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Still Unbeaten.

That is the situation of the New Zealand Open Team after Day 3 in Singapore. It is a slightly strange statistic, but true, after what proved an extremely tough day for the Kiwis. Just look at their results:

1	New Zealand		141.73				Round
							8	v	Chinese Taipei	40-39	10.33
2	Singapore		140.54				9	v	Japan	28-27	10.33
							10	v	India	29-29	10.00
3	India		130.06				11	v	Thailand	29-24	11.58
4	China		127.75
5	Chinese Taipei		125.38

 

Their BBO match against India was incorrectly scored as a 2 imp win to the Kiwis. However, despite 3 big wins yesterday, Singapore have not been able to grab top place and that and the fact that the Kiwis do keep winning, just, must be a big psychological boost for our Kiwis. They finish the first round robin tomorrow with matches against Korea and the Philippines while Singapore face Australia before they have their bye.

 

Natural bidding so far. So, where do you go from here?

Our Women were also very competitive in their three matches and ended the day, and their first round robin in 5^th place, two places higher than at the start of the day. They will, though, have a tough job in catching any of the four teams ahead of them:

						Round
China		156.36				8	v	China Hong Kong	32-33	9.67
						9	v	Singapore	43-49	8.13
Singapore		153.34				10	v	Japan	32-23	12.71
						11	v	Bye		12.00
Singapore		141.50
Chinese Taipei		139.10
New Zealand		105.61

Indonesia sit 6^th, 4.90 vps behind the Kiwis.

Here is a problem which faced Carol Richardson in an earlier match:

 

Your partner opens a game force hand and you are blessed with a long suit and plenty of queens! 2 is either natural hearts or 26+ balanced with 2 a forced bid. 2NT shows the 26+ balanced. Where to go?

 

There was little joy for our Mixed Team who have slipped down to last place with four further defeats. Their first aim in the second round robin will be to end the current run of 8 successive losses and climb off the bottom. Both our Women and Mixed Teams have a free day on Monday.

Mixed
8	China Hong Kong		101.62				8		Japan	24-51	3.45
							9		Korea	41-49	7.56
9	Korea		87.40				10		Thailand	30-47	5.36
							11		China Hong Kong	8-33	3.79
10	Philippines		79.09
11	Japan		75.58
12	New Zealand		71.27

 

Let’s return to the two problems given to you above? Michael Whibley faced the first in the match against India. He elected to bid 1, a 4-card suit, in case they had a fit there. Systemically, the bid is not-forcing and Matt Brown, with a fair but unspectacular heart overcall, decided the 1-level was high enough:

 

1 did not test Michael though he made far too many tricks for his own comfort. After Q lead, he played 2 high hearts and a ruff, a second high diamond, 2 clubs via a finesse and a club ruff, a spade to the jack and a second club ruff. That was the first 10 tricks and he still had a trump to come, +200.

That would be an OK score were 3NT not quite an easy make, let alone 4 of either major. However, not for the first time in this event, it was teammates to the rescue, this time in the shape of Peter Newell, North. In 1^st position all vul, they open a 12-14 1NT though 4 10s seemed to be worth a little upgrade. So, 1NT it was.

If this was doubled, then a retreat to 2, doubled, should cost -1100 with each defender scoring a ruff. Fortunately, neither defender saw reason to bid leaving Peter to wish he had rather more higher cards than 10’s! However, he received a low club lead and scored a heart trick and two further black suit tricks in the end-game to escape for down 3, -300, but only a loss of 3 imps. It could so easily have been a bigger loss.

 
  Andi, with all the aces and kings and Carol with loads of clubs! 
 Whoever said clubs was the least important suit!

Meanwhile, Carol Richardson decided that with 26+ hcp, her partner would have sufficient aces and kings for slam. So, she chose slam in her own suit, the only slam certain to make:

 

6NT would likely have received the J lead from West, cutting South off from the club suit. In 6, Andi had no difficulty in getting to Carol's hand to draw the remaining trump. No swing but no loss of imps with the Indonesians reaching the same contract.

Only two matches, then, for New Zealand on Monday, the Open Team up against Korea and the Philippines.

Richard Solomon

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