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Hello and Happy New Year from a wild and windy Auckland. Bridge is probably not uppermost in the minds of most of us at this time of year, with family arguments gatherings dominating. Biritch the Russian Blue hates Christmas, and spends much of his time chasing birds – fortunately with little success, as he is not as agile as he used to be. However, some news to report.

On the tournament front, Waitemata hosted two events during this period. Back in November, Allan Currie and Gina Hsu took out their 3A; fast forward to January, when William Liu and John Wang won their 5A. Hibiscus Coast’s Open was won by June Lei and John Wang (again!) and the Intermediate by Prem Soundranayagam and Zachary Yan. Our esteemed Editor has already stolen my thunder concerning the Akarana Christmas Party Tournament, run this year as an individual; fortunately my many partners were all good enough to carry me to a resounding victory there. This time of year also sees a couple of 3-night events, always popular. The Papatoetoe Christmas Pairs was won by Steve Boughey and Carol Richardson, and the Auckland Babich Wines New Year Pairs by Mike and Viv Cornell. This last gave Mike the opportunity to make two speeches for one event, as he had been awarded his Gold Medal from the World Pairs Championship with Ashley Bach at the beginning of the event.

Ashley and Michael with their gold medals.

A large contingent from the region travelled to Canberra to participate in the Summer Festival of Bridge and Australian Youth Week, and they scored some outstanding results there. In particular, Andi Boughey and Matt Brown won the Australian Youth Pairs, and Youth Teams and along  with Feitong Chen, Jacob Kalma and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin plus players from further south were members of the New Zealand Youth Squad which defeated Australia in the annual Youth Test Match. Andi and Matt also reached the later knock-out stages of the Womens’ and Open teams respectively. Congratulations to all of them; it certainly looks as though the future of bridge in New Zealand is in safe hands.

Finally, a couple of hands for you. First, a hand played brilliantly by my partner Wayne Benefield at the Auckland Club tournament. Wayne reached the contract of 4♠ from the North hand after East had shown a club/heart 2-suiter, and East led his singleton 10.

 

It looks as though declarer has to lose two  tricks as well as two aces, but not if you read and play the cards as well as Wayne. He won the diamond lead in hand, drew trumps in two rounds, and led a  from hand; East cannot do any better than win the Ace and continue the suit. Wayne then cashed his third  and led a  towards dummy. Again, East is fixed; he can do no better than win the ace and play another club. Wayne won the king, played the  10 from dummy, and – the crucial play – discarded a  from hand! East now has to concede a ruff and discard, and so the second losing  disappears from hand. Super! Is there a defence to beat the contract? Yes, there is, but only one play works – East must lead A at the first trick to avoid the end play. Not easy to find.

Second, one of those little curiosities that catch my eye – Biritch caustically remarks that I should spend more time thinking about bidding, defending and playing the hands than marvelling at statistical oddities. Take a look at the South hand, from the super Thames Festival, here; having all four of one denomination is slightly unusual (a little less than 1 in 64 deals for the mathematically inclined), but to possess all four of two denominations comes in at considerably less than 1 in 4096 deals – about once every two years if you play 2 sessions a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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