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VISITORS TRIUMPH IN NELSON

Many come from England to “summer” in the South Island though two English visitors, Christine Duckworth and Brian Callaghan had a different motive in visiting Nelson over the weekend of 11^th/12^th February as they took part in and won the South Island Teams, playing with Wellington’s Alan Grant and Christchurch’s Jane Lennon.

 

 Alan Grant, Brian Callaghan, Christine Duckworth and Jane Lennon

The weather, which has not been seasonally sunny, was perfect with a clear blue sky throughout with the Nelson Club and Top of The South Regional Committee organising an excellent event. 36 teams played 8x 14 board matches Swiss style, as 144 players competed with vastly different aims. For many, this was a trials event prior to selection of our National Teams while others were having their first taste of a major Teams event.

Very nice, suitable catering, excellent organisation including airport pick-ups, well directed and scored by Caroline and Murray Wiggins and a friendly but competitive atmosphere. There were a huge number of raffle prizes, won by everyone except me! (Yes, I did take tickets!) If players had anything to complain about, it would have been the heat of 36 tables crammed together in the lovely club-rooms.

A few, though, may have felt just a little sad after they played the following board.

 

(5 showed two key cards and the Q)

You might argue it is not the best 3 jump ever seen though it is certainly the bid you would like to make if you knew that your partner held  AK54. However, East would have been pretty pleased with the sight of dummy after receiving the 2 lead. Win the lead at trick two, draw trumps and claim for 12 tricks.

So, why then did 6 declarers record – 50 after playing in 6? North would have won the lead with, say J, and then played another  diamond, maybe the ace. 6 declarers took their mind off the job and ruffed low only to see South over-ruff! Ouch! Even if South won trick one with a deceptive Q or A, the contract is cast-iron unless you ruff low.

 

 

With 10 pairs missing slam and one finding 13 tricks too hard to make, North-South "datum- haters" who had watched their opponents bid comfortably to and make 6, took to the streets in full- cry. They lost 11 imps on datum for just being in the wrong seats while on the following board, they lost 10 more when their opponents bid to 6NT on these cards.

 

 

With diamonds breaking 4-2 and both spade and heart finesses failing, 12 tricks were assured but there was no way to 13 despite the combined 35 hcp between the two hands.

Congratulations to Terri Sonal and Charmaine Hanbury Webber who bid and made 7NT, a little compensation for those North-South who merely followed suit to record -10 imps on datum as 10 pairs failed in their slam, mainly the grand while a couple missed slam. OK, datums are a guide but certainly not a gospel.

Slams were almost non-existent throughout the week-end which makes it strange that I will now refer to a third one. 

 

 

The first two slams followed each other in the last match of day 2 while this one, from Match 5, was probably the only slam deal on day 1. 6 pairs reached grand slam while most of the rest played in one of 3 making small slams (4 if you include 6). There were no menacing ruffs this time so that all those in small slam made their contract.

Getting to grand- slam should have been no problem where North opened their terrible 11 count, whose only redeeming feature was the possession of both major suits. Most South players would have got to open 2. Finding the heart fit should have been easy where North replied 2NT showing a balanced positive. South calls a natural 3 enabling North to bid 4 card suits up the line.

However, some like to respond 2 to 2, negative or waiting. Then, over South’s 3, North must be careful as 3 shows a 5 card suit. A good approach is for 3 after 3 to be natural or asking partner to bid a 4 card major, a technique that would have worked well here.

Of those in grand slam, only Michael Ware had a problem as he was in 7 rather than 7. West, Matthew Brown, did really well in not leading the A.  As Michael was looking for a grand slam missing an ace (a disadvantage of being a top player. Matthew “trusted” his opponent’s bidding).  So, Michael had little to go on as to which way to finesse for his 13^th trick (with neither Matthew nor Susan Humphries throwing a spade to give him a clue as to where the Q might be) and played, wrongly, low to the jack to record the only North-South minus among the 36 tables.

The Seniors’ trials team of Bob Grover, Eileen Horsman, Neil Stuckey and Barry Palmer (pictured above) showed great consistency in winning their first six matches to lead the field. In Round 7, they played Lennon which was a tight match with only two significant swings, both going to Lennon. Jane Lennon-Alan Grant bid and made a thin 3NT missed at the other table while on another board, both Grover pairs got too high in what was a part-score hand, each conceding 200. Lennon won the match by 17 imps and with one round left, the top positions were:

Grover                      98.73

Lennon                     96.19

Wylie `                       95.28

Tislevoll                    92.22

Moss Wylie, Kate Davies, Ann Somerville and Nelson President Alan Toker, along with Blair Fisher

looking down on them all.

Lennon played Wylie and scored 12.16 while the two Open trials teams, Tislevoll and Genc, clashed. Tislevoll won by 1 imp, a result which did neither team much good. So, Grover had their chance to win, needing 9.63 vps or better in their match with Gray (Steve Gray, Lindsey Guy, Rebecca Osborne, Pam Dravitzki), the best performing Top of The South team. Both East-West pairs bid and made the two slams we referred to at the start of the article but an impossible 4 contract made to provide the only big swing of the match….and that was to Gray who won the match by 9 imps to leave Grover a couple of vps short.

 

Final Scores

1. Lennon        108.35 (Jane Lennon, Alan Grant, Christine Duckworth, Brian Callaghan)
2. Grover         106.02 (Bob Grover, Eileen Horsman, Neil Stuckey, Barry Palmer)
3. Wylie            103.12 (Moss Wylie, Blair Fisher, Ann Somerville, Kate Davies)
4. Tislevoll       102.55 (GeO Tislevoll, Michael Ware, Sam and Glenn Coutts)
5. Wilkinson     100.63 (Jenny Wilkinson, Shirley Newton, Anna Herries, Annette Henry)                                                                                              Anna Herries, Jenny Wilkinson, Annette Henry and Shirley Newton                                             

 

It's neat to have something to strive for in a tournament even if you have no chance of winning. As a region, Top of The South do this very well at most of their tournaments by awarding prizes to grade winners. For this event, the field was divided into two with the top three teams in the second group getting prizes.Pictured above (left) are the team who came third in this category and 19th overall, Susan Stephens, Lorraine Inglis, Elizabeth Grieve and Janet McMenamin) while on the right were second placed (14th overall) Ruth Allison, Sita Monaghan, Helen Fitzgerald with Sally Moore ( missing) and Club President Alan Toker who presented the prizes.

Winners in this category were third placed Pam Bannatyne, Lynn Hall, Judith Nicol and Ngaere Webb.

 

There were several significant boards contributing to the overall winners’ success. This is just one, against Tislevoll.

 

When Alan Grant and Jane Lennon were East-West, Jane bought a competitive auction in 4 and had no trouble making 11 tricks on A lead. However, despite adverse vulnerability, Christine Duckworth (North) became declarer in 5 x in the other room on J lead. All depended on the heart suit. West can give declarer a nasty guess by covering J. Where is 9? Christine guessed correctly and played the suit for just one loser to gain 16 imps for her side.

Brian and Christine will now head off to the Gold Coast for more bridge there. They have been to our own National Congress on more than one occasion. Alan and Jane have a very good record together. They have only ever played three times and that includes  victory in a 10A Teams and victory here in this 20 A event. Congratulations.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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