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Floods and Good Fortune over Anniversary Weekend.

We know sadly about the floods. So, let’s concentrate on the good fortune that those at the Tauranga Mini-Congress experienced over the last weekend. A good place to be was at the Tauranga Bridge Club for its annual mini-Congress, back after being absent in 2022. A little harder for some to get to the club what with flooding, slips and road closures but it takes more than that to keep keen bridge players away.

It was almost a perfect week-end for Liz and Blair Fisher who won Saturday’s Waikato Bays Provincial Pairs with a great 65.77% in the third round to leap-frog the previous leading group with Barry Jones and Jenny Millington finishing 2^nd some 5% behind. It was an equally successful weekend for them too. 
   He's taller than that!

 
An effort by Blair to be on the same level as Tauranga President, Kate Terry, and 
his partner, Liz. Well, he tried!

All boards are significant in the final result of a match though some are a little more significant than others. Would you know what East’s 4 bid would mean in this sequence?

                          West                          East

                            1                             1

                          2                             2

                          3                            4

                          ?

1 was Standard Precision, 16+ any shape with the rest of the bidding natural….but what about 4? Oh, we will show you the West hand:

 

Back to this deal shortly. The Restricted Open Pairs was won by locals Lyn Bailie and Jackie Blue on the basis of a fine 62.50% in the morning session, beating Christchurch visitors Jan Stupples and Megan Eddy by 2%. Monday’s Consolation Pairs was won by David O’Shaughnessy and Bill Humphrey with a 60% average, well clear of Diana and Hugh McAlister in second place.

On then to the Tauranga Congress Teams where the Plate winners were Andi and Steve Boughey and Tania and Matt Brown. The top 4 played 3 x16 board matches in the finals and with a head to head between them in the final round to come, these two teams were separated by just 0.29 vp:

Blair and Liz Fisher                         Jo and Sam Simpson                                  31.33

Wayne Burrows- Peter Hall            Barry Jones – Jenny Millington                      31.04

Peter Hall’s decision about what to bid after Wayne Burrows’ 4 decided the match and the eventual winners.

Basically, he was not sure and decided to bid 4 which ended the bidding. Slam missed but there was some good news for Wayne when he made 11 comfortable tricks:

 

At the other table, Liz and Blair Fisher relayed to an excellent 6NT contract which needed nothing more than a 3-3 or 4-2 diamond break. The “spoiler” was Barry Jones in the South seat who had to take a spade trick and A when diamonds let declarer down.

4 in the sequence we gave you was a first round cue-bid and had Peter and Wayne bid on to slam, the board would have been tied. Wayne explained afterwards they would not cue-bid a void in the suit their partner had bid naturally. They cue-bid first round controls before second-round.

A Significant Split! 

 Burrows won the match by 13 imps, and hence gained overall victory.  Had the board been tied, then Fisher would have kept their 0.29 vp advantage and ended up on top. Of course, had there been a kinder diamond break, Fisher would have won comfortably.
As in all sports, there is an element of good and bad luck over which we cannot control. There were certainly other decisions in the match which could have swung the result both ways though the above deal was particularly critical. 
                        Winners by a Whisker

 
Wayne Burrows, Peter Hall, Tauranga President Kate Terry,  
Jenny Millington and Barry Jones. 

So, a first and a second for Blair and Liz and Barry and Jenny and a nice result too for Wayne and Peter while Jo and Sam had to be satisfied with second place in the Teams. 

Not everyone could be successful but all present could enjoy the friendly atmosphere, the lovely catering of Jillian Ussher and her team and the courteous and efficient directing and scoring of Caroline Wiggins and Jan Spaans.

Richard Solomon

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