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Family Win “in” Taranaki.

This weekend saw the on-line Taranaki Teams take place, 8 x 12 board matches in the Open, 4 x 12 board in the Intermediates. If one could not go live to the lovely Taranaki area, then playing this event on-line was a good second best.

Try this deal from North’s point of view as they defended 5.

 

 

 

2 promises 5 hearts and 4+ of a minor, 7-10 hcp. You, North, lead A and discover your partner has 4 spades. What now?

In the Open event, there were 42 teams with the top 8 after 8 rounds being:

 

 

1

Carol

Richardson

Andi

Boughey

Steve

Boughey

William

Liu

113.14

2

Gary

Chen

John

Wang

June

Lei

Jeter

Liu

111.33

3

Jeremy

Fraser Hoskin

Jack

James

Max

Morrison

Jane

Lennon

106.12

4

Jan

Alabaster

Jan

Cormack

Malcolm

Mayer

Matt

Brown

100.81

5

Pam

Livingston

Graeme

Tuffnell

Jo

Simpson

Sam

Simpson

100.55

6

Russell

Wilson

Anthony

Ker

Jane

Beeby

Michael

Wilkinson

98.80

7

Blair

Fisher

Liz

Fisher

Bob

Hurley

Grant

Jarvis

98.79

8

Pat

Carter

Julie

Atkinson

Jenny

Millington

Barry

Jones

97.44

Richardson started the event with a huge loss to Fisher but steadied the ship and finished with a huge 19.83 win over Carryer. Even then, they were much indebted to the team led by Gary Chen who won 16.18 over Fraser Hoskin to turn the tables at the top. "The family" are of course, the mother, father and daughter, Carol, Steve and Andi with William a very welcome addition when they come to the bridge table. 

                                                   

Carol and Andi, with a previous trophy     William               and      Steve

 

Here is one interesting board from early on Day 1.

“Second Sight”

 

Pam Livingston was sitting North and West, the declarer, was one of her regular partners, Jeff Miller. Pam decided there was no future in continuing spades and so switched to a low club. This was the only switch to give Jeff a problem as these were the four hands:

 

Jeff had lost a spade and could afford a club loser. Indeed, all would be well as long as clubs broke no worse than 3-1 no matter where the king was. Rising with ace was certainly best if Pam had led a singleton club.

So, Jeff went up with the ace and down went his contract, losing both a ruff and the K.

Pam can defeat 5 legitimately by leading a club at trick 1, no matter what Jeff does, as a spade back to the North hand enables a second ruff even if declarer plays low at trick 1. That was hard to pick on the opening lead but a quick look at dummy showed up “second time” that the club switch offered her as good a chance as any.

and 4 the other way

This deal is also interesting played in 4 by North. Many made this contract especially after the lead of a diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff. Declarer now has the necessary three entries to dummy (one in trumps and two club ruffs) to set up South’s diamonds for club discards.

The best defence and quite feasible where East got to bid clubs naturally is for East to start with two high hearts. North ruffs and plays a trump to dummy to lead a diamond towards the king. West takes their ace and plays J. Declarer must ruff in dummy and now needs three entries to dummy to set up the diamonds and enjoy them… but they only have two trumps left. Indeed, when declarer plays a diamond to the king, East ruffs and plays a third round of hearts… and dummy’s diamond suit will just not set up.

Intermediate Teams

The Intermediate Teams was a 1 day 4x12 board matches with 10 teams taking part and these were the top three.

1

Trish

Murphy

Jillian

Ramsey

Graham

Potter

Rob

Armstrong

62.66

2

Laura

Griffin

Tony

Clear

Debbie

Marcroft

Garry

Hodge

52.68

3

Walt

Crawshaw

Liz

Crawshaw

Frances

Rankin

Paula

Martin

50.74

The winners had a storming finish with 37.71 vps in their final two matches. An added bonus for the winners is free entry to the National Congress in October in Tauranga.

Swiss Pairs today Monday as it is Taranaki Anniversary Weekend.

 

Richard Solomon

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