All News

Teams and Slams Galore and even more!

What’s the “more”? It’s what you always get when Michael Ware wins a tournament, a good joke, of course. Yet, we are going to concentrate here on the large number of teams, 42, and the large number of slams they could bid. Fast track back to Nelson a few weeks ago when the South Island Teams produced just three in 112 boards. There are two provisos about bidding slams. One is you are best not to bid them if you do not make them, though there is a second big “no-no” about bidding them. Any ideas? Back there in a few minutes.

42 would be the largest number of teams for an event in this country outside the National or Hawke’s Bay Congresses for many a year. Also, some comfort for those who did not fare so well was that those in the know regarded it as a pretty strong field too. All the trialists for our international teams were there and many other quality teams besides.

Action from the North Island Teams with Peer Bach in the unusual role of defender...rather than declarer!

With Allan Joseph leading the directing, dealing and scoring team of Tony Morcom, Sam Ward and Mary Chamberlain, the event ran very smoothly with more than one smile. They were ably assisted by Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin who had two of the most important features of a caddy, a friendly demeanour and two very long arms, really handy when passing the boards across a crowded room. The Auckland Club turned on an excellent culinary display especially on the Sunday when the huge afternoon tea spread followed a mere hour after lunch. Anyone who was hungry on their way home had only themselves to blame!

They made it happen: caddy Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin, the directors, Allan Joseph and Mary Chamberlain and scorer, Sam Ward.

Nevertheless, for most, it was the bridge they came for. There’s nothing like a bit of distribution to get the adrenaline going. Look at this pair of hands and decide how high you would like to go:

 

 

 Of the 42 East-West pairs, one went the whole way to 7 11 were a little more cautious and tried for 6 22 declared hearts at the four or five level while the remainder took, with one exception, an inadequate penalty off the opponents in 5x. The exception was the pair who collected a fair return off the club grand slam.

Hearts 2-2 and spades 3-3 or doubleton QJ would see 13 tricks roll in easily. Yet, in real life, it was a tiny bit more challenging.

 

 

The penalty in 5 was in fact not that inadequate as over half the field, 22 pairs, recorded a minus score for failing in their heart contract. Other than the pair in 7, everyone else had a chance for glory as 12 tricks can be made on any lead.

If  West leads a diamond, declarer can ruff three diamonds in dummy and three clubs in hand. It looks like curtains when trumps break 3-1 but if all are drawn meaning declarer has none left (3 club ruffs and three rounds of trumps), declarer simply plays top spades giving South the queen…and South has nothing but spades left.

It is harder on a club lead as the above line fails as trumps can no longer all be drawn because of the extra ruff at trick 1. So, spades come into play. The winning play is to ruff a club, play a spade to the ace and then play 10. South plays low but declarer discards a diamond as North ruffs. West cannot stop declarer ruffing three diamonds while two more are discarded on the K and 9. Declarer must play a similar way on J lead while on a trump lead, this line will work as North cannot ruff the second spade. After the trump lead, the loser is the sixth diamond after 2 are ruffed and three discarded. This approach can also be used after an initial club lead where declarer returns to dummy with a trump at trick 4 after ruffing a spade  with a 8.  June Lei and Anthony Hopkins were the successful declarers who bid and made 6 on a high club lead while John Skipper was successful on a high diamond lead.

The other drawback to bidding slams occurred on this board from the same match as the above slam, a match where East-West had three makeable slams.

 

 

Whether West opens 1 or a strong 1NT, North-South should find their heart fit quickly. When East shows two long minor suits, and the opposition bid hearts fairly aggressively, West’s honour cards start to look golden, too golden really if you are playing against the likes of Peter Newell- Martin Reid, Lorraine Stachurski - Mindy Wu or Shirley Newton – Jenny Wilkinson. These three pairs sacrificed in 6 over a making 6 or 6 slam, the sacrifice only costing -500 (3 down), a worse score for East-West than playing in the safety of their vulnerable game. Only 5 pairs were allowed to score 1370 while many East-West pairs sold out to a (usually doubled) 4 or 5 contract. Well done to the slam bidders … and to those who believed them and sacrificed over 6 of a minor.

The top placings were a contest between an Open trials team in the form of:

Ware Michael Ware- GeO Tislevoll and Matthew Brown – Michael Whibley

A half Open trials team:

Cornell Michael Cornell – Ashley Bach and Nick Jacob- Liam Milne

and a couple of more than useful non trials teams:

Jones  Patrick Carter- Julie Atkinson and Barry Jones – Jenny Millington

Simpson  Jo and Sam Simpson and Jan Cormack- Grant Jarvis.

Carter and Ware won all their 5 matches on the Saturday, a day which started very well for Northland’s representatives, Patsy and Lee Walters and Neill Ruddell- Tania Brown who led the field after two matches and finished in a very creditable 13^th position. Sunday morning saw the top 2 clash where Ware scored 13.72 against Jones and extended their lead over Jones to about 10vps when they took 15.06 off Cornell while Jones had a near draw with Newell (Peter Newell - Martin Reid, Charles and Anthony Ker). Ware maintained their unbeaten run when they scored 16.72 in their last match, a score almost equalled by Jones to leave the final positions as:

1. Ware                                  121.03
2. Jones                                111.13
3. Simpson                            104.53
4. Cornell                              100.04

 

The winning team, Matthew Brown, Michael Whibley, GeO Tislevoll and Michael Ware

Thus, we were treated to an excellent Michael Ware story. However, when asked for a hand from the event, he gave one played by Ashley Bach.

The hand came from the last match of the event. Before we come to Ashley, Michael himself was faced with playing the board in 3 after the auction given below:

 

2 was Intermediate strength with GeO Tislevoll (North) having a particularly unpleasant choice of bids after Michael’s forcing 2. West, Jonathan Westoby, led J. Michael won in dummy not to block the suit and cashed the A. East, Ian Berrington, showed out revealing a 5-0 break offside. At this point, Michael jokingly offered his opponents 1 down. They regretted their decision to refuse!

Michael continued with a trump to his king, cashed his two high hearts and played a club towards dummy. Here then are the four hands:

 

 Jonathan won the A in case Michael had a singleton club,( 6331 shape)and exited a fourth round of hearts which Michael ruffed in hand. Michael cashed K and ruffed a club. These cards remained:

 

Michael had 8 tricks, two high trumps, three hearts, K and a club and a heart ruff in hand. He exited a diamond but on the second diamond, West was forced to ruff. He cashed the Q leaving Michael to win the J at trick 13 for his contract. Pretty good….but wait.

At the other table, Michael Whibley and Matthew Brown doubled 4 and beat this contract by two tricks.

Ashley Bach was also in 4 after the same auction Michael and GeO had except Ashley accepted Michael Cornell’s 3 invitation. Wisely, his opponents, Moss Wylie and Andrew Janisz did not double. Ashley received the same lead as Michael, the J and wondered why he had not received a diamond lead. He drew the correct conclusion. He won the lead in hand, blocking the heart suit and played a club towards dummy. West won the ace to exit a second heart to dummy’s ace. He cashed K and ruffed a club.

At this point, he reasoned East held 7 diamonds with 3 clubs and the 2 hearts he knew about. The 13^th card was either a small heart or a trump.  Thus, when he led a trump from hand and West played low, Ashley called for dummy’s 8, which held the trick. He cashed a high club from dummy, discarding a diamond while West ruffed with one of their winners.

West could only exit with a heart to Ashley’s remaining honour in hand. Ashley played another trump to the ace and repeated the club play, discarding a diamond from hand. West ruffed again for their third trick but the Q fell under the K and Ashley had 5 trump t

Go Back View All News Items