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WELLINGTON IN THE DRIVING SEAT.

Day 2 of the 2018 Inter-Provincial Championships has seen Wellington teams make the running in  the Dougal McLean Trophy competition, led by their Open and Intermediate teams who both hold sizeable leads in their competitions. Auckland – Northland are still dominant in the Seniors event while some dramatic results in the final round of play has seen Top of The South finish in the lead in the Seniors’ competition.  With just three matches to play, these are the current standings for the Dougal McLean Trophy:

1. Wellington                 38
2. Auckland-Northland  31
3. Waikato Bays            28
4. = Canterbury             22
   = Central Districts     22

6. Top of The South      19
7. Otago/Southland      12

Open                                                                                     Women

1.       Wellington	124.83		1.Auckland-Northland	127.23
2.       Waikato Bays	89.56		2.Waikato Bays	111.85
3. Auckland-Northland	88.25		3.Central Districts	98.07
4. Otago/Southland	87.01		4.Canterbury	95.72
5.Canterbury	84.70		5.Wellington	83.27
6. Central Districts	78.14		6.Top of The South	74.70
7. Top of The South	47.51		7.Otago/Southland	69.16

 

Intermediate                                                                     Seniors

1.Wellington	117.15		1.Top of The South	113.57
2.Central Districts	100.79		2.Auckland-Northland	111.11
3.Canterbury	99.81		3.Wellington	118.09
4.Otago/Southland	90.38		4.Waikato Bays	98.18
5.Top of The South	90.02		5.Canterbury	86.39
6.Central Districts	84.45		6.Central Districts	77.20
7.Auckland/Northland	77.40		7.Otago/Southland	65.46

 

Wellington have just about confirmed the Open event as their own. After taking 20vps off their closest rivals, Waikato Bays, in the last match of the day, they lead by over 34vps. In the Women's event, Auckland-Northland also cemented their lead iin the last match of the day, scoring 19.02 off Canterbury to lead Waikato Bays by 15.38vps.

In the Intermediate event, Wellington have a 16.36vp lead over Central Districts. Only in the Seniors field is it close with Top of The South taking 20 off Otago Southland in the last match while previously leaders, Auckland -Northland, were beaten 1.72-18.28 by Wellington. Top of The South lead by just 2.46vps from Auckland-Northland with Wellington 3vps behind in third place.

COMPLICATING MATTERS

Bridge is a hard enough game to get right: when it’s easy, keep it so. Bob Hurley, Central Districts’ Chef De Mission, gives us two examples from this weekend where his teams were fortunate to benefit. It just did not need to be so…

"Many bridge hands are straightforward: so why complicate matters? Two examples from Round 1, Match 6 where CD teams benefited. Board 8. East was declarer in 6. South has a routine lead of Q for one down.

 

But wait, South led 10 covered with K and A winning. North now led a spade at trick 2. 6 making. Even if 10 could have a higher honour, why complicate a simple situation?

 

 

North’s 1 was Precision style. East’s jump to 2 showed either a single-suited club hand or else a hand with both red suits. With no interest if partner held clubs, West bid 3 asking partner to pass if that was their suit. North “knew” that the opposition had clubs and therefore bid 4 to extract their partner’s better major suit.

South knew little other than that their partner had bid 4. South presumed East had the red suits and therefore 4 was natural…and another disaster hit the table! This contract went 7 down (-350) which went very nicely (for Central Districts) with 450 at the other table where 5 made…13 imps in..or out!

Clearly North should have bid  3 or even better made a take-out double. Either would not have been misinterpreted.”

A NOT SO GRAND START by Douglas Russell

"The Auckland/Northland squad all had byes in the first round, so that Match 2 against Otago/Southland was our first opportunity to strut our stuff. We had high hopes for all our teams, not least for our Open team with its four internationals. They featured on VuGraph for the match, and this was the second hand to appear before a waiting audience.

 

Interestingly, each South decided to view his hand as balanced, and bid accordingly, but there the similarity ended. For Auckland/Northland, Ware and Brown had a 3-bid sequence as follows: 2NT-5NT-6NT. Commendable brevity, but a less than optimal result. For Otago/Southland, Sam and Glenn Coutts bid:

                                   North                       South 
                                                                       2 
                                       2                          2NT 
                                      7NT                          Pass                                                            

    2 showed any positive, and 2NT showed 23-24. No problem in the play, of course, but that was 11 IMPs out and it seemed to set the tone for the day. A quick look at datum scores suggests that half the Open field, one in each of the Women and Seniors and none in the Intermediates found the grand."

Good luck to all for the last three rounds.

Richard Solomon

 

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