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Inter-Provincial Review 2022.

“Dougal Maclean” back to Wellington.

Congratulations to the Wellington Region for winning this year’s overall Dougal MacLean Trophy. It was close for a long while but with clear winners eventually, the final placings and scores being:

1	Wellington	39
2	Auckland/Northland	30
3=	Central Districts
3=	Waikato Bays	26
5	Canterbury	25
6	Otago/Southland	24
7	Top of the South	4

 

Congratulations to the winners of the four categories.

Open: Auckland-Northland: Matt Brown- Steve Boughey, John Wang-Gary
                                                   Chen, Donggao Bi- Jerry Chen

They won by 9.20 vps from Central Districts with Wellington a further 4.64 vps back in 3^rd place. There are always good news/ sad news stories in any event. Here, one of the Auckland/Northland pairs, Bill Humphrey – Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin, had to withdraw at the last minute for medical reasons and were replaced by Donggao and Jerry. Unlucky for Jeremy and Bill whom I am sure were delighted at their team’s success. Auckland-Northland went through the first round-robin unbeaten and had enough vps up their sleeve to win by a relatively comfortable margin.

Women: Auckland – Northland: Andi Boughey – Carol Richardson, Cheryl Winsor- Jane Stearns, Candice Smith – Kinga Hajmasi

Auckland-Northland had won 10 out of 11 matches, their only loss being by just 11 imps. Wellington had stayed in touch even though they had won less matches. In the final match, Wellington needed a very big win to catch their rivals. The final showdown between these two ended as one-way traffic to Auckland-Northland, a net 49 imp or very close to the maximum vps.While Andi and Carol are a seasoned international partnership, Cheryl and Jane were a brand- new partnership. First success at this level also for Candice and Kinga.

Nevertheless, a great effort from both Auckland-Northland (last year’s winners) and Wellington who finished 16.47 vps behind Auckland-Northland but a huge 26.75 vps ahead of 3^rd placed Waikato Bays.

Intermediates: Wellington: Helen and Murray Climo, Barbara Tumilowicz- Walt Davis, Chris Woods – Lee Miller

Central Districts had powered their way into a small lead with 69.01 vps from their previous 4 matches, a healthy 17 vp average but they came unstuck in their final head-to-head with Wellington, who won by 24 imps giving them victory by 6.74 vps. They left it late, though, Board 71, the penultimate board of the event, where they collected 16 of their 24 imps. The moral of the story is that it is not always right to try and rescue partner. It is certainly not right for both pairs in a team to try and play the same 3-level contract.

At one table, South became declarer in 3 after East overcalled 2. 3 would not normally be too bad a spot but was beaten by 2 tricks by the cruel 6-0 break. However, at the other table, East made a weak jump overcall, 3. North-South doubled this for penalties leaving West to “rescue” their partner to the unbid heart suit. Alas, the “rescue” cost 1100 (4 down, doubled). It looks like a declarer can escape for just one down in 3x. 

Otago-Southland finished 3^rd, almost 30 vps behind Central Districts.

Seniors: Canterbury: Jane and John Skipper, Paula Gregory- Michael Johnstone

  Seniors' Success

   
Jane and John Skipper                             Paula Gregory and Michael Johnstone

Success for a 4-person team in what was perhaps the most closely contested of the 4 contests. Canterbury led Waikato Bays going into the final round by about 12 vps and saw half that lead disappear as the Bays scored 13.18… but not enough to catch the “Cantabs” who ended top by 7.30 vps with Wellington a further 6.7 vps behind in third place.

Thanks to Murray and Caroline Wiggins and Kevin Walker for directing and scoring this event. There were a few connectivity issues but the event seemed to flow very smoothly and to time, at least from the players’ point of view.

Try this deal:

 

With no interference, you reach 6 as West and receive 3 lead from North. You insert the Q from dummy but no joy, as the king appears from South. So, you win and play a spade to the ace with South playing Q. What now?

It looks like you have a spade loser and so had better get rid of that club loser quickly…and then there was the question of not holding the K.

When you see the cards below, you will see that most declarers were hardly tested on this board at all, with both missing queens so well placed:

 

South was Martin Reid, trying to create a problem out of nothing, and certainly did! The declarer, Sam Coutts, played AK, got some good news and then J discarding his club. That was North’s “trump trick”. A second club from North was ruffed by Sam who could now draw trumps (in 1 round!) and cross to A to enjoy the remaining three diamonds.

Had North (Peter Newell) returned a heart, a desperate defender would just have to play a round of spades (a cross-ruff would not work) to find that 9 was an entry back to dummy…and Martin’s ruse would have been exposed. A great result for Martin and Peter at Pairs as most tables were in slam making 13 tricks. Alas, this was Teams and teammates missed this slam. At least, Martin tried to save the day.

More from the Inter Provincials tomorrow.

Richard Solomon  

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