European Championships 2018, Ostend, Women's Teams, Day 3

On The Up ?

A very satisfactory win against Poland and a remarkable last-minute comeback against Belgium enabled us to climb up to 8th place after round nine.  Here is the denouement of that encounter !

Board 32. Dealer West. E-W Vulnerable.
	♠ K T 2 ♥ Q ♦ J T 7 6 2 ♣ K 9 8 4
♠ A Q 9 7 5 4 ♥ T 3 2 ♦ 4 ♣ J 5 3		♠ J 6 3 ♥ - ♦ A K Q 8 5 3 ♣ A Q T 6
	♠ 8 ♥ A K J 9 8 7 6 5 4 ♦ 9 ♣ 7 2

Sally Brock made nine tricks in 5H doubled for a score of -300.   When the board was replayed, Gillian Fawcett, West, opened a multi 2D (usually a weak hand with a six-card major).   Catherine Draper suspected that Gillian's suit was hearts and decided to pass !  Of course, the Belgian south could not resist temptation and leapt to 4H.   In turn, Catherine realised that Gillian must have had spades after all and competed to the five-level, ending up in 5S doubled.   With the aid of the club king being onside, an overtrick was made - +1050 to England, thereby grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat!

Less successful, however, were our attempts to leave the playing area after the first match played on BBO - one of our pairs spending at least twenty minutes going up and down in a lift, trying to work out where they had got to whilst the rest of us were waiting to score up.

A big win against Hungary completed a successful day's bridge and we are now up to sixth place as the half-way stage is being approached.  We are looking forward to tomorrow's matches against Ireland, France and Iceland and, indeed, with confidence high, even taking a lift to and from the playing area should peresent no real probem!

Derek :)