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Kiwis on top in Trans Tasman Challenge

The second round of the Trans- Tasman Challenge took place last Friday evening and produced another good set of results for the 8 New Zealand teams. All 8 New Zealand teams recorded victories, the biggest 19.31 coming from the Cornell team over the Australian Youth Team. The top 9 out of 16 teams are:

					Latest		Opponent
					result
1		Terry	33.61		16.88		Aus Tobin
2		Cornell	33.13		19.61		Aus Youth
3		Skipper	28.91		12.03		Aus Seniors
4		Aus Mixed	27.71		7.71		Livingston
5		Fisher	26.08		13.28		Ewart
6		Carter	22.39		10.91		Aus Women
7		NZ Youth	22.37		10.61		Aus Under 26 Women
8		Livingston	21.68		12.29		Aus Mixed
9		Aus Seniors	18.58		7.97		Skipper

 

The following board caused problems for most of the North-South pairs. In most of the matches, South was faced with how to advance the auction after their left-hand opponent started with either a Weak 2 in hearts or a Multi-Coloured 2 opener, holding:

 

The main choice was to double 2 for take-out or to bid 4NT for the minors. The latter could have brought the better reward though the difficulty then was in North believing their partner was that strong. However, even being in 5 worked out better for those who passed out the take-out double…and really, North had nowhere attractive to go:

 

The North players did not feel like bidding 3, even if it was Lebensohl, showing about the value they held. That would have made it easy for South to bid to the small slam. 4NT from South immediately produced 5 and there matters rested. The only interest in diamond contracts was in whether North would make 12 or all 13 tricks.

Ruff, testing trumps(perhaps 2 rounds) and then taking a view on how quickly the Q would fall. An incorrect guess would not be critical unless one was in the unlikely grand-slam.

Only 3 pairs reached the slam…and only two after opposition bidding. One had the advantage of an agreement where 4 from South showed a strong hand with both minors.

However, at 5 tables, the final contract was 2x by West or by East after the “Multi 2”. After the lead of A (or a high diamond where East was declarer), the defence continued with diamonds, West ruffing the second round. Declarer was now assured of 4 trump tricks, a fifth for sure if North scored a club or spade ruff. By playing on clubs, West could eventually get to ruff the fourth round of clubs in dummy to be only down 2, -300.

 
Sitting, North- South, Tom and Steph Jacob saw West open 3. Tom passed Steph's take-out double and the +800 they collected was very adequate compensation for the missed slam. 

North has to realise this possibility early in the defence, switching to hearts twice, to give their partner 4 club tricks, at least chalking up +500. It seems counter-intuitive to do this when you hope to use your own trumps for ruffing.

Round 3 of the competition is on Friday May 10^th. Currently, the total vp score is New Zealand 199.93 Australia 120.07.

Richard Solomon

 The 16 teams are: 

NZ Carter	J Patterson, K Davies, J Millington, B Jones, P Carter, J    Atkinson
2	NZ Cornell	K Kerr, A Ker, S Henry, A Henry, S Jacob, T Jacob, M Cornell, V Cornell
3	NZ Fisher	J Simpson, S Simpson, J James, L Fisher, B Fisher
4	NZ Humphries	E Horsman, B Grover, L Cartner, J Westoby, A Tarbutt, D Humphries, D Dolbel
5	NZ Livingston	I Berrington, G Tuffnell, J Miller, G Stout, M Mayer, P Livingston
6	NZ Skipper	A Somerville, M Genc, P Newell, A Russell, J Skipper, J Skipper, R Solomon, A Grant
7	NZ Terry	K Terry, J Pawson, H Mcalister, D Mcalister, J Cormack, G Jarvis, M Wu
8	NZ Youth	L Zheng, T Pan, Y Qi, Z Werder, A Dravitski
9	AUS Ewart	N Ewart, I Robinson, K Morrison, C Hughes, D Beckett
10	AUS Free	T Fuller, M Leybourne, D Munro, G Brahma, C Belonogoff, V Nasta
11	AUS Mixed	A Korenhof, D Beauchamp, I Thomson, M Mullamphy, M Van Der Vlugt, D Neumann, E Tewes, J Tutty
12	AUS Seniors	P Lavings, R Krochmalik, A Braithwaite, A De Livera, G Lorentz, S Burgess
13	AUS Tobin	J Mott, M Scudder, J Tobin, R Tobin, J Hoffman, P Chrichton, A Spooner
14	AUS U26 Womens	L Morgan, A Davey, J Skeate, K Macdonald, Z Ross
15	AUS Womens	D Hudson, D Fryda, P Hooykaas, P Rankin, S Humphries, J Brake, J Reynolds
16	AUS Youth	T Libman, J Luke-Paredi, J Reid, S Wright, B Morgan, A Goss, G Bartley

 

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