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Kevin Skoropada.

Southern Winners of the National Pairs.

Kevin Skoropada and Moss Wylie had a great weekend at the National Pairs emerging as clear winners. The event was supposed to be held at the Wellington Bridge Club though the live event fell victim to Covid.

There were 48 pairs taking part with pairs playing two boards against each other pair, 94 boards in all over 4 sessions. There were four outstanding scores in a tight competitive event, one per session:

                                    %

Session 1                  70.33             Bill Humphrey – Paul Carson

Session 2                  66.20             Candice Smith – Kinga Hajmasi

Session 3                  65.76             Jan Cormack – Grant Jarvis

Session 4                  65.67             Kevin Skoropada – Moss Wylie

Kevin and Moss were very consistent with % s of 59.35, 55.50 and 59.78 before the booming finish. They won by a clear 3% per session. These were the top 10:

1	Kevin	Skoropada		Moss	Wylie		60.09		2598.4
2	Jan	Cormack		Grant	Jarvis		57.09		2468.8
3	John	Davidson		Sam	Coutts		56.89		2460
4	Paul	Carson		Bill	Humphrey		55.98		2420.7
5	Malcolm	Mayer		Michael	Ware		55.93		2418.4
6	Fuxia	Wen		Ian	Berrington		55.06		2380.8
7	James	Yang		Yuzhong	Chen		54.53		2357.8
8	June	Lei		Jeter	Liu		54.31		2348.3
9	Jane	Lennon		Alan	Grant		54.21		2344
10	Alice	Young		George	Sun		53.83		2327.7

 

Kevin and Moss celebrating a previous success  

Moss has been playing regularly on the tournament scene all over the country for many years and has consistently performed well with many partners. However, Kevin may be unfamiliar to many readers. So, here is a little about Kevin, self written:

"I started playing (Goren) rubber bridge at home in Vancouver, Canada at the age of 11. When 14, I started playing CC Wei Precision with my father at the local duplicate bridge games. By the time I was 18, I was playing with some partners who went on to play as international level for Canada.

In 1983 I left Canada to see the world ending up in New Zealand where I met Donna, my future wife. After that, I dabbled with competitive bridge, (due to having a young family), played social bridge and read lots of bridge books until 2017 when I joined the welcoming Invercargill Bridge Club. The last five years I've up skilled in modern systems and modern Precision with a small amount of 2/1. Nevertheless, good card play is the key to doing well- 50% of the time you and partner will be defending.”

Here is one from the winners with Kevin demonstrating what he means with respect to accurate defence:

 

 

At trick 1, your partner leads A. Which card should you play as North?  You are playing reverse signals, low encourage.

At a few tables, West was declarer and North did not find the necessary club lead. However, of the many North players who received the A lead, only two, Kevin Skoropada and Jan Cormack, did not encourage their partners at trick 1. Jan played 8 (discouraging) and her partner, Grant Jarvis, found the necessary heart switch while Kevin “screamed” for a switch to the higher red suit by throwing J.

 

Grant switched to J while Moss switched to a low heart with Kevin inserting 10. Kevin soon won the lead with A and cashed K and A to defeat 4.

The only other defender to find a switch at trick 2 was Jan Whyte who switched to J also defeating 4.

With the East hand unlimited in strength, it might be right from South’s point of view for the defence to cash two club tricks, playing Pairs. However, at most tables North overcalled in clubs and South really ought to find a heart switch without signal from their partner. Therefore, they should switch, with a heart being the more logical switch.

However, a defender should make it as easy as possible for their partner. North can see the diamond danger the moment their ace has been knocked out. Even more so than South, they can see the need for a heart switch. A decent partner just needs to hold J, not too much to ask for!

Either way, the opponents should be held to 9 tricks.

Alive or Dead?

The auction, that is. It’s up to you.

 

 

 

Richard Solomon

 

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