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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
18th World Youth Teams Championships
6 wins: 6 losses.
Day 3 saw a repeat of the previous two days for the New Zealand Under 21 team in that they recorded two wins and two losses, though there was a difference. The wins were larger than the losses. Also, in defeating England, they beat one of the top performing countries. These were the results:
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England |
27- 21 |
11.87 |
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Hungary |
22-27 |
8.42 |
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Netherlands |
26-41 |
5.81 |
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Ireland |
46-4 |
18.65 |
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That left New Zealand in 14th place with 111.33. With the top 8 qualifying for the knock-out stage, 8th placed Japan are on 139.59. The win against England was particularly impressive in that the Kiwis had 8 positive swings to 4 in what was a low-scoring match. Also, they were unlucky against Ireland in that there was a cold grand-slam which was bid by under half the 20 Under 21s. Both the Irish and the Kiwis bid to grand. 
What would you bid here:
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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2 ♠ |
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3 ♣ |
3 ♠ |
? |
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2
was a Weak 2.
However, these two boards produced swings, firstly the previous day against Singapore:
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Board 2 |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Alice |
Leon |
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Pass |
1 ♠ |
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Dbl |
2 ♠ |
4 ♥ |
4 ♠ |
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Pass |
Pass |
5 ♣ |
Pass |
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5 ♥ |
Dbl |
All pass |
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When Zachary and Ryan were North-South, New Zealand rather stole the contract. Ryan opened 1 in 2nd seat as South. Rather conservatively, West passed and Zachary raised to 2 which ended the bidding. After a heart lead, Ryan was able to make this contract for the loss of one spade, 
A and three club tricks.
However, the bidding at the other table was much livelier. (see above) A decent penalty for Alice and Ryan was available in 4 but as East, Leon ended as declarer in 5
x. South started with A and a second spade. Leon played a heart to the king and ruffed his losing spade in the West hand. Next came J, taken by North’s ace and exposing the 4-1 trump break.
North shifted to a diamond taken by the ace. Leon could take the marked trump finesse, drew trumps in 2 further rounds and then guessed the position of the 
Q correctly. 5x made for 650 and 13 imps to the Kiwis. An initial diamond lead or switch would have made 5 too hard to make with the 4-1 trump split.
Leon outbid his Hungarian opponent on this board:
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South Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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2 ♠ |
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3 ♣ |
3 ♠ |
6 ♣ |
All pass |
No messing from Leon in bidding the slam which made even without Ramon’s A. There were two ways of getting rid of the diamond loser. Ramon received the A lead and could soon claim. With the same bidding up to 3, the Hungarian East satisfied himself with 5…and that was 11 imps to the Kiwis.
slamming successfully...
On Day 4, New Zealand takes on 2 of the top 3, Denmark and USA 1, along with mid-table China and Germany.
Richard Solomon
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