BELOW ARE THE "ANSWERS" USUALLY WITH THE QUESTIONS REPEATED

Q1 Session 2 Hand 21 Green against Red, you hold

RHO deals and opens 1D, Precision, 11-15, 2+ diamonds. Your call?

In my view, after 30 years of playing Precision, the answer is "no bid".
It’s just too dangerous to bid 2D (or 3D!) and it’s too easy for oppos to
nail you.

Q2 As above, but imagine you have agreed to play a defence to this where
most bids show the suit above OR the two suits above that, e.g. if you
called 2C, it would show diamonds or the majors. Worth a bid?

I still think not. Indeed, this is worse, it gives LHO a wide range of
options. But Rob Procter (my partner) fancied the vulnerability and the
chance to unsettle unfamiliar oppos first hand, so he bid 2C. Next hand
doubled (values?), I passed, so did E and Rob transferred himself to 2D.
Another D from E and I couldn’t see any point in scrambling for a 4-3 major
fit. C3 was led and it was carnage. Rob scrambled just four tricks so that
was -800. Scoring up with the two Oxon pairs sitting the other way, we
were -12 IMPs and -12 IMPs (2D [undoubled] - 4 in both cases, I think) A bad
start .......

Q3  even later Sat eve v B & B (2/23) All vul. You hold

Pard opens 1NT (12-14). Great, you have a lovely new gadget for this sort of
hand. You respond 2N, pard is forced to bid 3C and now you bid 3H, showing
at least 5-4 in the minors, slam interest and short hearts. Pard now bids
3S. Oh dear, you didn’t discuss this bit. Still, your call, anyway?

Rob bid an immediate 6C. E kindly declined to double for fear that we could
run to somewhere better. 6C is not hopeless - at least until trumps break
5-0 offside! After HA lead, I was always struggling to retain control and
eventually went 3 down for -300. This was -5 IMPs and -14 IMPs.

I was in too minds whether to open 1NT with the S hand. Too much playing
with the Fearnheads, I guess! My 3S was intended as natural, in hopes of
reaching 4S on a 5-3 fit. As he holds SA, Rob can surely judge that it is
not a cue-bid and I think his most descriptive call now is 4S which I pass
like a shot.

I think the more important principle is that you have chosen a way of
investigating the hand which puts you in the "servant" role.  You have
defined your hand pretty tightly and should aim to provide further info
until partner (probably) selects the best spot. Jumping to 6C contradicts
that. A more neutral strategy would have been to bid 2S (Baron) and get
partner to tell us more. But on the actual sequence up to 3S, you know very
little for certain about pard’s hand. If not 4S, then 4C is the other
obvious call at this point. I’d probably have persevered with 4S and maybe
that ends it.

Q4  even later Sat eve v B & B (2/26) All vul. You hold

KQ92
942
632
643

Partner opens 1S 3rd in hand (Acol, at least 4 spades) and the next hand
bids 3N. This is passed round to pard who doubles. Back round to you - your
call? Why?

I think I was right to bid 4S (see below).

Q5. As above. Say you pass out 3NT doubled. What do you lead, and why?

Again see below. H9 might be slightly better than a low one if dummy has
(say) Qxxx.

Q6. As above. Say you opt to bid 4S over 3N doubled. Switch to pard’s hand
as he tries to make 4S.

Rob opened 1S with the South hand and West came in with 3NT. This usually
(but not always) shows a solid, unspecified 7-8 card suit with a stop in the
suit opened. His partner is supposed to leave it in if he has protection in
the other two suits.

3NT was passed back round to my partner who doubled. The pre-empter passed and I now had a tricky call. What does partner’s double mean? Is he trying to put me off leading spades? Maybe, but he knows I’ll be in no rush to lead his suit. No, it tends to suggest extra values, perhaps five quick tricks in
the other two suits.

But which are the other two suits? The pre-empter will normally have a long
minor but it could be hearts. If you pass 3NT* out, you might opt to lead
H9. But why give yourself the problem? If partner has five quick tricks
outside spades, he can surely find five trump tricks on a dummy reversal in 4S (e.g. with SJxxxx HAxx Dx  CAKQJ). Plus you can put down dummy and get some more drinks in. So I bid 4S and there we played.

In retrospect, it’s easy to say that it would have been safer to cross with
a diamond. After all, there are seven cards missing in the suit. But there’s
an additional reason why Rob’s play made sense. If West does have only SA7,
he should surely judge that the best chance of beating the contract is to go
up with SA on the first round and lead another top heart, playing partner
for SJx and the ability to ruff high. Playing low, as he did, makes much
more sense with SAJ7.

The contract should always go down against best defence so I don’t think
that West deserved the plus he got.

How would 3NT have fared? If I’d led hearts as I planned, partner would not
have been overjoyed but it turns out that there are exactly eight tricks on
any lead. That would have been +200 instead of +620 or -100.

Q7.  far too late for B(ed) & B(reakfast) (2/26) Green v Red. You hold

KJ3
AK7
Q10973
K8

You deal and open 1D and pard responds 1NT (6-9). Next hand doubles
(presumably t/o). You redouble (extra values, interest in pens). LHO bids
2H. This is passed back to you. Bid again? if you doubled, how would you
expect partner to read it?

I did double, as per Q8 below. I hoped pard would read it as Lebensohl-style, despite the unusualness of the sequence, but he read it as pens and passed. If it’s Lebensohl, he probably would/should bid 2N or 3C on the actual deal:

Q8 As above. Say you double again, intending it as Lebensohl-style, values
to raise to 2NT, at least 3 good hearts or better. 2H* is passed out so
you’re playing for high stakes. Pard leads H5.

Dummy plays low on the trump lead. Assuming you can still think in straight
lines, how do you view the defence?

The most promising angles seem to be (a) draw trumps to prevent a cross-ruff
 with a view to forcing a D ruff in dummy in time to kill the possible entry
to establishable spades and (b) playing on clubs, hoping to get a club ruff
or (if not) still having time to draw trumps later.

I figured that a CK switch might make it too easy for declarer to get two
club tricks with AJx but this was rice puddingy thinking. Declarer can get
two club tricks by force anyway with that holding.

After much tanking, I opted for (a) and played three rounds of trumps.
Declarer, failing to unblock, won in dummy, crossed to DA and ran S10. I won but I think it’s all over now. I tried another D, hoping declarer would have to ruff in dummy but he still had DK. Now he played for the 3-3 spade break, crossed to SA, ruffed a spade in hand, D ruffed in dummy and two spade winners made eight tricks. That was -13 IMPs and -13 IMPs.

My double was a little aggressive, considering the ambiguity of the
situation but it’s worth noting that there is absolutely no defence to 3N
from pard’s hand. If he removes 2H* to 3C, as he might, I might well have
punted it! 2H went off at other tables and I feel in retrospect that I
should have switched to CK.

Q9 and Q10.  even later Sat eve v B & B (2/17) Love All. You fidget with

LHO opens 1S (10-15, 5+ spades). Pard passes and RHO raises to 2S. You
decide to double (t/o) but opener pushes on to 3S and this is passed back to
you. How do you rate the possible calls of (a) Pass, (b) Double, (c) 4D and
(d) 4H?

With hindsight, I’d say the best call is double, with a view to persevering
with 4D over the expected 4C.  (d) 4H seems the 2nd best call and sadly it
was the one I actually made. West, who must have been expecting this after
experiencing Christmas several times already in the set, reached wearily for
the red card. Pard passed although there’s certainly a case for removing to
4N (= pick a minor) on the grounds that I shouldn’t be entirely 1-suited for
this bidding.

As it was, I was left to fend for myself in 4H*. When the defence attacked
spades, this was not pretty. I discarded a club on the 2nd round but felt I
had to ruff the 3rd. I played off HAK, revealing the 5-2 break. When I led a
D, W declined to ruff, so I went up with the K and led another one back to
my Ace, hoping to conceal I had the Q, but W ruffed the 2nd one and forced
me again in spades. Eventually, I could only make 5 trumps and DK. Four off
was a familiar -800. Even double dummy, I don’t think I can do any better.
This was -12 IMPs and -12 IMPs.

Q11. (2/19) In a state of deep despair against B & B. You hold

AKQJ72
Q
Q8
AKJ5

Red v green. RHO deals and opens a Prec. 1D. Your call?

The choice seems to lie between double and an immediate 4S. My first
instinct was to jump to 4S despite my 22 points on the basis that pard is
unlikely to hold the cards that would make us a slam. At this vulnerability,
it will also make it harder for oppos to find a possible save in 5H.

Double followed by a rebid of 4S is more "honest" and, if oppos do decide to
save, may help pard (or you) decide what to do at the 5-level. After going
for 800 in a freely-bid 4H two hands earlier, I decided to take the slow
route. I doubled, LHO bid 1H, RHO raised to 2H and I now jumped to 4S. This was passed out and dummy was actually a bit more suitable than usual:

But West had found a small heart lead. East won with the Ace and played
three rounds of diamonds from the top. The subsequent trump promotion was the icing on a cake that even Miss Havisham would have been proud of. -100.

Without the heart lead, I just draw trumps and take 10 top tricks. And, of
course, if I’d bid an immediate 4S rather than doubling, West would have
found it much harder to lead a heart. Stuart bid an immediate 4S and made
it, as did one B & B pair so we were -12 and 0 on the board. Our best of the
six boards I have given you!

Total for these six boards = minus 129 IMPs. Stuart and Richard had coped an awful lot better with our cards. But Oxon had lost this, our "easiest"
match, 20-0 and nearly all of it had happened at our table. Maybe we had
plus cards in the other seven matches, but this set more than cancelled that
out and will live long in the memory, filed under "horrorshow".

Q12 Sunday v Yorks (3/26) All Vul. You hold

109874
AJ102
10
1082

You pass and LHO opens 1H (Acol). Pard overcalls 2C and RHO bids 2D. You raise to 3C and opener bids 3H. Pard bids 4C. Now RHO leaps to 6D and this closes the auction. Could be a big lead. What do you fancy?

I think there’s a case to be made for HA on the basis that declarer would
hardly have leapt to a slam if he had a void in his partner’s suit and
there’s a chance that partner can ruff the 2nd round. S10 looks sensible
while a trump might prevent ruffs in dummy. A club, on the other hand, looks a poor shot as this is the one lead that declarer must surely be able to
cope with.

Rob did pretty well to find S10 lead. This went to J, Q and A. Declarer now
ruffed a spade and led CK, covered and ruffed with D4. Hopeful now, he led
another spade and ruffed with a misleadingly high D8. I over-ruffed and led
back D2. Even if pard is void, this cannot be giving away an entry to dummy
although perhaps a heart switch would have been safer still. Pard made HA
later on but for some reason we missed out on a spade trick.

It’s hard to stay out of slam and Bennett/Noble were another pair to get to
6D. Steve Noble must have been pleased to see a club lead on the table. The
winning (and I think best) line is to ruff out CA, play SA, ruff a spade and
take two discards on the clubs. Then you ruff a heart back to hand and try
to trump a further spade in dummy, risking a ruff or over-ruff with the 10.
As the cards lie you’re fine. If spades are 4-3 there’s a further risk that
W can then win a singleton DA and give his pard a spade ruff. Steve went
down - and I didn’t have the heart to ask him how. We were all very tired.

Needless to say it’s almost impossible to have done worse than me/Rob on
Q1-11. It’s surprising how when you get one big decision wrong, further
problems seem to crop up thick and fast. There is no easy answer to turning
these things round. We tried to play these hands steadily, doing things by
the book, but our oppos (who made at least five clear-cut mistakes on a set
of 14 boards) were the ones who won by 120 odd IMPs.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who had a go. I think there are plenty of
available places in the team for next year!