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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
18th World Youth Teams Championships
Victory in Defeat.
New Zealand may have lost three of its matches on Day 4 of the World Under 21 Championships but three of the four results would have been very satisfying for the team:
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Denmark |
31-38 |
7.84 |
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China |
1-47 |
0.92 |
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Germany |
67-18 |
19.38 |
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USA1 |
35-40 |
8.42 |
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USA1, China and Denmark all finished the day in the top 5 and so the results against Demark and USA1 were very respectable while a near 20 against Germany certainly helped the cause. New Zealand finished the day in 15th place (out of 20), well clear of those below them but will need a good last day to catch those above. Their last three matches are against Canada, Norway and Poland. Canada are below New Zealand, Norway in mid-table while Poland are the clear leaders, a tough last match.
This grand-slam against Denmark helped the cause:
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North Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Zachary |
Ryan |
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1 ♣ |
Pass |
1 ♥ |
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Pass |
2 ♠ |
Pass |
3 ♦ |
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Pass |
3 NT |
Pass |
4 ♣ |
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Pass |
4 ♥ |
Pass |
4 NT |
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Pass |
5 ♦ |
Pass |
5 ♥ |
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Pass |
5 ♠ |
Pass |
7 ♣ |
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All pass |
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A natural start was followed by 4th suit forcing 3
. Ryan’s 4
was natural and 4
a cue bid. 4NT was key card, Zach’s reply showing 0 or 3. 5 asked for the Q and side-suit kings. 5
showed both K and Q. After that, it had to be grand.
If East had to have 4 clubs, they had the right four! There were 13 top tricks. The Danes stopped in small slam as did 15 of the 20 North-South pairs.
Leon played the following hand extremely well against USA 1.
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Board 28 |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Alice |
Leon |
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Pass |
Pass |
1 ♠ |
2 ♥ |
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3 ♠ |
Pass |
4 ♠ |
Pass |
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Pass |
Dbl |
All pass |
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North must have fancied his chances on defence..hence the double..especially when after K lead, he saw all the other high spades in dummy. He was to be disappointed.
Leon won the opening lead with A, crossed to K and ruffed a heart, with North discarding a club. Then came A, club ruff and another heart ruff, a second club discard from North. A was then followed by a second club ruff.
Leon had taken the first 8 tricks and still had AQ in dummy.
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He led a heart off dummy. If North discarded, Leon would ruff in hand. If North ruffed high, Leon would make both AQ.
The Kiwis: Zach, Ryan,Ramon, Leon and Alice
Nicely played without playing trumps. It was only worth 5 imps because the USA declarer made the same contract undoubled. Nevertheless, a nice way to end a day that was much better than the 1-3 win-loss ratio might imply.
Richard Solomon
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