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    Late Start but Good Night at On-Line Pairs

Last night saw the first of 10 nights of the New Zealand Bridge competitions which will take place over 10 Sunday nights for the remainder of this year. The start was difficult in that there were major connectivity issues in getting the link to Real Bridge and this caused the start to be delayed by some 40 minutes. However, the majority of pairs managed to get connected and were able to play the full session.

Apologies to those of you who were not able to connect. If you were only playing or had only paid for the one session, then NZ Bridge will either refund the amount paid or carry forward to the next session you play. For the majority who paid the full 10-week fee, we hope you will enjoy all the other 9 nights. NZ Bridge will get to the bottom of the problem to ensure there is no repeat. Thanks also to Murray and Caroline Wiggins who directed and scored the 4 sections and to all those who got the links out to other players.

Remember, if you missed out last night, you can still compete in the overall competition.

On though to the bridge and these were the section winners last night.

Open			29 tables				%
N/S	Alan	Grant		Anthony	Ker		68.21
E/W	Grant	Jarvis		Jonathan	Westoby		64.81
Restricted Open			15 and a half tables
N/S	Margaret	Crawford		Christine	Burton		59.56
E/W	Jane	O'Brien		Julian	Herbert		62.18
Intermediate			22 tables
N/S	Michelle	Gunn		Sue	Glue		59.8
E/W	Trish	Murphy		Bev	Penny		59.89
Junior			14 pairs
Howell	Ian	Lewington		Lynley	Lewington		67.19

 

Good numbers which would of course have been better had all been able to log on. It was nice to see
interest late in the day from Junior pairs as until the 11^th hour, it looked like we would be unable to hold
a separate Junior heat.

Here’s a board with opportunities for both declarer and defence. We will pose a problem for one of the
defenders, West.

 

 

 

 

Maybe South should have passed 3 until North forced them to bid again, though the club bidding had not hurt their hand. Their meagre dummy appeared as East led T to North’s Q. Declarer played A and then Q to your A. What now?

It looks like West should switch to a diamond though that was what North wanted. North had less entries to dummy than West realised. The defence had only taken one trick and despite such a poor dummy, West could not see the prospect of many more. J did not help the defence that much. 3 in such a situation might have worked better:

 

 

North covered J with K won by A. Although East’s diamond return did not help the defence, declarer could, had East switched to a heart, risen to play a second diamond themselves, finessing when West played low. Now North must exit from hand with a trump, playing East for K and declarer will be safe.

Once the club had been led, declarer can discard dummy’s third diamond on Q to prevent a ruff from East.

Had East won the first round of trumps, their best continuation is a club. North needs 2 entries to dummy to play diamonds and will do very well to play the suit for one loser.

The initial lead of A and a second diamond creates a different problem for North whose only entry to dummy is to ruff a club. When West wins the first or indeed second round of trumps, they can give their partner a diamond ruff for the 4^th defensive trick. That 2 bid by West, dangerous at the best of times, did not work out well if East led the suit.

An interesting hand which saw more make 10 tricks in spades, whether in game or part-score than fail.

The next round of this competition is on Sunday 26^th June.

Richard Solomon

 

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