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Another Babich New Zealand Wide Pairs took place on the evening of Friday November 2^nd…and seems to have been an enjoyable evening around the country. We had 55 clubs participate this year with 986 pairs playing, slightly down on last year’s record 1018 pairs who played at 59 clubs. Nevertheless, a good number from which the New Zealand Bridge Foundation will benefit financially, a very worthy cause.

The largest heat was the 19.5 tables at the Wellington Club while there were also sizeable sections at Christchurch (17), Nelson (16.5), Napier (16), Cambridge (14), Otago (13.5), Oamaru (13), and Mt Albert,South Wairarapa, Upper Hutt and Warkworth (all 12).

Here are the top 10 placings:

Pair	Club	Direction	%
1.   Brett Glass- Gary Foidl	Huntly	E-W	73.61
2.   Linda Bitchener- Charles Anderson	Upper Hutt	N-S	71.99
3.   Tim Horner- Anne Baird Horner	Otaki	N-S	71.38
4.   Alex Barshai- Jena Robinson	Thames	Howell	69.66
5.   Kinga Hajmasi – Andrew Michl	Royle Epsom	E-W	69.58
6.   Lyn Anderson – Anne Grant	Kaikoura	E-W	68.72
7.   Estelle Cashmore- Sabrina Peters	Thames	Howell	67.51
8.   Barry and Sue Belin	Waiheke	N/S	67.48
9.   Andrew Tarbutt – Tracey Lewis	North Shore	E/W	67.41
10.Neil Stuckey – Christine Wilson	North Shore	E/W	67.40

Thus, three of the top 10 sat North-South and 5 East-West. There were four slam opportunities North-South and only two East-West, though the experienced Brett Glass and Gary Foidl not only bid both the East-West slams but made them too. Board 6 was about finding the HQ though Board 16 required a first round spade finesse. If you were in 6S, would you be prepared to take it:

 

South allowed Gary to Key Card (4) though Brett was not too impressed with his shapeless 6 count and denied holding any key cards (4) even though he had the K. Gary bid on to 5 regardless while South kept on bidding. Finally, Brett thought he owed his partner a bid with his one Key Card (K) and bid the slam.

After the club lead, Gary was convinced South had no spades and backed his hunch to take two spade finesses and make his slam.

As was stated in the booklet, there can be a price to pay for pre-emption when you end up defending.

The winners.

The prizes are listed in the booklet received by all players after play though there are two extra prizes donated by Pianola after the booklet went to print. There is thus a third prize in the “below Open” and in the “below Intermediate (Top Junior)” sections, the former being wine, the latter a life-time subscription to Pianola.

Thanks to both Babich Wines and Pianola for their sponsorship of the event.

No pair can win more than one prize. Hence, as the second placed pair are Intermediate players, the top “below Open” prizes are handed down to the next three pairs in that category.

We hope all the prizes will be presented to the pairs at their clubs.

Prize	Pair	Club	%       Position
1st overall	Brett Glass- Gary Foidl	Huntly	73.61        1
2nd overall	Linda Bitchener- Charles Anderson	Upper Hutt	71.99        2
3rd overall	Tim Horner- Anne Baird-Horner	Otaki	71.38        3
4th overall	Alex Barshai – Jena Robinson	Thames	69.66        4
5th overall	Kinga Hajmasi – Andrew Michl	Royle Epsom	69.58        5
Top below Open	Lyn Anderson – Anne Grant	Kaikoura	68.72        6
2nd below Open	Estelle Cashmore- Sabrina Peters	Thames	67.51        7
3rd below Open	Sue and Barry Belin	Waiheke	67.48       8
Top Junior	Lesley Keuning- Toby Schweikert	Taihape	60.29      96
2nd Junior	Sue Glue- Michelle Gunn	Greymouth	59.97    110
3rd Junior	Alicia and Gary Froger	Gore	59.69    113
Nearest 50%	Pat Cantrell-Pary- Walt Crawshaw and Dennis Pezaro – John Hogg	New Plymouth     Wanaka	49.97    477       49.97   477

 The battle for closest to 50% was extremely tight, decided by 0.01% and even then tied.

Prizes, as well as master-points, are decided on the across-the-field scores. However, the highest score at a club was achieved by the pair who finished overall in second place, Linda Bitchener and Charles Anderson who scored 73.86%. As with many pairs, their score reduced a little when scored over the whole field though they still retained second place.

I hope you all enjoyed the evening, no matter what score you achieved, and also enjoyed reading the booklet afterwards. The event will raise around $8,500 for the New Zealand Bridge Foundation.

“A” Point winners can be seen on the Compass website. Check out not just to the winners and full results but to Pianola information and an on-line hand-by-hand review of the 28 hands available to be played. (Only 1-24 were scored across the field.)

We hope to have pictures of the winners in a few days’ time.

Thanks to all those at the clubs who helped in the organisation of the event and to the team at X Club who got the results out so quickly.

Mark down the date of the 2019 event, Friday evening 1^st November 2019.

Richard Solomon

 

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