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 National Swiss winners, Michael Ware and Grant Jarvis.

Great Weekend: Freak Hands. National Swiss Pairs.

The National Swiss Pairs, held last weekend at the Wellington Bridge Club, provided interest from start to finish. It started with a board with two voids (in separate hands of the same partnership) and joy for most who held them but defeat for the majority at the end of the weekend when both voids were in the same hand!

You would have felt pretty upbeat on the 4^th board of the weekend holding:

even if your partner started proceedings with 1. The bidding soon got more to your liking:

 

 

That 5 bid should surely not have been on a four- card suit headed by the 9! Indeed not and those who raised to slam were to be rewarded with a very suitable hand opposite.

 

Nice of partner to have their top honours where you wanted them but on that kind of bidding, they could have produced a trump loser and a club void to compensate.

Fasttrack then to Board 31 of the final match of 11. West picked up an even better hand than the above, well potentially, and the spade bid this time had come from the opposition:

 

 

“Come on, partner. Have just one of the kings in my suits, please.” They obliged though their holding in the other was rather frustrating. Our Panel were adamant there was only one bid to make:

Pam Livingston “6: Might make.  Might be a good dive.  Or might be a horrible in-between hand. You pays your money and takes your chances.”

Nigel Kearney “6: I'm going to bid slam and hope it makes or they save. I could show a two suiter by bidding 4NT then converting 5 to 6. There are two ways that could go wrong. One is partner bidding 6 before I get another turn and the other is getting forced. The drawbacks of 4NT are more likely than the chance of hearts making an extra trick when partner has short clubs and a few hearts.”

Stephen Blackstock “6: even if 5 shows hearts and a minor, and I can imagine differing view on whether that is so at this level, we will need to find 4+ hearts opposite for hearts to be better. Also, I most certainly don’t want to hear 6 over 5, “a suggestion to play, with heart tolerance”. Over a direct 6, East will have excellent diamonds to bid 6 – and even then, it may be wrong, with no trumps in his dummy to ruff spades.  We could have anything on from a game to a grand. A six-level shot is a middle of the road guess."

Kris Wooles “6: It is hard to imagine not playing in my 8-card suit. I would play X as penalty orientated. 4NT and 5 are both T/O but how to land perfectly in the right spot is a big question? Hearts might end up being a better fit but getting forced off at trick one with expected bad breaks and the ’s still to be established doesn’t’ really appeal.”

None of the above played in this event though their words were prophetic especially the predictions of Kris Wooles and Stephen Blackstock regarding the fate of 6. Bruce Anderson and Peter Newell agreed with the above though Peter had some regard for the gross 5 underbid:

Peter Newell “6: It’s impossible to try and bid this hand other ways.  8/5s aren’t really that suitable to show as 2 suiters at the 5/6 level by bidding 5 as 3 extra cards is a big discrepancy and most of the time it will play as well or better in your 8-card suit. I don’t think 5 is too bad though. Sure, it’s a big underbid (partner may think you are diving rather than you have 11ish tricks in your own hand). It will be uncommon for a 5 bid to get doubled (probably more likely to get doubled in 5 than 6 on the actual hand), and you may allow yourself to get pushed to 6 if you feel inclined.”

Indeed, 5x was the contract at 4 of the 40 tables bringing great joy to the “underbidders”:

 

East’s hearts were nice but not plentiful enough to make that suit trumps. An immediate spade lead and the 4-1 trump break combined to make the heart slam impossible to make. 16 tables tried and failed in a slam.

The event winners, Michael Ware and Grant Jarvis, managed to defeat the more modest 4 contract. This event completed a great hattrick for Michael, who had already come out on top at both the Tauranga Congress and South Island Teams. They won 9 of their 11 matches and won the event by 9vps. The top placings were:

1	Grant Jarvis and Michael Ware	152.59
2	Gary Chen and John Wang	143.89
3	Paula Boughey and Duncan Badley	136.15
4	Barry Jones and Jenny Millington	133.76
5	Ian Berrington and Malcolm Mayer	132.05
6	Michael Cornell and Ashley Bach	130.70
7	Greg Buzzard and Moss Wylie	130.30
8	Jeremy Fraser Hoskin and Jack James	128.42
9	Liz and Blair Fisher	126.90
10	Jane and John Skipper	126.84

 

      2nd place                                              3rd place                                          top pair 500-800                      top pair under 500

                                                                                                                                                     combined Rating Points                                                                                                       

                           John Wang and Gary Chen  Paula Boughey and Duncan       Philip Beale and           Candice Smith
                                               Badley                                       Michelle England           and Kinga Hajmasi                  

An exciting weekend quite apart from the freak hands. It was wonderful in the current environment to be able to have such a competition. Thanks to Bridget, Susan  and all at the Wellington Club, to the organising committee, the directors, Allan Joseph and Meredith Ross  the caddies and to the scorer, Kevin Walker.   

More “freaks” for Jan’s Day

So, it’s your lead. See you on Jan’s Day.

Richard Solomon

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