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Stewart Strang, new Life Member at Gore.

Not much has happened in the South since you last heard from Moss—and I sadly don’t have anything cool to report in terms of solidarity or club happenings. Luckily Invercargill has been active, as relayed by Club President, Judith Lawton.

“Invercargill committee has a phone tree to call members, in particular but not only those who live alone. We try to catch up each week and find there are lots of people who want to talk.

Just before lockdown, two members, Sue and Fred, delivered books from their own bookcases to older members whose outings had already been restricted.  There are multiple groups playing bridge on Trickster.”

 All on a lead at Invercargill

In terms of recent (good joke me, as-of-yet unreported?) tournament results, there are only 3 about which to talk.  On the 7^th March there was the Invercargill Open Pairs, which 20 pairs contested, but I did not attend. I do know that Kevin Skoropada and Anne Somerville started off the day with a 64.35% and a comfortable lead.  Sadly for them, Harry Shepherd and Tony Winters snuck in front with a huge 68.52% session. The podium was:

1^st Harry Shepherd & Tony Winters                  122.92%

2^nd Kevin Skoropada & Anne Somerville          120.83%

3^rd Yvonne Hughes & Jan Brown                      118.80%

After the event, Kevin was bemoaning a top/bottom swing in the second set against Harry and Tony.

With a solid 8 card minor, and honour-third support for partner’s 5+ card suit, would you go for slam in a minor or stretch for the extra match-points in the major? The answer depends on the field, your mood, the weather, and how cloudy your crystal ball is that day – but today 6 was the limit and 6 trickled off after the K lead. (6 makes on the lead of any other suit.)
The hand that will haunt his dreams for a while.

 In good news, we sat down and calculated the score; and even with this top/bottom swing Kevin and Anne would have been 0.02% behind the pace.

The reason that I wasn’t in Invercargill was that I was planning to drive up to Oamaru on the Sunday instead, and swinging both ways in a single weekend leaves me tired. Believe me, I’ve tried it before!

Recently, the Otago Club has switched up how they run Pairs tournaments. Instead of running two Mitchells for a 2-session tournament. They’ve tried running a Mitchell for one session; then two Howells for the other. All the North-South pairs playing in one and all the East-West pairs playing in the other. This serves to minimise or eliminate playing pairs multiple times, and gives you a fair shot against every other pair. Something to think about trying when clubs open back up, if you haven’t considered it in the past.
Success for "Life" Partners

John Sheehy used the above method to run the Oamaru Graded tournament on the 8^th March, which had managed to entice 38 pairs to register. Chris Ackerley and Arleen Schwartz made the best of the morning, with a 64.88% set; while Phil and Marilyn Noye had the best of the other Howell with a 61.62%. In the afternoon the piper played a slightly different tune, but when the music stopped, I was “aNoyed” to find that Phil and Marilyn had not only retained their lead; but extended it with a hefty 67.2% second set. The podium was:

1^st Phil and Marilyn Noye                          128.82%

2^nd Brad Johnston & Lydia Turley             120.82%

3^rd Sonia Gill & Saul Sheehy                     119.26%

                                                        Tops at Oamaru

                        
Phil and Marilyn Noye                                                 Lydia Turley and Brad Johnston

You may have noted that Arleen and Chris have dropped off. Sometimes a session doesn’t run your way; but being rewarded a flat bottom board when your opponents have the following auction:

1 (16+) pass 7NT (to play)

does seem like lady luck is rubbing it in particularly hard today.

 
When is the last time you’ve had 19 points opposite your partner’s strongest opening bid? And when is the last time you’ve had a chance to have that auction? Surely you’d take it too?

I would have thought that a different unusual auction would be safer…1-4NT. 19 opposite 16 can still leave one ace in an opponent’s hand. Slightly lucky for the Precision pair… but could not those who opened a more pedestrian 1, catch up?

A cool thing I can report from this event is it was run as a graded tournament; with prizes for players of all calibre. Only one pair from the top grade won a prize, as two of the podium spots were from “Grade 2” players.

Phil and Marilyn may not play many tournaments (hence being in grade 2, maybe?), but Phil is the head tutor and runs the lessons at the Otago Bridge Club. A performance like this is always a good way to get people to listen to what you say when you’re trying to help them.
It’s really nice when the favourites don’t win, and also when someone gets a day in the sun—so props to Phil and Marilyn, who commented at the end that this was proof that married couples could play bridge together!

"Come from Behind" Win at Taieri

The final local tournament was held on the 14^thMarch, in Taieri. Here, 28 pairs fought out for the biggest slice of the match-point pie. Wyn Jones and Kaye Wilson would have felt comfortable after their 66.57% start, but as witH other tournaments they faltered in the afternoon session. Paul Freeland and Margaret Perley had no such compunctions to buckling down and grinding out a 67.31% session of their own to take the win, leaving the podium as:

1^st Paul Freeland & Margaret Perley                       128.40%

2^nd Wyn Jones & Kaye Wilson                                 116.12%

3^rd Susie Lawless & Maria Godfrey                          115.08%

News happy and sad

In other news, I’m pleased to announce that Stewart Strang from Gore has become a Life Member of their club. I’ve crossed cards with him multiple times down South, and have always been impressed by his diligence and politeness – but I’ll let his local club tell the story better than I ever could:

 
    Stewart Strang - new life member at Gore

“It is our privilege to present Stewart Strang with Life Membership of the Gore Bridge Club.

Stewart and Pam learned their Bridge from Pam’s parents in Balclutha and then played in several different venues before joining Gore in 1986.

Stewart’s ability to play the game is evident on the Honours boards, and regularly in the Annual Prize List. But it is his wealth of knowledge of the rules and administration of the game and his willingness to share that expertise that has seen this club benefit so much over the years of his membership.

Stewart was first on Committee from 1998 for 8 years and then since 2006 he has only had 1 short break.  He was president 2010-2011 and again now 2018-2019, one of very few to have served 4 years in that position. Meanwhile he has been on the Match Committee and has been Master Point Secretary.

He has run courses for directors, organised their weekly roster and became a qualified Director himself in 2018. Several times over the years he has been called on to address Club Members regarding rules and ethical play. Learners Classes are where many of us have benefited from Stewart’s time.  He has tutored for the last 11 years and other times before that.  The classes always extend past the 10 lessons until Stewart is happy that new players are confident to join club play.  

We acknowledge and thank Pam for her support and recognise Stewart's wonderful contribution to our club and wish him many more happy years of Bridge among us.”

I have a sad news to include too. Margaret Archer passed away at the end of February this year. She was a stalwart member of the Otago Bridge club from 1987 undertaking various roles at the club until her health prohibited further play in 2019, . These included a stint as the Club Captain, Vice President, and Club President—between 1993 and 2001; and also helping out with the Junior division and lots of administrative work.

  
  the late Margaret Archer

If you didn’t know Margaret, she was known as a highly motivated and competitive player. Many of her weekends were taken up with playing around the region at Bridge Tournaments and she attended the National Congress on several occasions. Margaret was admired not only for her playing prowess, but also for her friendliness, her honesty, her fairness and her sense of fun.

 When Being Declarer is no Fun!

Finally, I always like to include an instructive deal. It’s been too long for me to think back to the tournaments I’ve played, but I have been active in the Kiwi sessions run (primarily) by Patrick Carter on BBO. On the following board I was partnering fellow Dunedinite Glenn Coutts, and we had to find a defence to 2 on the following board:

Glenn started with the A. We have an agreement where if we think our partner has led a shortage, we can signal where our entry is, instead of if we like the suit (with partner being short in the suit, they don’t really care if we like it or not). I could play the 4 here to show that I had some interest in a diamond switch.

Looking at his hand and dummy, Glenn was able to deduce I had a singleton diamond. So he switched to the A and continued with the 2, his lowest diamond to confirm that he could ruff a club return.

I did the normal thing of cashing two top clubs to let him throw his losing spades away, and switched to the 2 for him to ruff. Leading the 2 here to confirm that I have another trump for a diamond ruff (if we need it).

Glenn duly ruffed the spade and played the high Q. Some players would lazily discard a loser here, but if you do, partner will be stuck on lead and your only other trick will be any natural trump winner that partner has (here none). Instead you can ruff your partner’s winner and play another spade for them to ruff. This ensures that you’ll make all the tricks available to you.

We were able to achieve this good defensive result due to trusting each other to make signals that we knew each other needed; and actively thinking through the defence. When’s the last time you’ve taken the first 8 tricks against the opponents “freely bid” 2 contract, when they had the AKQJxxx of trumps and 24 HCP between their two hands!

 

 

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