THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TASMAN SEA
Entry to each of the numerous tournaments at the eight-day 37th New Zealand National Bridge Congress in the Mercury Baypark in Tauronga, which begins next Saturday (23 September) will normally "be accepted up to about a day in advance.". Visit nzbridge.co.nz/overview.html for comprehensive detail and guidance.
Other things readers may like to know about the Congress include the news that there will be cost-free card-by-card bridgebase.com live coverage of the open teams final on the last two days of September; and that an enhanced version thereof with local expert commentary may (check nearer the date) be available from time to time via bridgetv.com.au . Also potentially interesting is the fact that, like its comparable February Australian event at the Gold Coast, it is part of the World Bridge Tour.
Today's deal from last year's semi-finals of its main event, the NZ Open Teams, was written up in one of last year's daily bulletins by Julian Foster (NSW) who was North in the diagrammed uncontested auction. His partner was Jenna Gibbons (NZ) and his team-mates, EW at the other table, were Canberrans Christy Geromboux and Sebastian Yuen.
In the preceding 62-team 10-round Swiss qualifying stage that team not merely finished first. It won all ten matches whereas no other team won nine and only two won eight. It attained top place after round three and never relinquished it. Moreover, it amassed 239 IMPs which exceeded the next highest total by more than 52%.
Its results in the subsequent knock-out were not as uniformly good. A win by eight IMPs in the round-of-16 would have been a loss by one IMP but for a nine-IMP carry-over. A victory by 58 IMPs (89-31) in the subsequent quarter-final was more enjoyably clear-cut. It was in the last of four stanzas of the that disaster struck.
A 12-IMP carry-over and small wins in each of the first three stanzas had combined to put the top-qualifiers 35 IMPs ahead with only 12 boards left to play. All seemed over but the shouting until, improbably, the lead changed hands for the last time on the antepenultimate board. 53 IMPs were won and lost in in the stanza, every single one of them in the same unexpected direction.
The silver medallists-to-be likewise included three Australians - James Coutts, Shane Harrison (both NSW) and Andy Hung (WA) - and one New Zealander. My following account of how the play went in West's double-dummy-unbeatable 4♠ contract (though, of course, a diamond lead defeats 4♠ by East) is closely based on Foster's daily bulletin report.
Whether or not, after the diagrammed unrevealing auction, the ♣10 "blind" opening lead North disliked even more after trick one than when he unhappily nevertheless selected it simplified declarer's single-dummy planning, he won the trick with ♣Q and tabled ♥6.
North correctly rose with ♥A and exited in hearts. Withholding dummy's ♥K, West trumped with ♠2, crossed to ♠J, trumped East's last heart spot-card with ♠Q and led ♠K. After thus belatedly learning of the unwelcome one-four NS trump split, West undauntedly led low to ♣J, cashed ♥A and ♣A and ♥A.
Nothing bad having happily so far happened, the lead was still with East who was down to ♠A8 ♦72 opposite declarer's ♦K106 ♣8 while the North-South cards were respectively ♦A985 and ♠106 ♦KJ. Needing two of the last four tricks, declarer gave up one by leading low to Q-K-A. Holding no non-diamonds, North perforce continued low to South's ♦J after which South's was end-played in trumps and 4♠ came safely home.
As Foster wrote,
"Beautifully played for +420 and a well-deserved IMP pick-up. We could have afforded a few swings out like that but, sadly, not the 53 imps worth of swings that did happen in the last set! You just never know what will happen in this game. One minute everything is going your way (in set three partner miscounted her key cards so we stayed out of 7♥ and gained 14 imps when it went off at the other table!), the next minute all the decisions go wrong."
Mixed Blessings
Of the four Australian teams in the respective open, women's, seniors and mixed all-play-all qualifying stages at the 46th world teams championships in Marrakech that ended yesterday (2 September), the one that most nearly figured in its ensuing knock-out was the mixed team. Its three playing pairs were Phil Markey partnering Lauren Travis (both SA), Sophie Ashton and David Wiltshire (both NSW), Renee Cooper (WA) and Ben Thompson (Vic) and their non-playing captain was Mike Doecke (SA). After the eighth of 23 16-board qualifying matches they actually occupied the crucial eighth placing and on six subsequent occasions they were lying handily ninth; but they sadly didn't manage to climb back up.
But for today's deal a narrow ninth-round win over bronze medallist to be Romania would instead have been a loss. At one table Thompson was on lead against 4♠ by South. The play went ♣A-6-4-2, ♣K-9-10-8, ♣3-J-Q-♠3, ♠5-J-K-7, ♠2-8-A-♦4. At that point the result was agreed as one down. Rising with ♠A at trick five suicidally defied the Law of Restricted Choice. Save in the here unlikely event that South knew enough about West's habits to be certain that from a hypothetical holding of ♠QJ he would infallibly table the Jack, she should instead have inserted the ♠9 and almost halved her risk of losing an unaffordable trump trick.
Against 4♥, played by Markey (North) after the diagrammed auction - in which the as yet unrevealed systemic meaning of Travis's alerted multi-purpose artificial 2♣ response was - here indistinguishably(?) - either an otherwise unspecified balanced game force or an at least invitational three-card support heart raise - East led ♣4 to 2-K-6. Able (unlike his counterpart above) to defer any spade decisions Markey continued ♣A-9-5-8, ♣7-J-Q-♥6, ♥A-7-3-4, ♥J-2-K-5, ♥Q-♦2-♠3-♥9, and then led his singleton ♦8. When East followed "second hand low" dummy's ♦K won the trick, after which incurring a spade trick loser via ♦9-6-♥8-♦5, ♠2-8-9-J cost Australia merely one of the 11 available IMPs for the thus forgone overtrick. Visit abf.com.au for links to much more about what transpired in Marrakech.
Of probable interest to many readers are the following (here moderately reworded) announcements:
"The South Canberra Bridge Club advises that it will be running a RealBridge trial on Friday evenings starting September 8. This session addresses a demand the club sees for an additional friendly and cost-effective online evening session. It is an extra session and not a replacement for the current Thursday evening SCBC/Capital BBO session. SCBC continues to fully support the joint Thursday evening BBO session.
SCBC welcomes any Capital members to join our Friday evening RealBridge session. The September 8 session will be free and subsequent sessions will be $5 for SCBC members and $6 for visitors.";
and
"The Bridge Federation of the ACT is holding a Gala "Gold" Pairs Day on Saturday 16 September 2023 at the Canberra Bridge Club starting at 9.45am. The two top-placed available contending pairs will form the well-subsidised ACT2 Team in the early December Grand National Open Teams final and the likewise subsidised ACT Provincial Team there will be the top 2 contending pairs that qualify with ACT Provincial status, i.e. those from provincial areas or those with less than 300 masterpoints per person. Entries should be submitted by 10.00am on 14 September. The per-person cost of the Gala Day is $15 for full-time students and pension concession card holders and $40 for all others.
Entry by MyABF. If you need help accessing MyABF please chat with the Directors."