Friday’s Bridge

Gold Coast Teams – Open, Round of 6

The top two teams were rewarded with the morning off while teams 3-6 slugged out an extra 24 board match. Michael Ware and GeO Tislevoll’s team was in action here, taking on Kanetkar. Michael would have been concerned that the imps were heading into the “out” column after Board 4 had been played:

 

 

Were the vulnerability different, Pauline Gumby could have much less for her 4 raise but being vulnerable, she should have enough to be close to making. Did Michael not have enough for his double or should have he expected a little more from his partner’s double? You be the judge. Warren Lazer played the board very carefully for one overtrick and +990.

At the other table, all the bids were the same except for the bid made by East, Fiona Brown. She bid 6, leaving her partner, David Beauchamp, to play 6x. There were no worries for the declarer with the spade finesse working, clubs 3-3 and hearts 2-2. He made an overtrick for 13 imps in for Michael and GeO’s team.

Brown won the first set by 7 imps and the second by 27 to advance to the semi-final.

There, the remaining Kiwis left in the event faced off against each other as Hung including Michael Whibley played Brown in a 48 board match. It was a close affair and at the three quarter mark, Hung led by just 3 imps but that proved enough as they took the last set by 9 imps to win 65-53. The final takes place on Saturday.

The Restricted event had been dominated by the Auckland based team of Kinga Hajmasi, Andrew Michl, Barry and Jody Whale. All play at the Royle Epsom Bridge Club. The one team which had bothered them in the qualifying Swiss, Chew, were their opponents in the 48 board final. The margins in the first three sets were 3, 22 and 17 all went one way, to Chew and the 41-37 imp fourth quarter win for Hajmasi was not enough as they lost 76.1-114 but were worthy runners-up.

The rest of the players either had the day off or played in one of two Swiss Pairs events.

Ivy Dahler Butler Swiss Pairs.

At the end of Friday, competitors had played in 7 of the 10 rounds. They are three fields, all containing between 90 and 104 pairs. Top 20 Kiwis at the end of the day were:

Open

3. Michael Courtney with Sue Ingham                           96.73
4. Wayne Burrows – Peter Hall                                      84.61
5. Moss Wylie – Brian Cleaver                                      84.28

Intermediate

2. Derek Snelling – Isobel Ross                                   97.45
3. Mary Driesbock – Vivienne Sexton                          90.29
4. Tony Jiang – Julia Zhu                                             85.53
5. Jenny Carr – Kees De Vocht                                   81.95

Restricted

2. Gail Tippett – Paul Maxwell                                     96.05
3. Peter and Julia Watson                                           84.12
4. Brad Tattersfield – Jan Borren                                83.53
5. Jenni Borren – Margaret Robbie                             81.21
6. Christine and Turei Haronga                                   80.34

Seres McMahon Matchpoint Swiss Pairs

This was a 6 round event, making the following the

Final positions of the Kiwis:

4. Evelyn and Bob Hurley                                          81.42
5. Rosemary Matskows – Wayne Gyde                     79.55
6. Glenis Palmer – Christine Wilson                          78.51
7. Fuxia Wen – Ian Berrington                                  74.72
8. Andi and Steve Boughey                                      72.70
9. Neil Stuckey – Barry Palmer                                 70.65
10. Pat Carter – Barry Jones                                      68.48

“Never Trust a Strong Opponent”

So said Ian Berrington after Bob Hurley had given him a hard road in the following board from yesterday’s play:

 

Ian thought about passing out 1x which could have proved very expensive for the declarer but eventually decided on bidding hearts. He was soon declarer in 4 on the canny lead of the 3 from Bob. With Bob opening the bidding, Ian must have been suspicious but inserted the jack at trick one losing to Evelyn’s queen. Bob was unlucky his partner did not have a doubleton spade.

Evelyn exited a diamond, won in dummy with Ian playing two rounds of trumps finishing in hand. He led a club towards dummy and in a hopeless position, Bob inserted the king! He thought he could hide the jack but knew that declarer would take the club finesse anyway. Ian won, cashed the Q and ruffed a club..and there was nothing else Bob could do.

Ian could draw the remaining trump and discard his potential spade loser on the A to score an overtrick, the hard way on what could otherwise have been an easy hand to play. Luckily for Ian, Bob had no more tricks up his sleeve.

I will bring you the final Gold Coast results tomorrow. As usual, click here for the full results from Friday.

Richard Solomon

 

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