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ON-LINE and ON-TRACK for Success.

In the last couple of weeks, we have seen the National Congress for 2021 take place on-line on Real Bridge. While some are not comfortable with this medium, it was realistically the only way we could run such an event at present. The overall reaction to this event from participants seems very favourable. One real bonus was in having around 100 Australians and even a team from Argentina take part. The internet certainly can bring us all together.

Playing is the thing, just taking part, but let’s salute those who played and won their events (in chronological order):

New Zealand Open Teams   Liam Milne, James and Glenn Coutts, Nick Jacob, Andy Hung and Alex Smirnov

New Zealand Restricted Open Teams            Jane O’Brien, Julian Herbert, Bev Penny, Trish Murphy

New Zealand Open Swiss Pairs                      Susan and Denis Humphries

New Zealand Restricted Open Swiss Pairs   David Esterman and Alex Drummond

New Zealand Intermediate Swiss Pairs         Heather Robertson and Dennis Watkinson

New Zealand Intermediate Pairs                     Sebastian Langdon McMillan and William Han

New Zealand Junior Pairs                               Janet Milbank and Jenny Elgar

New Zealand Intermediate Teams                  Cathy Carroll, Felicity Hannay, Chris Curreen and Jill Patterson

New Zealand Open Pairs                                Michael Cornell and Ashley Bach

New Zealand Restricted Open Pairs              Liz and Michael Wilcox

There are surely many stories behind these victories. Personally, it was lovely to see Janet and Jenny win the Junior Pairs. Jenny lives “out of Opotiki” and contacted me in advance of the on-line Congress wondering whether she should take part as her connection to the internet was so variable. I persuaded her to give it a go and the connection must have been excellent in the second session as they powered 66.41% to win by over 7%.

New to the National Congress, Jenny told me they will now definitely be at the live Congress at Bay Park in October.

Australians  (just quietly, 3 of the “ Australian” winners of the New Zealand Teams and the Australian connection in the Open Swiss winners are all Kiwis) , a father-daughter, two brothers and a brother- sister combination were featured in the winners but only one player, Glenn Coutts, from the South Island. There’s new names and some very familiar ones like Michael Cornell and Ashley Bach who are always near to the top of the tree.

Some Kiwi "Australians" 

       
Susan Humphries       Liam Milne and James Coutts 

 
Nick Jacob

What does it take to win? Consistency, a share of good fortune, and if we look at the Open competitions, the odd brilliancy when it arises. There is nothing complex in the example of the brilliancy that follows but it seems the only player to find it was our South Island New Zealand Teams winner. Let’s relive what was the last of the 92 boards of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the New Zealand Teams.

 

A little explanation to the bidding. 1C was 2+ clubs (Glenn treating his hand as

A little explanation to the bidding. 1 was 2+ clubs (Glenn treating his hand as 

a weak no trump) and 1 promised 4+ spades. 2 showed a minimum hand normally with 4 spades (a bonus one this time). Andy Hung (East) offered 3NT as a place to play but wisely, Glenn reverted back to spades.

Over 60 declarers in the Open Teams and 14 more in the Restricted Open Teams tried 4 with only two succeeding, one thanks to poor defence. The other was Glenn.

Certainly, he would have had no chance had North (Jamie Thompson) found a club lead but he hoped his partner’s hearts were a little more robust than 8 high for the take-out double. That was Glenn’s piece of good fortune, a low heart lead. He took full advantage.

Fearing he had two club losers and two in spades ( had North held Ax, Glenn might only have one), he set about to reduce those 4 losers to 3.

At tricks two and three, he played two more rounds of hearts and then played a diamond to the king and took a successful diamond finesse before cashing A.

So far so good. He then attacked trumps by leading 9 from his hand and when North played low, Glenn played low from dummy, forcing Sartaj to win with A. Had Sartaj held a second trump, he could have exited with it…but then Glenn would have lost only one trump trick.

Sartaj was left with the 13^th heart and five clubs headed by the ace. He tried 8 on which Glenn threw a club from his hand and then ruffed in dummy. The defence conceded as Glenn lost just two trump tricks and one club.

 
Glenn earnt his good fortune on
this board.

Yes, Glenn was lucky with the breaks but remember he was always going to lose two trump tricks on the actual lay-out. Nice card-reading, a neat plan and surely a lovely warm glow at the end of the board.

That, occasionally, is what you need to win the New Zealand Teams. Whether or not you think you are up to it (and it was in reality quite a simple line), I hope you will be at Bay Park from October 1^st-8^th trying to win, to do your best but enjoying the experience. That is what our National Congress is all about.

Richard Solomon

My thanks to Peter Gill for “spilling the beans” re Glenn. 

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