In the Swiss Pairs at Torquay Ann and I made a serious tactical error by winning each of our first three matches 18-2, obliging us to play the rest of the event at the top three tables. We managed to keep our heads above the water (albeit with some unexpected help from allegedly strong opponents) until a disastrous last round dropped us to 13th.
I started the rot with a stupid Smith Peter from 10 x which allowed a no-play 3NT to make. Then I had a couple of close bidding decisions and got both wrong
On the first hand the favourable vulnerability tempted me to sacrifice in 4 spades but the full deal was like this
and I went for 800. On the second hand I chose to pass 2 spades and again this was the wrong move
as partner had a very suitable hand and the cards lay well so that eleven tricks were easy. On reflection I think that this was a little unlucky, as a simulation(generating 20 random deals where North held 5 to 9 points with at least 3 spades) shows that game was only making about 20% of the time, while 8 tricks were the limit about 30% of the time.
The most costly mistake was this hand, where we had earned a near-top in the bidding only to misdefend and concede a bottom.
I led the king of diamonds and partner played the 7. I switched to a club on which partner played the king and declarer ducked. Now a club continuation allowed declarer to cross ruff for 11 tricks.
We both should have done better. North's seven of diamonds is most likely to be the second highest from four cards or the lowest from three. In both cases a trump switch at trick 2 cannot cost. And North should certainly have switched to a trump at trick 3 as declarer is marked with the ace of clubs.
At least we managed to improve on our 21st place of the previous two years and win a modest prize.
