Keens live in Bebington in the Wirral) but I always enjoy it because they play
different bidding systems (Fantunes, Tiger Club) which keeps you on your toes.
This year’s Manchester league was the most exciting and close for many years, with 4 teams in contention right until the final week. We started our campaign with a disastrous 23-7 loss to an in form "Agamemnon" (Kath N, Alan N, Clark and Braid) with one of my players dropping out a few days before hand, thus causing an unfamiliar partnership to play. The next day we restored morale with a 21-9 win over Isolated Menaces, which we knew would be crucial. Unlike last year when I served red wine and gave Bernard a whisky at half time, this year he shrewdly declined. Match 3 was against Team Mayhem and we did just enough to get 30-0, putting us back in the frame. It was a friendly encounter, and we had a very successful first half, be over 50 imps up. Team Mayhem come a long way to play the match (The Keens live in Bebington in the Wirral) but I always enjoy it because they play different bidding systems (Fantunes, Tiger Club) which keeps you on your toes. The next match was against Curry Eaters and we won by a staggering 28-2 win. This was a huge coincidence because only 18 months before the same 4 players had beaten us by exactly the same amount to cost us the 2010-2011 league title. After this we felt like we were in a good position (86 from 4) but then we dried up a little with a disappointing 16-14 win against relegation contenders DASH. (I always thought the name was an ironic reference to their speed of play, but Raymond told me it was an acronym of the different areas of Manchester they were from). The match was disappointing not only because I passed for most of the evening, but also because the other table ended up being locked in the spare room! After 20 minutes we were able to slide a screw driver under the door and get them out but they still had 3 boards left to play! On the plus side our president Eve was very impressed with my chocolate brownies. Then we played Inverted Minors and this saw Mike Bell renew his partnership with Rodney, that had been so successful in winning us the title in 2008. At half time we were doing well, but disaster struck in the second half when we had this strange auction: (You are at red) 4H P 4S 4NT 5S 6C 6S
7C
X
P
P
P
What would you lead from this hand: AKQJxxxx x xx x Needless to say conceding 1630 was a new score for me, and we took our 18-12 win with a sigh of relief. As we entered our final run I arrange the match against new challengers Bare Bones for the Friday night before the Manchester Swiss Pairs, so that Alan Mould who was down visiting could play. Unfortunately I had to go to Poulton to give a seminar. When I returned I had an email message that began "ring me if you want to know the full horror story". A few unlucky slam hands had meant a 25-5 loss, and Bare Bones became the favourites. Four days later I had an email from Jeff Smith. "We had a nice game tonight and won by over 50 imps".
I had no idea what he was talking about until I realised he had played Bare Bones that night! Suddenly we were back in the game with a crucial match to be played against Tracy. Tracy's team mates are all from Liverpool, which I think shows what is great about the Manchester league. Where else would people drive an hour for 24 boards when there is no prize money or silly green points at stake? Although Tracy herself was aware that this was a deciding match her team-mates had no idea of the position or even if they were in with a shout! This may have caused Alan Stephenson to take his eye off the ball slightly and go for 1400 in 1NT doubled when he could have cashed out for one down. When we came to score up the usual reply came "sorry we are terrible" said Gary. "I went off in 3NT when I failed to count my tricks and realise I had 9 on top" We were 13 up though and despite conceding 470 in the 2nd half (a dubious 14 point strong no trump from the captain of my team) we won 19-11 and were now clear favourites. We would need only 40 from our last 2 matches to catch Isolated Menaces and we were playing 2 of the 3 bottom teams. However Tracy pulled one out of the bag and beat Inverted minors 29-1!! I asked how it happened was told that one of the solid technical players on Inverted Minors had neglected to bid game a few times. (Names withheld to protect the guilty) Now it was looking dicey, as she was ahead of us with 2 to play. Her penultimate match was against Team Mayhem, a Merseyside Derby effectively, Tracy won 20-10 to be in the driving seat. We settled down for our final match against Proteus needing 25-5 to be in prime position. At half time it looked all over as we were 9 imps down, including one undistinguished flat board in 4S+3 for 710. I changed tactics "let's just try and recover to a 20-10 and hope something good goes for us in the other match". This was exactly what happened, though had I found a club switch against 1NTX then we would have had another 14 imps (+500 instead of -180) which would have felt better. Going into the final two matches Tracy needed 22-8 to win, but I knew Bare Bones would not go quietly as this was a grudge match, with all other rivalries set aside. At half time she was cruising 27 imps ahead, if the second half was flat she would have the trophy. Instead they lost 32 imps and went down 16-14. I received the news by text message from the captain of Bare Bones - it simply read "+5". That meant we needed a win by 32 imps (23-7) to win the title on a split tie, so I fielded what I thought was our strongest line up of Gary Hyett/Mike Bell, Michael Byrne/Michael Newman. (Alan Mould lives in Scotland) Memories of all of the previous seasons where I had screwed up and lots it on the final match haunted me. In 2003 a team of youngsters (Alex Morris, Michael Byrne, Ollie Burgess) needed only a 20 imps loss in the final match against the Hacketts to win the trophy, but a loss by 50 crushed our dreams. (Ironically our team captain then was Tracy!) In 2007 St Titus had needed exactly the same margin to win the league, and a disastrous doubled contract making on the final board handed victory to Agamemnon, (and split up that partner ship for good.) The final match against Tempo was played quietly at Cheadle Hulme Bridge club in great spirits. It was suggested that we were the popular choice to win the league and that we should play a 22 board match and score up, if we hadn't won by enough they could bid 7NT blind on the last two boards to make sure that....well obviously we intended to win through fair means. The first half started well with us making a tight slam but we soon racked up 11 minus scores including Dave Pennington opening an 8 count 3rd in hand and rolling in a vul game when A2 facing KJ93 played for 4 tricks (Q10x onside) and we failed to cash our 4 top winners. We were dreading the score up but our team-mates read out plus score after plus score and we were 13 imps up. In the 2nd half we started well with a vul game bid on the first hand, but on the 2nd hand I decided to teach the opponents a sharp lesson (TTSL) with a penalty double. I was soon writing down -870 and suddenly the match was close again. Fortunately
there was a lot of interesting hands and our team-mates once again had a huge score card. The difference from the 1st half was that we did as well (ok, -870 notwithstanding) and we had won by 46 imps. Well done to all of my team who were great this year and never gave up in difficult circumstances. It was a shame that we won't be defending the title as the same 7 next year as Sarah and Mike are moving down to London for the time being following Sarah's teaching job there. We shall just have to work harder without them! PS A heart lead beats the slam they are ruffing the spade. I claimed I would have bid 5D not 5S with a void diamond, and I'm sticking to it. Most people have got it wrong when give it as a problem - well done if you got it right. It's still not clear to me why I doubled. Michael Byrne
