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Andrew receives his OBE at Buckingham Palace from her majesty the Queen
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If you remember_just one_thing
In this series Andrew, features one improtant point per Article. Bit by bit the reader will improve their game.
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Andrew:
A change in fortune
Partner Tony Forrester and I had quite a torrid time early on in the European Championships in Croatia (mercifully, the other two pairs - the Davids (Bakhshi/Gold) and the Hacketts (Jason/Justin) both fired on all cylinders from the word go). Then suddenly we had a floodgate of decent results.
On a personal front, this was the board -from England-Serbia - that kickstarted a change in the Forrester-Robson fortunes. After partner opened a Weak Two in spades, the opponents sailed into 3 NT and I had to find an opening lead.
There were two contenders. I could lead my fourth highest club the sneak attack . Or i could lead the top-of-doubleton in partner's spades. I cogitated.
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East Deals E-W Vul |
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| West | North | East | South |
| 2 ♠1 | Pass | ||
| Pass | 3 ♦ | Pass | 3 NT |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
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For Leading a club: The opponents aren't ready for it. Partner will need only one key card - the king of clubs - and the clubs suit might run for six tricks.
For leading a spade: A vulnerable Weak Two bidder should have a pretty good suit. It will be worse for partnership morale if I lead a spade and a club would have beaten it, than the reverse. Partner is quite likely to have four hearts (and certainly three), otherwise the opponents will have been playing in 4 ♥ not 3 NT, so the chances of him having short clubs (making a club lead bad ) is increased.
It was almost coin-toss. I fished out the ♠ 9.
East won the trick with ♠ A and in a jiffy plonked the ♣ Q was on the table. Declarer tried a forlorn ♣ K, but I won ♣ A, cashed the ♣ J felling 9 and declarer's ♣ 10, and could win my four winning clubs. Down three.
An oppening club lead would have run to declarers ♣ K, where-upon declarer would quickly scamper home with seven diamonds and the ♥ A.
Note Tony Forrester's switch to ♣ Q from ♣ Qxx this was to cater for me holding ♣ AJ10xx (switching to a low club and declarer can duck to me and I cannot profitably continue the suit without presenting declarer a trick with his ♣ K).
"You did very well to lead a spade, Robbo" said the team afterwards. I knew what that meant. "Robbo, you made the anti percentage lead and got lucky".
