Diamond disasters

In the third round of the Gold Cup match we faced tough opponents in Andy Hughes' team from Hampshire. To stand any chance, we would need to play well and have some good fortune, but neither of these occurred and we lost heavily. Our only problem was the diamond suit; where diamonds were not involved we held our own, but on the ten hands where a diamond contract was declared at one or both tables we lost 64 imp.

This hand from the first set showed the way the wind was blowing.

West's 2♥ opener showed a weak hand with five hearts and a minor of at least four cards. He led a heart. Ann won this and drew two rounds of trumps, with West shedding a low club. The opponents were playing count discards and this suggested an odd number of clubs. It looked as if West's shape was 2-5-1-5 so Ann cashed a top spade in hand, crossed to dummy in trumps and led a spade to the nine. Well played but down two on this occasion. In the other room, our pair were not playing two-suited openers so declarer had no clue to the defenders' distribution and played spades from the top.

That was an unlucky way to lose 11 imps, but this was more culpable.

I eventually decided to pass 4♥. This was the wrong move when partner had

                                                  ♠ Q 5 3    ♥ A 9 7 3   ♦ 10 5   ♣ K 9 7 3

When the trumps didn't break declarer lost control and finished three down. In the other room my hand just bid 5♦ directly over 3♠, which was an easy make. 4♥ might have been the right contract but a quick simulation on BBO showed that 5♦ was much more likely to be a better spot.

Yet another mishap around the diamond suit -

The defence started with three rounds of spades and then West switched to a heart, so that East was able to ruff a heart for 800 in the out column. In the other room East (reasonably enough) chose to pass over 1NT, South jumped to 3♦ and the opponents finished in 4♥. West might have doubled but, with no guarantee of any tricks in partner's hand, was scared of pushing the opponents into a making 5♦ contract. 4♥ drifted four down but we lost 9 imp.
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