Vil thought last Thursday night's X-Clubs hands quite boring compared to what they usually get to play .. but this one seemed to give his readers a bit of grief.
Board 1 from Thursday 24/7/25. . Dealer N Nil Vul
If I knew the actual quotation I would repeat it verbatim but since I don’t, it goes something like “necessity is the mother of invention”. Sometimes we need to depart from what we have had drummed into us and improvise when necessary. This deal should have resulted in 3NT by North, given some common sense bidding and only a minor departure from the ‘rules’. North opens 1C, that 11 count equals an opening bid every time. South responds 1H and North rebids the clubs, 2C. What should South do now? Improvise just a little bit, and bid 2S. This is a ‘responder’s reverse’ and should contain four spades but...North has not bid 1S therefore does not have four of them. What North does have is three diamonds with two likely stoppers, and a very good club suit, so should be happy to bid 2NT, and South should now also be happy, and raise North to a 3NT game.
In the play, East’s best lead (on the bidding) is probably the D9. Whatever happens next, East should refuse to win the first club trick when declarer finesses, but fortunately for NS there is a diamond entry for the rest of the clubs and a total of eleven tricks. That, across of all of X-Clubs, would have scored well over 80%. A spade lead would in fact result in declarer being held to 3NT and the same score as those who bid to 5C. Would YOU consider a spade opening lead given the bidding as outlined?
65
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