Last month we had two matches where we were very much the underdogs. First up was a quarter final in the Faulkner Salver against Gary Watson's team, one of the original seeds. After the first set we were 10 imp behind, mostly due to a couple of bad boards from Ann and me, and the opponents had seating rights for the next set. Conventional wisdom would suggest sticking to a winning line-up, but they chose to swap opponents. This was the first board we played in the second set.
Ann led the queen of clubs, and Patrick Shields chose to go for a psychological rather than a technical line by ducking the first trick smoothly. If a club was continued and the suit broke 3-2, he would be able to get rid of two of his diamond losers. The operation was a success, as Ann continued clubs, but the patient died when I ruffed and switched to diamonds and we took the first six tricks.
In the other room the opening lead was the same but East had doubled a 4♥ splinter bid during the auction. Keith won, drew trumps and took a heart finesse to throw one of dummy's diamond losers and a 14 imp swing.
That hand changed the momentum of the match, as we had several other good boards and were 27 imp up after the second set. The third set was even and although the final set had plenty of swingy boards, with one grand and two small slams, we held on to win by 10 imps.
Three days later we played the final of the Hubert Phillips Plate against Tom Gisborne's Yorkshire team. Our presence in the final was somewhat fortunate, as Neil Rosen's team had been forced to concede our semi-final match due to illness.
Once again we suffered a small loss in the first set, but this time there was no big turnaround and we lost the second set heavily, with four big swings in the out column. This one was largely down to me.
I led a top diamond which declarer ruffed. When he led a trump I went up with the king, consulted the ceiling and eventually exited passively with another trump. Barrie won this and switched to a club so the contract made. One of us needed to switch to a heart. From my point of view, a lead away from either king could cost a trick, while Barrie was worried that a heart lead could cost if declarer had ♥AKx. I'm not sure that is quite right, as I am unable to find a hand where a heart lead gives the contract.
But the most serious error was my overcall of 2♦, as was shown by events at the other table where South overcalled 1NT. West raied to 2♠, North bid 3♥ and East bid 4♠. After that auction it was natural for South to lead a heart when in with the king of trumps, leaving declarer with no chance.
That set meant that we were 2100 points down after 16 boards, and although we gained a little in the remaining 32 boards we never looked like turning over the deficit. A disappointing result, although we would probably have settled for one win out of two beforehand.
