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Bridge Masters Record Four Wins                

Pick of the bunch on Day 4 were the Bridge Masters with 4 wins including one maximum points (who is to quibble over 0.01?!) over Indonesia B. At the end of their first round-robin, they trail Chinese Taipei B by 10 and China by a daunting 40 vps. Nevertheless, the team is playing consistently well with 9 wins in their last 11 matches.

Although our Women’s team remained in 4^th place throughout the day, their results were disappointing. They have now lost connection with the top three being about 40vps behind 3^rd placed Japan.

Our Open and Mixed teams came to the end of the first of two round robins at the end of the day. The Bridge Blacks suffered two heavy defeats after beating lowly China Macau and are still close to 4^th place with third placed Australia some 14 vps ahead. The Mixed Blacks had their best win so far at the end of the day to move up to 8^th , 18 vps behind 5^th placed Australia.

 not a good day at the office for Ashley Bach

                 Women                                                                         Seniors

Australia	38-28	12.97	4th		Indonesia B	72-16	19-99	4th
Singapore	16-17	9.67	4th		Singapore A	23-18	11.58	3rd
China	26-65	1.71	4th		Australia A	23-14	12.71	3rd
Chinese Taipei	13-51	1.83	4th		India	16-11	11.58	3rd

 

                           Open                                                                        Mixed

China Macau	37-13	16.03	3rd		Australia	16-46	2.96	9th
Singapore	10-32	4.34	6th		Indonesia	26-43	5.36	9th
Korea	27-46	4.94	7th		China Hong Kong	43-4	18.29	8th

 

One good board of the day for the Bridge Ferns was the following against Australia in the first match of the day:

 

3NT was a 4- level opening in one of the minor suits. With all her aces, Jane Lennon bid 6, pass or correct to diamonds. The slam can be made if played by West on a black suit lead but is much more playable if played by East. South can be endplayed after a heart lead but it was much easier after a spade lead with Jane Lennon merely drawing trumps and giving up a spade to South’s king to set up a discard for the heart loser. That was very 11 very useful imps on an otherwise difficult day.

Elimination and End play for Alan

About half the pairs in the Seniors field failed to make the following slam in the 4^th match of the day. Alan Grant had to make 6 to tie the board:

 

Alan had to bid 3 as 2 would have shown 0-2 hcp. John Skipper wheeled out key card with Alan showing 2 with the Q. 5NT asked for specific outside kings but Alan had none to show. So, 6 it was. Indeed, high enough and maybe too high when Alan saw dummy.

As North, he received the J lead. Fearing that the finesse would fail, he tried for an elimination/end- play. He rose with the ace, cashed K and drew three rounds of trumps with West discarding clubs.

He finished in hand to play A, noting the fall of the Q and discarded a diamond from dummy. He then exited a diamond to West who had the unpleasant choice of either leading away from Q or else giving a ruff and discard. Nicely played.

Any win over Australia is a good win and the Bridge Masters’ win was a narrow one. It came down to one minor suit breaking in the following 3NT contract:

 

With the Australians in 2 at the other table, Tom Jacob got a spade lead to his 3NT contract in the North seat. He was allowed to score his king. Clubs soon disappointed but the slimmer chance of a 3-3 diamond break eventuated giving a relieved Tom 9 tricks and 10 good imps for the Bridge Masters.

Good Break for Tom Jacob                             Good Play by Alan Grant

                          

Richard Solomon

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