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LIKE NEW ZEALAND: LIKE JAPAN

Choose whichever team you wish, the Japanese football team or the New Zealand Bridge team..and they are both suffering from last kick/last board disappointment. Japan were seconds away from extra- time and a chance of possible glory. The New Zealand Bridge team were just about in the top 15 with one board to go but 7 imps out on that last board saw them drop to 19^th. Day 2 scores for New Zealand were:

Round	Opponents	Imp difference	New Zealand vps
6.	Jinshuo Club	8-28	4.03
7.	Yeh Bros	34-0	18.44
8.	Germany	19-5	14.54
9.	Beijing Evertrust	15-35	4.03
10.	Chinese Taipei	20-13	12.51

 

New Zealand started the day in 22^nd place, 8 vps behind 15^th, the last qualifying position. The first match of the day did not help but then two good wins put them back in contention, just 0.8 of a vp behind the 15^th placed team, their opponents in Round 9. There were 26 imps at stake depending on the opening lead to an aggressive 6 bid by Whibley- Brown.

 

Fortune did not favour the brave when Matthew Brown declared 6 as South. On any lead but a heart, Matthew has the entries to dummy to set up the 5^th diamond for a heart discard. Even on a heart lead, he would have prevailed had the 10 been singleton or the diamond break 3-3. Unfortunately for Matthew, there was no good news and 13 imps went to his opponents who played game.

The final match against Chinese Taipei started really well for New Zealand with both North-South pairs being doubled in their game contracts but only one being successful:

 

The Taiwanese pair found their best fit, diamonds, but there was one loser in each of the three side-suits, down 1. Michael Whibley, North, was declarer in 4x. The contract can be beaten by a diamond lead with West scoring a diamond ruff and K to go with a heart and club trick or if the defence lead two rounds of hearts and then a third heart when West is in with the K….again two trumps for West. However, neither of these defences were found with +590 earning New Zealand 12 imps.

In a low scoring match, there were no major swings for the next 8 boards. With one board to play, New Zealand, who had just made 1NT at both tables, led 20 – 6. Along came Board 10:

 

Assuming East opens 3, it looks like South has a choice of actions, a natural 3 or show a 2 suited- hand by bidding 4. While the Chinese Taipei player bid 3 and went quietly 2 down (+200), it seems Matt Brown chose the more aggressive route which led Michael Whibley to play his own suit, which was also 2 down…but West inserted a fateful double…and those 7 imps out took New Zealand out of the top 15 .5 would have chances of making had East led their own suit...but it seems they did not. To qualify, New Zealand had to gain imps on that last board. Tieing the board by doubling 3 would not have been enough.

New Zealand will play in the consolation Swiss Teams event, an 8 round by 10 board round event, contested by non-qualifiers and those eliminated from the knock-out stages of the main event. Football offers no such consolation to the Japanese.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

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