Overcall lunacy

During the NZ teams I played on a 5 person team which wasn't very serious about its chances. We had two pairs that had played quite a bit together but they had a player in common so at most we had one stable partnership.

We had 5 players because a couple of weeks before the event a long term club member cast around for a team to join. He didn't want to play many matches he said but wanted to attend and play the event, just to see if he could keep up. That long term club member was John Wignall both the WBF 1st Vice President and winner of the NZ teams 14 years before I was born.

Nobody dreamed of saying no and so I got the opportunity to play on a team and at the table with a New Zealand bridge legend. And what did I pick up?

♠	7 6 4 3
♥	A K T 9 4
♦	8 5
♣	8 7

After one pass, John opened 1♦, and before I could bid 1♥ my right hand opponent did. Pass, pass back to John who doubled ending the auction.

Totally unused to playing natural attitude then count (I normally play reverse count then attitude) I slipped a defensive trick but we still landed +800 which green against red seemed like a good result.

	♠ A T 5 ♥ 3 ♦ A J T 8 7 4 2 ♣ A K
♠ Q 9 8 2 ♥ 8 7 5 ♦ Q ♣ Q J 9 6 2		♠ K J ♥ Q J 6 2 ♦ K 6 3 ♣ T 5 4 3
	♠ 7 6 4 3 ♥ A K T 9 4 ♦ 8 5 ♣ 8 7

A good result indeed, what was East up to? Back at score up we call out +800 and team mates call +50 so I write a 13 under "Imps gained". If only that were the whole story....

West	North	East	South
Pass	1♣	1♥	X
2♥	!3♦!	pass	blah
pass	blah	pass	blah
pass	6♦	end

1♣ was precision, and the first double penalties. West offered up 1400 and was turned down in favour of the non-vulnerable, failing, slam.