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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
Kiwi Success in Bangkok
New Zealand did not send official teams to the 9th APBF Open Bridge Congress which was held in Bangkok from 18th until 27th May this year. However, two self-funded New Zealand teams did attend:
Tislevoll: GeO Tislevoll – Leon Meier, Nick Jacob – Ashley Bach in the Open competition and:
Aotearoa New Zealand: Wayne Burrows – Clair Miao, Steph and Tom Jacob and Rachelle Pelkman – Murray Wood in the Mixed event.
Aotearoa New Zealand finished 10th out of 20 teams in their event. They finished 26th out of 54 teams in the Consolation event.
However, Tislevoll put in a tremendous performance in the Open category. Qualifying saw them finish 2nd in their 25 team competition (24 x 12 boards), 10 vps behind Jinshuo, a Chinese team. This was despite losing their last four matches. Up to that point, they had won 16 out of 20 matches. Illness was a factor towards the end of the round- robin.
Ashley and Nick in action
The top 4 teams qualified for the semi-finals and in the 48 board match, Tislevoll beat PD Times 115-77. Their opponents in the final were another Chinese team, ECSY Bridge. Tislevoll started with a 5 imp carry forward and won the first two 16 board stanzas 43-19 and 40-15. They lost the last set 11-15 but victory was theirs 94-54, a wonderful performance from a four-person team.
This board came from the first set of the final.
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West Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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1 NT |
4 ♦ |
Dbl |
Pass |
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? |
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You open a 15-17 1NT and hear a natural long and weakish 4
on your left. Your partner makes a take-out double….and you?
When Nick Jacob was West, he elected to pass his partner’s take-out double. With no major, there was no obvious place to play.
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West Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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1 NT |
4 ♦ |
Dbl |
All pass |
The defence took two diamonds, three spades, one heart and one club trick. That was down 4 for +800. This could have been a flat board as GeO Tislevoll also bid 4 over West’s 1NT and the Chinese East also made a take-out double.
However, West obviously thought “take- out” means just that and bid 5
. Leon Meier, sitting South, saw no reason to disturb this contract (there was surely a better contract for their opponents) which was defeated by 4 tricks, +400 to go with the +800 at the other table….and 15 imps to the Kiwis which was very significant in their final victory.
Richard Solomon
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