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New Zealand in Korea...Day 2
The “Four Slam” Day
New Zealand Open team dropped to third with a narrow 18-23 (8.42) loss to Malaysia in the first match of the day. The result swung on the defence to Board 13:
| Board 13 North Deals Both Vul |
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The opening lead of 
A and a second spade will beat 4
as the defence will subsequently score two diamond tricks. However, both Martin Reid and the Malaysian West led a club. The declarers ruffed out the 
A, drew three rounds of trumps finishing in dummy and discarded their two spades on high clubs. Both declarers played a diamond to the king but then the two defences took different routes. When Martin cashed his other high diamond, South scored an overtrick. The Malaysian West forced Ashley Bach to ruff a spade with Ashley’s last trump…and when West won the second diamond, the defence had more spades to cash…down one.
Aggression Pays
Our Ladies did not start well, losing to Chinese Taipei 27-51 (3.97) despite picking up 14 imps when Jenny Wilkinson found a trump lead to Board 13 above (three under-tricks as compared with Steph Jacob’s overtrick in the other room.). Newton- Wilkinson missed a slam that needed a trump finesse while Board 4 proved troublesome.
| Board 4 West Deals Both Vul |
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| West | North | East | South |
| Jenny Wilkinson | Shirley Newton | ||
| 1 ♠ | Pass | 3 ♣ | 3 ♠ |
| Pass | 3 NT | Pass | 4 ♠ |
| All pass |
1 showed both majors, 10-14 and 3 was natural (6-10 hcp). None of this stopped the aggressive South player who bid Jenny’s suit and then wisely pulled 3NT. Jenny led her club but the unfortunate club position meant the East hand was effectively useless. South emerged with 11 tricks while in the other room, 3 made, costing New Zealand 13 imps.
The Four Successive Slams
The second match of the day saw our Open team back to their winning ways, in style, 61-15 (19.08) over Thailand. Brown – Whibley had the delight of bidding and making slam on four successive boards (27-30) (3 6 and one 6
with the Thais only matching them in two of the boards). Board 27 was a case of fortune favouring the brave:
| Board 27 South Deals None Vul |
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Matthew Brown played 6 from the West seat and needed something special to happen to be successful. The early fall of both high diamonds allowed him to discard dummy's spade loser on the J.
| Board 29 North Deals Both Vul |
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| West | North | East | South |
| Matt Brown | Michael Whibley | ||
| Pass | 1 ♦ | Pass | |
| 1 ♥ | Pass | 1 ♠ | Pass |
| 2 ♦ | Pass | 2 NT | Pass |
| 4 ♦ | Pass | 4 ♥ | Pass |
| 4 NT | Pass | 5 ♥ | Pass |
| 6 ♦ | All pass |
Trumps were at a premium on this board but what they lacked in quantity, they made up for in quality! 2 was forcing and 4 set diamonds as trumps. 4NT was RKCB. No doubt, both players had hoped for an extra trump in the other's hand. With trumps behaving (which is more than they did in 6), this slam needed just a successful club finesse.
"Thanks for the dummy, Matthew.
Just make sure you only have 3 trumps"!
Tough Against the Top
Meanwhile, our Ladies had it tough against the runaway leaders, China, losing 2-47 (1.02). Strangely, though, the Open Team’s 4 slams were not the problem, with only 2 imps changing hands as both East-West pairs only bid two of them. However, our East-West, Jacob-Humphries, bid one which just could not make while two aggressive Chinese 3NT contracts made North-South for 23 imps to China. One would have been beaten with a different opening lead or had it been played from the other side.(A lead from AKQ to 5 would not have been hard to find.)
The third match of the day saw both New Zealand teams featured on BBO. Our Open Team wished it had not been as they slumped to a 15-62 (0.92) loss to Chinese Taipei. Two slam swings cost 28 imps, one of the slams being a little fortuitous but the other being an excellent 6NT.
Our Ladies fared better, with a good 42-25 (14.64) win over Japan.
| Board 5 North Deals N-S Vul |
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This was the “fortuitous” 6 slam bid against our Open team. Jenny Wilkinson led the J against 3NT with the spade pips being good enough for the defence to come to 5 tricks while, in the same contract, Glenis Palmer had an easier time coming to an overtrick.
"Nice lead, partner".
Our Ladies finished the day in 7th place on 56.06vps, with some catching up needed to overtake those above them. China have a 20 vp lead at the top on 108.64.
Our Open Team recovered with a small win 24-18 (11.87) over China Macau in the last match of the day. They finished the day in 4th place on 100.09 vps. Although the Chinese Taipei result was very disappointing, they are still only 7.46vps behind the leaders, India, and are very much in contention. Day 3 will not be easy for our Open Team as after lowly ranking Korea 2, we face Australia and then the two leading countries, India and Japan. Our Ladies have an opportunity to score well as they play India, Korea 1 and Singapore who are all currently below New Zealand in the rankings.
Watch this space.
Richard Solomon
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