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Day 1.

WHEN IT’S NOT YOUR DAY……

Our Bridge Jacks started on Day 1 of the qualifying Round Robin with the same hope as the other 21 competing countries in the Juniors section of the World Youth Teams Championship…21 x 14 board matches, 4 matches per day. Alas, it was a baptism of fire for our team of Brad Johnston, Nik Mitchell, Zachary Yan and Vincent He. These were the results which have left them in last place at the end of Day 1.

Opponents	Imp Score	New Zealand Vp Score
Canada	22-70	0.72
Netherlands	8-39	2.81
Indonesia	17-35	5.15
England	2-37	2.23

 

It was pretty tough from the start as some of us observed with the Canada match shown live on BBO. The final bid on the following board against Canada proved somewhat unfortunate:

 

 

Zachary and Vincent reached 4, a perfectly logical and sensible contract on most days, but not this one. The Canadians in the other room did very well to reach 3NT which made for 2 overtricks. Passing out 4 would have given Canada 13 imps. Their North player, though, doubled 4 offering New Zealand a life-line. However, rather than retreat to 4NT which does have a  chance of making, Vincent (West) redoubled and conceded 1000 (down 2) for 17 imps to Canada.

In 4NT, two successful diamond finesses, A and four rounds of spades puts enormous pressure on North. If the K has been cashed along the way, North will have four cards left. North can keep 2 hearts and 2 winning clubs to take the last 4 but any slip by North would see 10 tricks for West… certainly a better contract than 4xx.

With New Zealand staring at a first round whitewash, Board 14 did at least get them on the board:

 

4 x would have given New Zealand +300 though Brad could not be sure and tried for game. After a spade lead and continuation when East was in with the  first trump loser, Brad needed both heart and club finesses to work. They did and New Zealand had +400 to go with +50 in the other room when repeated spade leads made 4 too tough to make.

  

Nik and Brad in the playing room.... looking up for some divine help, perhaps?

Match 2 v Netherlands

The second match, against Netherlands, was mainly about 3NT. Zachary and Vincent chose to play there with the player on lead having five cashing club tricks. The 4-4 spade game proved more successful. Then “Hamman’s Rule “(if 3NT is an option, then try it!) proved successful when 3NT triumphed and 5 did not.

 

Interestingly, North was declarer at both tables. The K lead was very helpful for the Dutch declarer, especially when the DQJ came cluttering down..10 tricks..but it was not enough to help Zachary in 5, down 1.

Those 2 boards accounted for 22 of the Netherlands' 39 imps.

Match 3

Against Indonesia, Nik did extremely well to make 4x as South on the following:

 

It seems, in 6, you need to discard one club on the A and ruff a spade in the North hand. You lose a club but make 12 tricks. However, the Indonesian South was in 7 on a trump lead. You have to win with A and play three top spades discarding clubs, then unblock K, ruff a spade with T and discard a club on the K. Then A and ruff a club and finally play a trump to the South hand, needing a 3-2 break.

All went well for the declarer with New Zealand all set to lose 13 imps…. And you could say it was lucky for New Zealand that the other table result of 6 down 1 occurred when the grand made, a total loss of 16 imps.

Match 4 v England.

13 imps went out when one pair took the wrong decision in bidding over a sacrificial 5 of a minor and went one down at the 5 level (They could have collected 500). At the other table, the problem never arose as 10 tricks were made in 4.

However, the board of the round, of the day, saw no swing in New Zealand’ s match:

 

"All I need is an even trump break, please" thinks Vincent (left). His and Zachary's prayers were not to be answered!

Once South can get in to show what should be the 2 unbid suits (say 1- Pass – 2), anything could happen….and did! Many E/Ws discovered their massive club fits and never stopped bidding, with 8 of the 22 tables playing the board in grand slam. Indeed 3 pairs made 7, twice doubled, on the normally correct but not this time lead of the 2.

At some tables, North saw no reason to bid 6 as the West players elected to play in hearts. 6 is only 2 down but unfortunately for Vincent, so was 6, his second

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