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The storms of the past week had passed. The roads around Thames were no longer closed. The sun shone very brightly on the many players who were playing in the 13^th Summer Bridge Festival in this lovely town. 84 boards for those keen enough on Saturday…a further 60 on Sunday…plenty of bridge. The originators of the event, John Eldridge and Allan Barclay, whose names are remembered in the two main events of the weekend, would be very pleased with what the Waikato Bays Region continues to provide.

The John Eldridge Teams saw 24 teams take part. The winning and losing of this event was down to one board in the final.

 

Sam’s 2 was Precision style, 11-15 with clubs. Jonathan had a nice hand and said so initially by doubling. The bidding then proceeded at a slow pace with Jo, who had made initially a non-forcing 2 call, taking the push to the 5 level, with little defence to 5 and the knowledge of some kind of double fit in the black suits.

A diamond lead saw Jonathan exit passively with the J…and the critical point at been reached. Jo could reason that West held most of the defence’s high point strength and played just the right card at trick 3, the Q. Not only did this bring home trumps for no losers but the heart loser disappeared on the long clubs, with an overtrick and 1050 being an excellent score for their side. However, their teammates were not to be upstaged:

West                    North                             East                      South

Barry Jones         Denis Humphries Jenny Millington    David Dolbel

                                                                                                1

3NT                      All Pass

Every system has its day but this was not the finest hour for the Dolbel- Humphries artificial approach. 1 showed an opening hand with 3+ hearts (oh for a natural club bid!) and Barry made a very practical bid. Denis would have done very well to have found the club lead which followed by a magic Q switch could have reduced Barry to just one trick. In the event, a low spade lead saw Barry count up to 9 and he saw no reason to take the heart finesse! +1660 total on the board was worth 17 imps, more than the final winning margin in an otherwise low scoring 12 board final.

1. Barry Jones	Jenny Millington	Jo Simpson	Sam Simpson
2. Richard Solomon	Jonathan Westoby	David Dolbel	Denis Humphries
3.= Karen Harris	Jenny Carr	Sandra Calvert	Colin Carryer
3.= Yuzhong Chen	William Liu	June Lei	John Wang

 

Barry, Jenny and the John Eldridge trophy

Barclay Swiss Pairs

This 44 pair event was extremely close with only 8vps covering the  top 8 pairs at the finish.

Here are two boards which would be familiar for most of those who took part. Let’s first of all look through the eyes of Grant Jarvis at the goings on on this board. Grant, West held:

 842

 –

 T94

 AKJT932

and was on lead to 5 after the following sequence:

                   West           North         East            South

                   3               Pass            Pass            4

                   Pass            Pass            5               Pass

                   Pass            5               All Pass

Needing a heart ruff…or so he thought, he under-led his club honours at trick 1and held his breath as he awaited dummy. No sign of the Q there… just 76. Then came the joy and relief as his partner, Gary Chen, produced the Q…and then the disappointment when the declarer ruffed, drew trumps and played 4 rounds of diamonds discarding a heart from hand on the fourth round of the suit. "How were you feeling then, Grant?"

The disappointment was soon to end, though, as Gary was about to score three heart tricks!

 

5 was one down. One East-West scored even better after West opened 3 and East raised directly to 5, passed out. A standardish J lead would see 11 rather easy tricks for a contract that need only make 8. The contract that I am sure no South considered but which looks rather nice if you had to be at the 5 level is 5 by South after a club lead. Ruff, draw trumps and you have 11 tricks!

Meanwhile, who would win the battle of the red suits from the final round when Grant and Gary took on Liz and Blair Fisher? Normally, the majors win the day except on this one:

 

1 was Precision style while 2 showed both minors. Blair’s x showed 5-7 hcp after which Liz and Grant slugged it out. Neither Blair nor Liz were confident enough to double the final contract as Grant escaped for just -50, an excellent save against the cold 5 heart game. Only at 7 out of the 22 tables was the par spot of 6 reached. Most of the rest played in 5 with the most extraordinary result being at one table where East managed 11 tricks, not though in 5 but in 3NT! Grant and Gary earned 6 imps for their dive, won the match narrowly scoring 11.5 and that was just enough to secure first place:

1. Grant Jarvis -	Gary Chen	80.88
2. Yuzhong Chen-	William Liu	80.70
3. Carol Wilkinson -	George Wilkinson	78.39
4. Liz Fisher-	Blair Fisher	78.20
5. Helen Healy -	Tim Healy	76.37

 

  Gary, Grant and the Barclay trophy.... a couple of nice envelopes, too!

The two session Walk-In was won very convincingly by Carol and George Wilkinson:

1. Carol Wilkinson -	George Wilkinson	124.69
2. Russell Watt -	Leslie Watt	105.96
3. Pat Johansen -	Joe Silcock	105.36
4. Susan Rowe -	Cheryl Winsor	105.03
5. Pauline Andrews -	Janet Barnard	103.39

 

A great week-end, excellent catering, including the traditional mussels and well organised by the regular team led by Jan Siegers with Jan Spaans scoring and Tony Morcom directing…and that sun? It made it hard to see all of dummy’s cards as it shone so brightly. Oh, the problems we bridge players have!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

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