All News

   Jeff Miller and Graeme Stout.

“Southern” winners for South Island Teams.

The South Island Teams took place over the past weekend on-line with a huge entry of 58 teams. Fittingly, it was a South Island team which took the honours with Jeff Miller – Graeme Stout and Anne Somerville – Murat Genc winning by just under 4 vps after winning their first 7 matches and gaining enough from their final match against Alabaster to retain pole position.

          

                                                        Murat Genc and Anne Somerville

Another fine performance came from the Auckland based team of Tim Pan and Lysandra Cheng and Gina Hsu and Jacky Lo who had 6 wins and 2 tiny losses to finish second. They needed a fraction under 20 vps from their last match to win the event and scored a still creditable 15.26. Gina and Jacky have been bridge partners for many years with this being surely their best performance. Lysandra and Tim learnt bridge at Macleans College in Howick a few years back and have been playing, mainly together, ever since. This is their second year playing tournament bridge and they are still Junior players. They will take a big leap up the gradings if they keep up this form. They were the top performing pair this past weekend on the Datum list.

Here then are the top finishers:

1

Genc

117.47

Anne Somerville

Murat  Genc

Jeff Miller

Graeme Stout

2

Pan

113.59

Tim Pan

Lysandra Cheng

Gina Hsu

Jacky Lo

3

Alabaster

110.59

Jan Alabaster

Jane Lennon

Leon Meier

Graeme Tuffnell

4

Fraser- Hoskin

108.76

Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin

Jack James

Annette Henry

Stephen Henry

5

Lloyd

104.80

Tania Lloyd

Hugh Grosvenor

Stephen Lester

Simon Hinge

6

Jones

100.85

Barry Jones

Jenny Millington

Patrick Carter

Jenny Millington

7

Fisher

98.06

Blair Fisher

Liz Fisher

Jo Simpson

Sam Simpson

8

Johnston

94.24

Brad Johnston

Sam Coutts

Ella Jacob

Joshua Tomlin

Michael Ware

Here is a thoughtful example of Tim Pan at work. You are going to be on opening lead with the following:

 

You make a weak jump overcall which does not seem to deter your opponents. 5 showed 0 or 3 key-cards. What is your choice?

4 did not exactly guarantee first round control of diamonds (though often would) but was a slam try with heart agreement. However, with East bidding slam opposite possibly 0 key-cards, the chance of many if any diamond tricks seemed remote. In addition, Lysandra, North, may well have doubled 4 had she held A. So, Tim looked elsewhere for tricks and chose Q. He was soon to be recording + 50 on the scoresheet:

 

Ambitious bidding by West. Lysandra overtook Q in case Tim had any second thoughts or indeed could not continue the suit. You can see what would have happened on any other lead. Trumps would not take long to be drawn after which both declarer’s clubs could be discarded on established long spades for all 13 tricks. 11 pairs bid to 6 with only 3 defeating the slam with Alice Young being the only other South to find the Q lead, in her case after her partner had supported diamonds.

 
                    Tim and Lysandra

With Tim’s teammates being doubled in 5 and making two overtricks, that was 13 imps in for Tim’s team rather than 6 out had he found any lead but a club.

Thanks to the Christchurch Bridge Club for organising the event, to the directing and scoring team of Allan Joseph, Babs-Merel de Visser and Kevin Walker and to those who acted as fill-ins for the inevitable connection issues that arise during an event on-line with such a large number of players.

Richard Solomon

 

Go Back View All News Items