European Championships 2018, Ostend, Women's Teams, Day 2

Garlic Bread is Back on the Menu - and some extra Gin and Tonics !

Our poor start continued with a loss to Spain and some early reverses against the Italians, leaving us 30 IMPs behind with a handful of boards to play in our second match on Monday and lying in 19th place at that point.   Showing some great fighting spirit, we managed to finish strongly and restrict the damage to a very narrow loss.   We continued our mini-recovery with a small win against the Germans and then came an important match against the strong Dutch team.

Board 4. Dealer West. All Vulnerable.
	♠ J T 8 4 ♥ J T 5 4 ♦ 6 5 4 ♣ T 4
♠ A Q 9 3 ♥ K 3 ♦ K Q J 7 2 ♣ 8 7		♠ K 7 5 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A T 9 ♣ Q J 9 6
	♠ 6 ♥ A Q 8 6 2 ♦ 8 3 ♣ A K 5 3 2

Sally Brock opened the West cards 1NT and Fiona Brown used Stayman.   South doubled for the lead and Sally denied a stop.   With a strong club holding, Fiona decided to eschew the possible 4-4 spade fit and ended proceedings with a majestic leap to 3NT, which made 10 tricks for +630.   The Dutch played in 4S going down and we took an early lead.   Indeed, when the dust had finally settled, we emerged with a fabulous 47 IMP victory!

Dinner tasted much better last night and as an addded bonus, the garlic bread from Sunday's meal appeared, as if by magic, at 10:45 pm (a delay of merely 27 hours or so).

On the menu for Tuuesday is Poland (the overnight leaders), Belgium and Hungary and we are looking forward to the task that lies ahead.

From my perspective, there was one expensive mistake.   Keen to learn the local language, I enquired of the waiter, "How should I say thank you in Flemish?".   A series of misunderstandings followed and before I knew it, I seemed to have ordered six Gin and Tonics by mistake.   Hey ho !

Derek :)