Since Covid we have played all of our knockout matches online, which has some advantages in avoiding travel and being able to play a wider range of opponents. But when we were drawn against David Mossop's team of professionals in the third round of Crockfords, we were surprised that they insisted in playing the match face-to-face even though Mossop had to travel from Switzerland and Diego Brenner from Barcelona.
In the first set Ann and I missed a good slam that was bit by the Hackett twins, but we had a few small gains and only trailed by 4 imp. The second set was rather more exciting.
On the first board I was on lead with ♠ 10 4 3 2 ♥ K J 10 8 5 ♦ K Q 3 ♣ 8 after the auction 2♥ - 4♣ - pass - 6♣. Ann's 2♥ was weak with hearts and a minor, and 4♣ showed clubs and spades. Fortunately I had an obvious diamond lead and we took the first two tricks for a gain of 12 imps when Keith and Roger stopped in 5♣.
Two boards later came this
Ann led a club to the jack, king and ace and declarer now played a heart to the ten which I ducked in tempo. The contract makes easily if declarer plays for a 3-2 heart split, but he was worried that Ann might have king jack to four hearts, so he cashed a top spade and led a diamond up. I won and cleared the clubs, and when declarer took another heart finesse I was able to cash the clubs for two down and a gain of 11 imp when 4♠ made at the other table. Gunnar had a little chunter to himself but was kind enough to say 'good duck'.
The opponents missed a slam and then came this declarer play problem. (Hand rotated for convenience). West led a spade to the ace and a spade was returned. I took the king and cashed two rounds of trumps to get the bad news. Now I can either cross to the ace of clubs to take a diamond finesse and ruff the third diamond in dummy, or just take the club finesse. If the minor suit kings are split than both lines will work or both fail, so the critical case is where both kings are in the same hand.
It
seemed to me that it was slightly better to play West to hold both kings. He has more vacant spaces in his hand as he has the singleton trump, and
with small cards in a suit he might have led that suit rather than a
spade. I'm not sure if this argument is totally sound, but the club finesse worked and we gained another 10 imps when Paul Hackett took the diamond finesse at the other table.
The next board brought a further 11 imps when Hackett and Brenner lost the first six tricks in 3NT instead of making an easy 4♠, and we had won the set by 56 imps to 8! That was not in the script.
We needed a lot of part scores or flat games but the great dealer had other ideas, giving us only one part score and potential for game swings on all of the other hands, but with two boards to go we were still 21 imp ahead. This was the penultimate board and the auction at our table
At the other table our boys had no good reason to bid and the Hacketts had an unopposed auction to 4♠. Brenner's decision to open his nine count worked out very well and the 3♣ fit jump enabled them to find their double fit. But I should both have bid on to 5♠ which would have saved a few crucial imps.
This was the final hand, where both tables played 4♠ on the nine of diamonds lead.
At our table Brenner covered the opening lead with the jack and ruffed Ann's queen. Now he played a trump to dummy and led the ten of diamonds, which Ann correctly ducked and I ruffed as declarer discarded a heart. I now cashed the ace of hearts and gave Ann a heart ruff, but that was the end of the defence as declarer could cross to dummy in trumps and take a ruffing finesse to finally set up a dimaond winner.
I would have done better to return a trump rather than playing ace and another heart, but declarer can still prevail by ruffing out the diamonds and leading a low club from hand. Would Brenner have found this? I expect so but we shall never know.
At the other table West had entered the auction with a double on the second round, so declarer played him for a 5-5 shape. After the same start declarer played two rounds of trumps and tried to cash the ace of diamonds but West ruffed and exited with the king of clubs. There is still a way to make double dummy, but this is not at all obvious and the contract failed. This gave the opponents a 10 imp swing to win the match by 3.
It was disappointing to lose and we can all think of several hands where we could have done something different to change the result. But at least we gave a top professional squad a good run for their money and can always look back on the 56-8 set.
In August 2018 we also played Papa Hackett in the semi final of the Faulkner. We lost by 3 imp in that match as well.
