Renoir's 1937 film Grand Illusion contained the notion that somehow middle classes stand above the war. At the recent West of England congress there was a Grand Illusion of a different type. All the good players reached grand and went off. But they had done nothing wrong.
We had a good auction to the top spot. It started 2C-2D-2NT, which we play as showing 25-26 Balanced. We split the range so that with 20-22 we rebid 2H, Kokish, and then bid 2NT over the relay of 2S. And we open 2NT with 23-24 which seems to work well. An extra advantage of this method is that we can bid 2C-2H/2S as non-forcing, to play there opposite 20-22.
Now North transferred to hearts with 3D and South bid 4C, a cue-bid, promising four-card heart support. Then North jumped to 5D, and as this is above game, it is exclusion key-card Blackwood for hearts. North's next bid of 7H was the final contract, but the 3-0 trump break meant that this could not be made.
One generally needs the grand to be about 67% and this one was around 78%, so it would seem that one wants to be there, but I am not so sure after looking at the traveller. Only six pairs bid grand - flat in 7H-1 in our match - and 6 pairs missed slam with the other 23 only in small slam. If that is representative one would need about an 80% chance to bid grand.
It was good to see so many Woodberry members at the West of England event, very well organised by Tony Russ, Colin Simcox and Frank Coltman. A highly recommended event with Weston-Super-Mare in a time-warp with its shabby-chic hotels, with Grand being a bit of a misnomer.
The winning team:
Paul Lamford, Stefanie Rohan, Tim Rees, John Salisbury
Well done. Can't argue with winning every match.
ReplyDeleteAgainst a strong team (like the one you were playing) you need to be in 7 but against a weak one or in a mixed ability pairs field 6 may well be enough. Of course South's major suit jacks may be switched making the grand even better than 78%
Yes we were playing against the Fawcett team, so I guess we thought it was likely to be flat.
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