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The 2018 North Island Pairs

“The Come-Back Kids”.

Every good event has a good story to go with it. This year’s North Island Pairs had two, both involving the winners.

So, there you are in Hastings contemplating how you will reach Auckland to take part in the North Island Pairs. You imagine you will fly up on the morning of the event, as there is an early morning flight, but you had not got around to booking a flight yet. Then, fellow Hawke’s Pay players, Matthew and Mairi Bristow, who were also making the long trip north, suggested George might like to come with them.

A great offer except a week in advance, the Bristow’s car broke down and could not be used. So, you might think George Masters would not have been grateful to his fellow players as he, George, ended up driving them? On the contrary, as without their offer, George would have been on a flight to Auckland cancelled by early morning fog in Auckland. Without that offer, George might not even have been playing!

Yet, playing he was, but the first session with Blair Fisher did not go much to plan. The score was 41.56% which left them 42^nd equal in the 48 pair field. The Pairs game can be quite a leveller. Below them after round 1 was a former winner of the New Zealand Pairs while another former, quite recent winner, was just 1% ahead of them.

There were still two more qualifying rounds and George and Blair did improve, to 48.91%. That’s an average of just about 45%, not the kind of form George hoped for when getting his lucky break to even be taking part. Something big had to happen very soon. Blair was chancing his arm:

 

Blair was South and reached 3NT with West leading the K. As long as he could find the Q, Blair could immediately count to 10 tricks…but he needed something special to make the top 16 cut. So, he ducked…and hoped. West had not led hearts and therefore might not switch. He did not. Board 13 proved to be rather lucky for Blair. These were the 4 hands:

 

On the lie of the cards, he was now certain to make 9 tricks but on the spade continuation, he made the remaining 12. East did not enjoy finding five discards and was totally squeezed out of his club hold.

That was just one of the many tops they scored in a third-round score of 68.39%. They qualified in 15^th place by just 1.5% over the three rounds.

         
Beaten by 9 mps: that's Jeter Liu and        A fine effort from first-time partners, Denis       4th placed, William Liu and Steve
 George Sun, with NZ Bridge President,     Humphries and John Wang. They finished 3rd     Boughey.
Allan Morris

Day 2

The final consisted of 15 x 3 board rounds and was played barometer style, as indeed were the Plate and Consolation fields. George and Blair were to make full use of their “Houdini style” escape. In the morning 24 boards, their 59.52% was the second highest score, beaten only by the 61.01% of first time partners, Denis Humphries and John Wang. In the final 21 boards, Blair and George scored 60.20% for a fine final percentage of just under 60% for the day:

1.	Blair Fisher- George Masters	379.9
2.	Jeter Liu – George Sun	370.8
3.	Denis Humphries – John Wang	365.1
4.	Steve Boughey – William Liu	364.2
5.	Anne Somerville- Geoff Eyles	363.3
6.	Barry Jones – Jenny Millington	333.6
7.	Jerry Chen – Andrew Liu	324.7
8.	Bradley Johnston – Vicki Bouton	322.5

 

Winners of the Plate were Spring Lin and Kevin Fan who scored 70.83% over the first 24 boards while Nong Li and James Yang won the Consolation.

                                                      

 
The "ace trumper", Jenny Millington         It was a long but very rewarding journey   Best round of the weekend went to the
 and Barry Jones finished 6th                  north for Ann Somerville and Geoff Eyles  winners of the Plate, Kevin Fan and Spring
                                                                 who finished 5th.                                       Lin.

One of the hands of the weekend occurred in the first round of qualifying. What would you bid with the following:

 –  J9   64   AKJT87542

after the following sequence with only your side vulnerable:

West              North            East                South

1                   Pass                2                   ?

At other vulnerabilities, 5 seems an obvious choice but at unfavourable? Is your partner going to have a magic two tricks for you to make your game? Perhaps one down doubled would be a good score vulnerable. However, on this day your nine club tricks melted down to eight while the only good thing which could happen over a 5 call was that the opposition bid on:

 

The only making game was 3NT, East-West, which was only the contract at one of the 24 tables. Andi- Boughey, South, must have thought she was onto a winner when Paul Carson- Wenmoth declared the 9-trick game from the East seat but her joy was short-lived when her partner showed out to the first trick. Paul ended with an overtrick but it was only an average board for both pairs.

Most tables declared at the 5 or 6 level with 8 declarers regretting their 5 call as they played there doubled two or three down. Most other tables saw East or West fail, often doubled, in their diamond or spade contracts.

Jenny Millington made short work of beating 6. She ruffed her partner, Barry Jones’ opening top club lead (intentionally!)and returned a spade. There was still a heart to come for down two.

Format

The discussion about whether pairs prefer being sectioned off after one day or prefer to play right through in one field is a never-ending one. There are plusses and minuses for both approaches. Interestingly, the top percentage on Sunday in the Plate of the four pairs who were 17^th-20^th after the three qualifying rounds was 46%. It is hard to pick up momentum after narrowly missing the cut.

The number of pairs did not make it easy to run a complete barometer as in the South Island Pairs which was a pity. Nevertheless, it was a well-run, very competitive event with one pair showing that you must never ever ever give up. Houdini would have been very proud of the winners.

Richard Solomon

ps Do not think that NZ Bridge President, Allan Morris, grew two feet overnight. In the top photo with Blair and George, he is the same height as Blair. Allan explained that just for once, he "wanted to look Blair in the eye!"

 

 

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