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Neil Dravitzki and Sonia Crawford, celebrating success at the table. 

Farewell, Neil.

Today’s article is not really a bidding problem but I thought I would give you one anyway. Today is a salute,  in memory of one of the country’s keenest club and tournament players, Neil Dravitzki, who passed away last week, aged 82. However, Neil would surely not mind my posing this problem for you.

 

2 was a Weak 2 and your partner’s double, naturally, was for take-out. What do you bid and what is your plan?

Neil spent his bridge-playing career in Tokoroa and Rotorua, latterly also being a  club member of Matamata. He loved the game and seems to have been instrumental in teaching many members of his large family to play. His wife, Mary, plays and of their 6 children, two certainly have got the “bug”, Pamela in Nelson and Rodney in Masterton. Rod has represented New Zealand at Open Level while only a few of weeks ago, a granddaughter, Alice, played for the New Zealand Under 21 team in the Youth World Championships. That certainly made Alice’s grandfather very proud. Currently, excluding Neil, there are 13 Dravitzki’s listed with NZ Bridge computer numbers, all family members. 

 
You do not have to have more than one guess as to what Neil and his daughter, 
Pam, were discussing. 

Neil, who was a Grandmaster, has certainly done his bit for taking our game to future generations. His main partner, from his Rotorua days, was Henk Van der Poel.

However, it’s back to the above deal…and the above problem does not directly affect Neil. It comes from the Restricted Pairs competition on 13^th May this year at the Te Awamutu Bridge Club.

Holding that South hand, I would jump to 4 and over whichever major partner bid (it would be nice to think that they chose spades!), I would use Roman Key Card and play at the 6-level, perhaps 6NT as we were playing Pairs.

North, of course, chose hearts but never mind, out came 4NT and a rather surprised North would show two key cards and the Q. That seems enough to bid 6NT.

Well, that was not quite what happened at Neil and Mary’s table. Mary had opened a Weak 2 in diamonds. North doubled and, a little out of character, Neil had nothing to say as East. South forced, used a version of Blackwood, and then settled on 6 as the final contract.

Well, it seemed as though it was going to be the final contract as Mary and North passed…. but Neil was to have the last word, after all. Suddenly, he emerged with a bid…7! South, with the hand above, must have thought all their Christmases had come at once and found a second double. Mary, who must have thought her only problem was to find an initial lead, was suddenly declarer in her Weak 2 at the 7 level!

After the opening lead of the K, Neil put down his dummy, saying to Mary: “you can go 6 down doubled, Mary. That’s -1400 and if they make 6, that is -1430.” I am sure he wished her good luck, too. These were the four hands:

 

The defence took their 5 top side-suit tricks and one high trump (South played the K but probably after a high spade was cashed) and that was down 6 as Neil had requested/predicted/hoped. I am sure Deep Finesse would tell us that an initial trump lead would restrict Mary to just 5 trump tricks.

That, though, is not the point. A nice sacrifice from a very intuitive player, one who usually had something to say, eventually. This occurred in probably Neil’s final tournament in which he and Mary finished 5^th.

Farewell, Neil. You added colour and craft to our game.

Richard Solomon

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