The second day of Stage 1 of the Australian Butler Pairs Championship in Canberra.
Tania and I were leading the EW field overnight although our lead had been reduced when a scoring error was discovered that meant one of our competitors gained 16 IMPs.
Session 3 was 7 matches of 4 boards. Tania and I did very moderately scoring 10 IMPs over the 28 boards to slip to third EW overall. Scores here.
Session 4 was 8 matches of 4 boards. We scored an impressive 78 IMPs over the 32 boards to finish the qualifying first EW. Scores here. Overall positions here.
Board 22 was a declarer play problem and a defensive challenge.
The heart lead went to the J and Q. I played the DJ covered with the Q and ace. Now a diamond to the 9 and K. South continued the HK, ducked and a heart won with the A. At this point I had 2 hearts, 2 spades, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs for a total of 8 tricks. The ninth might come from the diamonds dividing 3-3, or finessing against the D8 if south started with 4 diamonds or the club finesse if the Q is with north. I cashed the CA and led a diamond to the T. When N showed out on this trick I now knew that S had started with 5 hearts and 4 diamonds. Now the A and the K of spades gave S a problem.
Since she held the CQ her hand was under pressure now. If she pitched a club I could play a club to the K dropping her Q. She discarded a H but now I could just exit with the last diamond from the dummy. She could cash her heart but now had to give me the last two club tricks.
This is one of those situations that you need to see coming. The only winning play is to pitch the club and hope that the declarer misreads the situation. You need to do this without too much agonising otherwise they will probably get it right!
Tomorrow Stage 2 starts. The top 10 contending pairs from each of the NS and EW fields will contend over longer matches for 2 days.