"Bd 2 at 4D down 1 was top score 8 out of 8. Also
no zeros. All in all, a good afternoon."
That was partner Rod Sumner's email assessment of our
game Wednesday afternoon at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines,
Ont. It was our only clear-and-away top board, though we tied for top on two
other hands. Nevertheless, it got me wondering whether down one was good bridge
this time around.
Well, no question about it on Board 2. Rod and I were
East-West, North-South was vulnerable and, as dealer, I opened 1 Diamond with
this hand:
Spades: 3.
Hearts: K-8-6-3.
Diamonds: A-Q-10-8-6-3.
Clubs: A-K.
Rod responded 1 Heart. After all, I could have had
as few as three Diamonds. North, holding six Spades, bid them. (It was that
kind of wildly distributional day, it seemed).
Curious about Rod's Hearts – did he have five of them?
– I doubled, hoping he would give me a helpful response. South supported
North's Spades and Rod, to my surprise, went to 3 Diamonds. North upped the
Spade bid, then let me play it at 4 Diamonds.
According to Live for Clubs analysis, nine tricks is
the best we could do. What made it a top board? N/S played it in Spades at five
tables, making 10 tricks. Two of the E/Ws thwarted them by pushing up to 5
Diamonds and one of them was doubled. Another E/W played it at 4 Hearts, down
two.
Unlike my Monday game with Selina, Rod and I avoided
down-ones. We had just one other and it also was good. Board 15. N/S
vulnerable. South was dealer. Three passes to me sitting East with this hand:
Spades: 7-3-2.
Hearts: A-K-Q-2.
Diamonds: A-J-3.
Clubs: Q-7-4.
I did the math. Of course, 1 No Trump. Everybody else
passed. Rod, unfortunately, was at the bottom of his Pass:
Spades: 10-8-5-4.
Hearts: 9-8-5.
Diamonds: 9-8-2.
Clubs: J-10-8.
The math was definitely against us.
South led the five of Diamonds and I took North's King with the Ace. Then I ran
the Hearts, breathing a sigh of relief when they broke evenly. In fact,
everything broke evenly. We got the five tricks we deserved – four Hearts and
the Ace of Diamonds – plus a gift, either another Diamond or a Club, I don't
remember which.
This one tied us for second-best with another E/W who
went down one. Still another E/W actually made I NT (against the same guys that
we nailed on Board 2). Hand analysis says I NT our way should go down two. Two
other E/Ws went down two doubled.
Although we're a relatively new partnership and hadn’t
played together for more than two months, Rod and I were respectable –
third in our direction with 55.79%, with 0.75 of a
master point. Great way to start off the new month.
