All News

Second is No Disgrace.

Failing to win the APBF Open Championships may feel very disappointing for our Open Team, understandably, especially as victory was in their own hands. To have led the event for all but the last two rounds, early in the second round-robin by a large margin and then to fall down in the most important match of them all is a hard pill to swallow. The Kiwis excelled in every aspect this past week except that of closing out a victory. There, China got the better of them.

Let’s look at the raw statistics on the last day:

	Open	Final Placings
1	China		339.08				Round
					Round Robin 2		7	v	China	22-64	1.24
2	New Zealand		329.60				8	v	India	14-08	11.87
							9	v	Singapore	27-18	12.71
3	Chinese Taipei		304.82
4	China Hong Kong		297.59
5	India		297.10

 

New Zealand had started the day 11vps ahead and thus trailed by approximately 7 vps with 2 matches to play. Two small wins were just not enough even though China could only beat Chinese Taipei by 2 imps in the penultimate round. China took 17.91 off China Hong Kong in the last round to seal victory. Even 20 vps off Singapore in the last round would not have been enough for the Kiwis.

Up to the start of the final day, it had been a really wonderful performance by the Kiwis though there were a few wobbles the day before. Alas, it was all to go wrong against China. There were 4 double-figure swings out and only 1 coming in. Certainly, the strangest was Board 5:

In the other 4 Open matches, all 8 North -South pairs played in minor suit or no-trump part-scores. The China North-South did extremely well to bid and make 5, cold with just two trump losers. Whibley-Brown have and will continue to produce some tremendous results but not on this board, resting in 7, naturally doubled and down 2, - 15 imps.

The same contract was repeated by Cornell- Bach a few boards later, a much more reasonable prospect:

The Chinese East-West played in 6NT where there are 12 top tricks and ended up making all 13. The spotlight was therefore on Michael Cornell (East) in 7 receiving the lead of Q. The spade loser in the West hand can be discarded on the third round of hearts. So, are we then down to the diamond finesse?

Michael Cornell took it unsuccessfully but alas the grand was cold. After drawing trumps, cash the other high spade and play out the remaining four trumps before playing AK. These cards remain, East having discarded Q from hand in case a finesse was necessary:

 When Q is played, South has to throw a diamond or else West’s spade is high. So, the spade is then thrown from the East hand and North, who has had to bare the K in order to protect the heart suit, will be known to have a diamond left. When 10 is played by South at trick 12, East will know where the K is, a nice double squeeze. That was achieved by East in one of the other matches (contract 7NT) though alas it was 17 imps to China rather than 12 to New Zealand.

Thus, a sad ending but all three pairs should hold their heads up high for a great week of bridge which preceded and indeed followed that fateful match.

 
disappointment but nevertheless a great performance from Michael Cornell,
Martin Reid, Michael Whibley, Matt Brown, Jonathan Westoby (npc), Peter Newell 
and Ashley Bach

Mixed Team.

Two wins in their last three matches, against the lower ranked opposition, showed some improvement though this had been a disappointing event for our Mixed Team.

	Mixed	12 teams
8	Japan		175.87				9	v	Korea	42-20	15.66
							10	v	Philippines	47-46	10.35
9	China Hong Kong		175.35				11	v	Japan	18-32	6.04
10	Korea		152.38
11	Philippines		150.71
12	New Zealand		132.93

 

The event was won by China, over 40 vps ahead of Singapore. Australia finished in 4^th place. Let’s finish on a cheerful note:

Women

	Women	11 teams			Round Robin 2		Round
5	Singapore		214.74				9	v	Singapore	25 08	14.64
							10	v	China Hong Kong	34-26	12.44
6	New Zealand		207.54				11	v	Indonesia	42-30	13.48
7	India		201.56
8	Australia		197.36
9	Japan		196.10

 

It is great to win but if you cannot win, you can still strive for lesser goals. Our Women’s team did just that in finishing 6^th. A really poor start to the second round-robin meant they really could not finish higher than 6th. Their last 5 matches were against 5 teams above them and they recorded 4 wins, losing only to top finishing China.

Victory in the last match, against Indonesia was tight. With 2 boards left, New Zealand led by 12 imps. However, on Board 13, Jenna Gibbons failed by a trick in 3NT, a contract made with an overtrick at the other table, -13 imps. This was Board 14:

Christine Gibbons (North) got to play in 4 and with friendly breaks in the major suits, had little difficulty in making 10 tricks. However, at the other table, Andi Boughey (West) became declarer in 5x which looks 1 down at best. A net score of 320 would result in a small loss for the match… but…

North led their singleton diamond which Andi won in dummy to play a small club. Any guess in the trump suit was taken away as South took their ace and despite seeing ( or not seeing North’s J) tried to give their partner a diamond ruff. Andi’s 10 won the trick. She then ran all her trumps before crossing to the A and discarded a heart on the K. In the 3- card ending, North clung on to her AQ and thus bared her Q. Andi did not take the spade finesse and thus scored her J at trick 12 for 11 tricks….a nice way to end the week, with 14 imps to New Zealand and victory in the match by 12 imps.

Congratulations to China who also won the Seniors’ event to take a clean sweep of the four titles. Today and Saturday Zone 6 and Zone 7 (hence New Zealand v Australia) countries play each other for Bermuda Bowl/Venice Cup places. With 2 spots in the events in Morocco guaranteed for Zone 7, pride is the main issue for our Open, Women and Mixed Teams.

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items