Today dawned cloudy and rain threatened on the coast throughout late morning and afternoon. Several of the guests ventured on the Paradise Valley levada walk and they were rewarded with better weather – at least it stayed dry for them. After a walk lasting about two hours, they ended at a local tea house for a light lunch of sandwiches, scones and cake. One of the participants, Claire, writes “We really enjoyed our trip yesterday, walking along a levada. The levadas are a special water irrigation and aqueduct system. The views were stunning- mountains and valleys with beautiful wild flowers.”
Board 19 in the afternoon was interesting, but for all the wrong reasons: although there are 12 tricks in both spades and no trumps, it’s hard to construct the bidding sequence to get there. Only one pair bid the slam in spades. They bid as follows, with NS silent:
| W | E |
| 1S | 2NT |
| 3S (strong) | 4C |
| 4S | 6S |
And E’s optimism was rewarded when 12 tricks rolled in. It’s certainly harder when South opens a weak 2D.
But 3NT + 3 scored better than 4S + 2 for the only pair who played there.
You should never give up, even after a bad day at the table. In the first half, Andrew Urbanski and Sue Brown were lying 14th, with a score of 45/100 VPs. But a storming second half, in which they managed to win all their matches with a total of 86/100 VPs, took them to first place overall. Mary and Andrew Ferguson placed second, with 127 VPs, while Judy and John Brearley were third (123 VPs).