A strong consistent performance from the team of Wayne Burrows-Clair Miao and Andi Boughey- Carol Richardson saw them win the North Island Teams in Wellington last weekend by just under 2vps. Perhaps the key to their success was their 6^th successive vicory, by 5 imps in Round 6 against Pam Livingston- Jan Alabaster and Peter Newell- Martin Reid.

                                                                        North Island Teams Champions

That's Wayne Burrows, Carol Richardson, Andi Boughey and Clair Miao

Burrows suffered their only loss in the final of the 7 rounds, losing to Sun (George Sun- June Lei, Gong Yunfei- Yuzhong Chen) by just 2 imps… but Livingston suffered a larger loss, by 12 imps, to Brown (Matt Brown- Michael Whibley, Nick Jacob- GeO Tislevoll) pushing Burrows into top position. These were the top 10 when it mattered:

 

1st		Wayne Burrows- Clair Miao, Andi Boughey- Carol Richardson	99.15
2nd		Pam Livingston- Jan Alabaster, Martin Reid- Peter Newell	97.17
3rd		Alan Grant- Jane Lennon, Jane and John Skipper	95.69
4th		Matthew Brown- Michael Whibley, GeO Tislevoll- Nick Jacob	94.50
5th		Jonathan Westoby- Malcolm Mayer, Tom Jacob- Brian Mace	92.12
6th		George Sun-June Lei, Gong Yunfei- Yuzhong Chen	90.11
7th		Moss Wylie- Kevin Skoropada, Brad Johnston- Glenn Coutts	88.85
8th		Gary Foidl- Anthony Hopkins, Rachelle Pelkman- Murray Wood	86.08
9th		Anthony and Charles Ker, Nigel Kearney- Karl Hayes	84.07
10th		Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin- Jack James, John O'Connor-David O'Shaughnessy	82.69

                                              Close Runners-Up

Pam Livingston, Jan Alabaster, Peter Newell and Martin Reid

About half the declarers in the following 3NT contract from round 5 failed, some by multiple tricks. Andi Boughey made this contract after losing the first four tricks:

 

2 was either clubs or balanced. Thus, West led a low club with the defence taking the first three club tricks with East discarding a low encouraging diamond. West switched to a diamond ducked to the queen. East exited a low heart. It was all left for Andi to find 9 tricks.

She could deduce East held K or else West would have cleared declarer’s club winner. So, Andi won with A and took the spade finesse, East covering.

She played a diamond to the ace and a heart to her king, these cards remaining:

 

 

Q squeezed East in three suits. East threw a heart but now Andi played two rounds of hearts and East was squeezed once more. They threw K hoping their partner held the jack but Andi had J and J (whoever said jacks were not worth one point!) to make her 9 tricks.

It would not have helped East to have withheld their K as Andi would have cashed Q and Q (squeeze number 1) and assuming East threw their heart, the high 8 would force East to bare one of their Kxs. A nicely played hand.

In the same match, about half the declarers in the following 4 contract were successful, including Clair Miao:

 

At adverse vulnerability, opening that South hand would not be everyone’s choice but in a flash, it got N/S up to 4 (“pass or correct) with Clair (East) having a go at the spade game. Wayne Burrows’ double showed either a good balanced 12-14, a minimum minor overcall or a very strong hand.

Clair would no doubt have been very disappointed at all Wayne’s heart honours. The opening lead was 3. One route to success would be to insert J and discard her three clubs on the hearts. However, she took the A and discarded a club and a diamond on the top two hearts.

She had now to be careful. Had she played A and a second diamond, she would not have had enough entries to dummy to lead both black suits successfully. However, had she played a black suit at trick 3, the defence could draw all dummy’s trumps preventing a diamond ruff.

She found the winning exit of 5. North could not play spades as Clair would only lose one trump. Any other switch would give Clair two entries to dummy (A and a ruff) to play both black suits herself. North played A and a second club. Diamond to the ace was followed by a trump to the king. Diamond ruff and a second trump and Clair had 590 and 12 imps when 4 was defeated at the other table.

It was wonderful to have so many teams, 44, take part. The Wellington Club and Regional Committee led by Bridget Hannaway-Willcox and Mindy Wu, organized the event very well with the weekend running without a hitch, excellent catering and with the usual challenging hands. Thanks to the directors, David Stephen and Allan Joseph and the scorer, Kevin Walker, who ensured that the event ran so smoothly.

Richard Solomon 

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