Events from the first day are described here.

So 53 IMPs down but encouraged that we were at least competitive and hoping for better fortune in to the second day and board 1:

First hand in second seat and you hold AQx, Qxx, x, AKQJ9x and open 1C which may be as few as 2. Partner bids 2NT (15+ balanced) and you know you are in slam territory. 4C sets the suit, 4D from partner is Blackwood, you show your 3 controls, partners asks about the trump queen, you show it and partner bids 7NT and claims his 13 tricks holding Kxxx, AJx, AKQ, xxx. “Well bid partner” you say and on to the next. But surprise surprise oppo have stopped in 6 so 11 IMPs in and just the start we wanted.

One or two small swings and we are back to 34 down with 32 to play – this is do-able! What do you bid on Axxx, J, JT9xx, xxx after 1C, 1S overcall from partner, 2H? Neither side is vulnerable so perhaps less reason to pre-empt, so Mike bid a conservative 2S, LHO bid 3S agreeing hearts and I bid 4S. RHO doubled and that ended the auction. One off. The full hands:

♠ Q J T 9 x
♥ A x
♦ K Q x x
♣ x x
♠ -
♥Q x x x x
♦ x x x
♣ A K Q J x x 		♠ K x x x
♥ K T x x x x
♦ A
♣ T x
♠ A x x x
♥ J
♦ J T 9 x x
♣ x x x

Our teammates came back apologetic that South’s 4S bid at the same point as Mike’s 2S bid had bounced them out of finding their heart slam! 9 IMPs in nevertheless when they did bid 5H. I would suggest the normal bid on the South hand is neither 2S nor 4S, but 3S showing four card support but not enough to bid 3H which would show more values. However over this West might stretch to 4S enabling E/W to find 6H – so perhaps 2S and 4S were both better than 3S!

Unfortunately a couple of part score swings against nullified this gain and we were still 34 down with 24 boards to go.

Gunnar Hallberg now showed his class in the bidding and play of this one. He held AKJ, Ax, AQ8x, KTxx and doubled my 3H pre-empt before converting his partner’s 3S to 3NT. Our opposite number raised 3S to 4S which had no chance opposite 9xxx, xxx, 9x, A98x when spades were 5-1 off-side and the king of diamonds is wrong. Mike’s diamond lead went to my ten and Gunnar’s queen. King of clubs and ten round to my queen. I returned Mike’s diamond lead to his jack and he got off lead with the club jack to dummy’s ace. Now Gunnar ducked a heart and I continued diamonds. He won the ace, cashed the heart ace and exited with a diamond to end-play Mike to give him a spade trick. I thought I should have tried a spade instead but Gunnar kindly pointed out that he would have had a diamond end-play available instead! 12 IMPs away we could well have done without.

However they pushed too far to a thin 3NT which we defended carefully and then I picked up x, KTxx, KJxx, QTxx. Mike opened 1D and I responded 1H, LHO bid 1S, Mike 2D and RHO 4C (jump fit). Not sure whose hand it was I thought oppo would find a direct 5D difficult to double. They didn’t and it was cold, Mike holding xxx, Ax, AQxxxx, Kx. Lucky perhaps, but 10 IMPs in.

29 down and 16 boards to go. The European Championships beckon, but we need some swingy boards to go our way. We authorise our teammates to go for swings, but these things seldom work the way you want. We didn’t take a sacrifice because Mike thought his singleton heart and spade ace might be enough to beat 4S provided I had two club tricks, but oppo’s clubs were 3-1 so 4S was on and 5C at the other table only went for 300. Palmer/Thornton bid a very thin 4H which ultimately only needed split heart honours to roll in but both were off-side. We mis-defend 1NT and then get pushed to 3 hearts when only 2 is on. We think we have a good score with 4SX-2 for -300 against a making club game (slam even makes with a lucky lie of the cards), but teammates don’t find the club fit and play in a part-score. Suddenly -29 is -59 with 8 to go.

We carry on but another 21 IMPs go away and we lose by 80, bowed but not disgraced. We’ll try again next year! It was a great experience to play 96 boards against such quality opposition and very good for our confidence to find that they could not blow us away.