All News
NZ at the World Youth Championships
Day 3
Another tough day at the office.
The third day of the event proved as hard for the young Kiwis as the previous two, with only the last match of the day against the country below the Kiwis providing some relief:
|
Opposition |
imps |
NZ Score |
|
Singapore |
23-36 |
6.28 |
|
Columbia |
11-39 |
3.28 |
|
Israel |
8-44 |
2.09 |
|
Botswana |
52-24 |
16.72 |
That win moved New Zealand up to 20th.
The loss to Singapore was about to be greater until the last board when Brad Johnston- Nik Mitchell chose the right slam to bid:
| Board 14 East Deals None Vul |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brad, North, became declarer in 6
which seems the better slam even though North-South have 10 clubs but only 8 diamonds. He was further helped by an opening spade lead, discarding the heart loser. A trump finesse gave him an overtrick.
Meanwhile, only 2 of Vincent’s 13 cards would see the opposition’s 6
(by South) defeated and he chose one of them, his trump. There was no entry to dummy and very soon, New Zealand had beaten the slam by 2 tricks to gain 14 imps.
The match against Botswana contained several slam hands. Nik had the opportunity for glory on the following when the opposition avoided the best slam, 6, and the second best, 6
, to play 6NT by East:
| Board 10 East Deals Both Vul |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There would be no second chance. It was a small club now or never…. and he did, NOW. A great lead, which along with 6 at the other table, was worth 17 priceless imps to make the Bridge Jacks feel a little happier at the end of the day.
.jpg "Nik Mitchell (2).jpg")
Great Lead, Nik.
Finally, back to the opening day as Brad Johnston was written up in the Daily Bulletin for his fine switch on the following board against the Netherlands. Against 4
, Brad led the K which the Dutch declarer ducked. It would have been safe for Brad to have continued spades…or apparently so. In fact, it was far from safe:
| East Deals Both Vul |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| West | North | East | South |
| 1 ♣ | Pass | ||
| 1 ♥ | 1 ♠ | 2 ♥ | 2 ♠ |
| 4 ♥ | All pass |
Had Brad continued the S, West would win, ruff a spade and draw trumps in three rounds. Next would come three rounds of clubs leaving South on lead…with only diamonds left and two diamond tricks for the defence would have become one.
However, Brad found the diamond switch at trick 2, thus avoiding the end-play. This tied the board which was easier to beat when East was declarer and a low spade was led from the South hand.
Egypt, China and table toppers USA 1 await the Kiwis on Day 4.
Richard Solomon
Go Back View All News Items
