for the quarter-final, but the team did the decent thing and won by 10 IMPS (23-19, 14-16, 20-4, 11-19). Apparently it was a close match but the team thought they had it under control most of the time.

Unfortunately we played very badly in our semi-final against DOE and lost by 28 IMPS (13-20, 2-38, 13-13, 28-13) - I think it is fair to say that this was a team effort as the opposition were only responsible for 10 IMPS in the 43 IMPS lead at the halfway point.

Swiss Teams Congress 1999

The format of the Swiss Team Congress in Leeds changed this year, to a two-day format and only seven board matches. With Carl in somewhere hot (Tunisia?), it was Martin & Tony playing with Alex and I. We had the opportunity to do well, lying fourth with a round to go. However, the wrong choice of lead against a slam, plus bidding the wrong game on another hand, consigned us to losing 0-20 and a relatively poor finish. Overall though we were happy with the weekend, as we played very solidly and beat a number of good teams.

Spring Foursomes 1999

We trooped off for our annual trip to the Spring Fours in Stratford at the end of April. We started well by winning our triangle - beating the #4 seeds (MONACHAN) by 18 IMPS over 32 boards, and some juniors by 25 IMPS. In the next round we lost to the SPEARS, a good Scottish/French team by 30 IMPS, but recovered to beat HARRISON comfortably in the fourth round.

Having got a round further than last year, we met the LINDONs again. Despite losing 30 IMPS in the first set, we were still in with a shout during the last set but once again it was LINDON's ability to avoid the 50% slams that were going down that made all the difference, as we lost by just 18 IMPS in the end.

The format of the secondary event, the Punch Bowl, had changed to a round robin qualifier with only the top 2 teams going through to the quarterfinals. We were pleased to qualify, since we were paired with all the teams that were knocked out of the primary event at the same time (hence standard should be high) - we came second in the group, well behind LESLIE but ahead of BURN (Gold Cup finalists a couple of years ago) and Marc SMITH's squad.

In the quarterfinal we played MONACHAN again, this time establishing a lead of 32 IMPS in the first half. Despite numerous psyches by both sides in the second half, we emerged comfortable winners.

Like last year, we lost narrowly to the eventual winners, PROBST, in the semi-finals. After a wild first half, 34-32, a flattish second half was marred by us losing 13 IMPS on one board when a doubled partscore got through in one room and we lost the set 11-18. Still, we all thoroughly enjoyed the event and hope we can play again next year.

Crockfords 1999