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Lyon – Day 4

Among the interestingly shaped hands today was a powerful 7-5 in the reds and a blockbuster 4-9 in the majors. If you like that kind of excitement, then the South seat is where you should be!

	Open			Women			Seniors’
		NZ Score			NZ Score			NZ Score
Argentina	25-51	3.91	Morocco	31-38	7.97	Poland	9-53	1.45
Ch. Taipei	31-33	9.39	India	29-11	14.60	Canada	8-44	2.41
Bangladesh	52-11	18.21	Australia	3-53	0.84	Australia	32-38	8.24

 

That win against Bangladesh would not only have been a great confidence booster but it kept our Open Team in the hunt for the top 8. Bangladesh may not have been the strongest team playing but so often New Zealand has failed to put away the weaker teams. New Zealand started in 13^th place and dropped a place before ending in 11^th place, 10.33 vps behind 8^th placed Brazil.

Our Women stayed 17^th and our Seniors’ team 20^th all day, both now playing for respectability.

Round 10

Given that you have one certain loser, would you rather play a 5-3 or a 7-2 fit at the 6 level? The 5-3 fit would produce an almost certain second loser with a 4-1 break? Ware- Tislevoll elected for the 7-2 fit as trumps but Michael Ware had a difficult decision to make re the play of the trump suit.

 

He received the 10 lead. Looking at all four hands, you can see he can win the lead in dummy, play a heart to the jack, A, test diamonds and claim. Yet, he could also cater for a 4-1 diamond break by winning in hand, laying down A and play a second heart, now discarding two diamonds on the black aces. The problem with this line was when a defender held KQx. That resulted in 16 imps to Argentina when the opposition bid and made 6. Both our Seniors and Women’s teams had the opportunity for a large pick-up on this board though at all four tables in their matches, the contract was at a safe game level.

With that score above, it was hard for our Open Team to get a decent score from the match even though on one board, Ware- Tislevoll earnt 9 imps for beating 2NT by 5 tricks vulnerable. On to  Board 26.

Board 26

You have a strong no-trump which includes all four aces. The opposition, who are vulnerable, bid to 4. Is it right to double? The Argentinian Open South player, Shirley Newton and Bob Grover thought so. They should/could have lived to tell the tale had their partners led from their own heart (or trump) holding:

 

Eileen Horsman and Carlos Pellegrini (Argentina Open) did indeed lead Q. Whether West won the king or ducked, it looks like the defence should come to four tricks even without the A. Vivien Cornell led a low club, not a good lead on the hand as the Q provided a resting place for the second heart loser. Perhaps that was South’s first bid suit.

4x made at both tables where New Zealand was North- South but was beaten by a trick in the Open match. Our Women lost 13 imps when the Moroccan South made 1NT at the other table, a loss of 12 for our Seniors, when 1NT was defeated. Our Open team lost 9 imps when 1NTx by South was defeated by one trick at the other table.

So, was it right to double? It’s kind of stating the obvious….only if you beat 4!

A well bid grand slam on Board 22 by both Cornell- Bach and Humphries- Jacob:

 What would you bid as East after your open 1 and partner responds 1? A trump fit and great shape but only 11 high in hcp…surely you add 5 for the void this time? Any aggressive action should see West extremely keen. Many play specific king responses to their king ask. (West should pretend they hold the Q as they do not care whether East holds it or not.) The presence of the K, A and K in the East hand is all West cares about (yes, the club shortage is handy too!). A claim for 13 tricks once the Q appears.

Our Seniors can be very grateful their Polish opponents stayed in small slam or else they would not have registered even a decimal of a vp.

Round 11

This featured one of the hands of the week:

 

In our Women’s match against India, we won 13 imps just by being in 6 as the Indians stopped at the 5 level. Both pairs in our Seniors' match against Canada were doubled in 6 with New Zealand earning 3 imps by making an overtrick. In our Open match against Chinese Taipei, Michael Ware, South, like most in the Open field, was doubled in 6 making all 13.

The stakes were much higher at the other table where Whibley- Brown bid their club suit all the way to the 7 level, a wonderful spot with only two losers if you are allowed to play there. However, they were soon defending 7x…and the next 5 or 10 minutes or however long the play took would have been worrying for the defence even though they had the majority of the high card points. Matt Brown led a high club and it would soon become apparent to him that his last 4 cards would need to include a high club and Q. Michael Whibley (East) had to throw his AK in order to guard spades…and he did as the result was one down with New Zealand gaining 16 imps when they stood to lose as many.

In the Open field, the only two pairs to try the grand both failed. Indeed, only one US Seniors’ pair out of the whole three fields bid and made (or were pushed and made!) 7….not bad when the opponents held two AKs and more.

Round 12

Board 23 gave the West players a nasty choice of opening lead if their opponents reached slam:

 

Against Australia in the Women’s match, our West chose a low heart against 6, thus taking away any guess on the diamond suit. With normal breaks, the slam made to give Australia 13 imps towards their big win. The lead of either black suit would have left the declarer with a nasty guess to make. In our Open and Seniors’ matches, both pairs played in game.

Our Open Team needed to score well against Bangladesh. Their opponents lived dangerously on Board 20….but did not survive to record a plus score.

 

The Bangladeshi pair must have investigated slam as, alone in the Open field, they played 5 by South. Matt Brown (West) led a diamond and eventually there were to be two trump losers and the A. That brought our Open Team 13 valuable imps in their big win.

Our Seniors had a reasonable result against the high-flying Aussies who are a comfortable 3^rd at present but our Women fared poorly against our cross Tasman foes, whose big win lifted them up to 8^th place. A quick scrutiny of the Australian players did not produce any Kiwis masquerading in Australian colours…our best chance of getting the result of the match voided!

Our Open Team look happy..and why not? They are still in the hunt for the top 8.

(Ashley Bach, Michael Whibley. Matthew Brown, Michael Ware, Michael Cornell, GeO Tislevoll)

So to Day 5 where our Open Team will face current leaders Sweden and then the countries either side of us in 10^th and 12^th place, Egypt and Australia. Our Women play Brazil, Indonesia and USA 2 while our Seniors play Sweden and then the countries at the bottom and the top, Guadeloupe and USA2.

Richard Solomon

p.s. Tomorrow’s report may be a little later in product

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