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Deja Vous.

At the end of this day, there will be sadness in the Kiwi camp that inconsistency has once again let the side down. Let’s not forget also that it was a day in which the Bridge Blacks beat the strong USA 1 team and then toppled Netherlands from the top spot with a whitewash victory. Look at the scores from Day 5:
                                     imps              vps

USA1                          47-42             11.58

Netherlands                 64-3               20.00

India                           25-68               1.56

We started the day in 13^th place and finished there too, now 24 vps behind 7^th placed USA1. It was not a good day for the Australian Open team either, with a loss to Guadeloupe, a win over Sweden and then a bad loss to USA 1 at the end. They are one place and almost 4vps ahead of New Zealand.

Before we hand over to GeO, are you one who subscribes to the phrase “as you make your bed, so you lie in it?” How about “jumping from the frying pan into the fire”? Will you?

 

 

Only your side is vulnerable. You kind of “made your bed” by opening 3. Maybe you would: maybe not. However, you did!  Are you going to take your chances there or risk “the fire” by bidding your second suit? Michael Whibley had this decision to make. What would you do?

Over to GeO:

One of the toughest days for New Zealand started with one of the championship favourites, USA 1.

New Zealand – USA 1

The match gave us a decent result but personally I had not my leading hat on. Several leads were costly, but luckily, we got good boards from other hands. It started with one success for our 2, weak with one major, although a pair of Weinstein-Levin’s caliber should probably avoid such a disastrous contract:

 

 

Nick’s 3 as South was pass or correct and as it turned out, 4 was not at all the right bid. I led my singleton club and Nick won the ace and gave me a ruff in the suit we held only a 2-1 fit! We scored a spade trick and a trump trick to beat 4 one trick, +50.

 

At the other table Brown-Whibley (or Michael Whibley, to be precise!) had much greater ambitions but surprisingly they didn’t face a 2-level opening from North and Greco-Hampson were unusually passive.

With Brown as West and Whibley East, the bidding went:

 

West              North              East                South

Brown                                   Whibley

     Pass                1                   Pass

1                   2                 Dbl                  Pass

2NT                Pass                3                   Pass

4                 Pass                4                   Pass

5                 All Pass

 

Of course, Matt Brown had very little for his 1 showing no major, and his 2NT was two places to play. Michael Whibley kept forcing and made a slam try as well before Matt was able to put the brakes on.

 

As N/S did not take their spade trick in time, the contract made with an overtrick, New Zealand, +420 worth 10 imps.

 

One of the unsuccessful leads came soon and we lost a few boards, so USA took the lead.

But then came a big period where firstly USA bid to a horrible slam and went down. Then, a game was made by us where Weinstein went down. Then came a little dramatic hand which too went in New Zealand’s favour:

 

 

Over my 1 opening (North)  and pass from East, Nick, South, made a creative supposedly natural 1 response!

Levin (West) jumped to 3 (intermediate), in my view a strange underbid. Weinstein suggested 3NT and there they played. Slam is cold, for example 6, but note very unusually that because South is void in hearts, from East’s side, they make grand slam, even 7NT!

Whibley-Brown bid nicely to 6:

 

West              North             East                South

Brown                                   Whibley

                        1                  Pass               1NT

Dbl                   2                  Pass                3

4                   Pass                4                   Pass

5                   Pass                6                   Dbl     

All Pass         

 

Note that also at this table South responded, but his choice was 1NT.

 

Brown-Whibley made their doubled slam, +1540 and 13 imps in. At this stage we looked very good, leading over the gold favorites by 24 imps.

 

Unfortunately, things did not go well for us on the last few boards as so often have happened earlier in this tournament. New Zealand may still be happy to beat USA 1, but only by 5 imps, 11.48-8.52 VPs.

 

After the USA match, we were 10.8 VPs behind the 8th placed team Australia who surprisingly lost to Guadeloupe this morning. Our next opponent was the tournament leaders.

 

New Zealand – Netherlands

Wow, what a match from Cornell-Bach and Whibley-Brown.

 

The match started slow, looking more like a soccer match and it was 2-1 after four boards.

Then the Kiwis took over the match completely. An endless row of good decisions and good results came and when it was over, New Zealand had won 64-3 over the leaders, 20-0 VPs.

This was Michael Whibley’s hand on Board 5:and he had different options as opener with only his side vulnerable:

 

He decided to open 3 and East doubled, and South and West passed. What now?

Michael chose to pull from his own pre-emptive bid and said 4. That was doubled too, and what a dummy it was that appeared:

 

 

Where did Matt Brown find that hand!  Michael must have really meant it when he thanked Matt for his dummy! The doubled contract made, New Zealand +710.

 
"Nice pull, Michael."  "Nice hand , Matt."

 

Cornell-Bach played 4 E/W at the other table on the hands which is a touch-and-go slam, but hard to make with the above layout. Plus 480 was plenty, New Zealand +15 imps.

 

Unfortunately, this great result was not followed up in the last match of the day against up-and-down India. The two last boards as usual, went wrong, 23 imps to the opponents adding to their lead already so that they trashed us.

India won 18.33 – 1.56. Rather than being in the mix for top 8, the situation looks bad, 24VPs behind USA 1 in 8^th place.

 

Sorry, New Zealand.”

 

No need or time for apologies, GeO. 7 matches are left, 4 today Saturday, Egypt, Bulgaria, USA 2 and Canada. USA 2 is in second place, the other three below New Zealand. Here’s hoping.

Small losses to England, Egypt and Brazil pushed the Canadian women out of the top 8 to 10^th but still very much in contention, 12vps behind 8^th.

Richard Solomon

 

New Zealand will feature twice on BBO in the early, very early hours, of Sunday morning. Please, please check my times which are a little difficult to state with our clocks going back in mid-stream. Our match against Bulgaria starts at 1.15am summer time and USA 2 at 2.50 am winter time.

 

Maybe a safer and more restful approach is to tune into tomorrow’s report on this website.

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