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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

High scores at Christchurch events.

The Christchurch Bridge Club held two 10A events and Intermediate/Junior events this past weekend. They attracted players from KeriKeri to Invercargill (and in-between!) with quality and quantity to the fore.

Firstly, a lead problem for you. It was the first board the winners of the 10A Open Pairs played in the day. So, like West, are you ready and awake?

Bridge in NZ.pngnz map.jpg

East Deals
None Vul

   

7

A Q J 6 5

Q J 8 7

J 10 2

 

N

W

 

E

S

   

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

Pass

1 

1 

Dbl

2 

2 ♠

3 

3 ♠

Pass

Pass

Dbl

All pass

 

 

(positions rotated)

Partner’s 2Diamond-small showed three hearts and a good passed hand. You doubled 3Spade-small because you were playing Pairs and in case you were making 3Heart-small, you hoped to score +300 for down 2. You knew your partner held four spades and were fairly sure you are not making 4Heart-small. Also, your diamond cards are sitting over declarer’s. So, you double… and you lead?

Saturday saw Teams: 6 x 10 board matches in the Open.

Open Teams

                 

vps

Ian

Berrington

Graeme

Tuffnell

 

Matthew

McManus

Michael

Ware

84.61

                       

Andi

Boughey

Carol

Richardson

Blair

Fisher

 

Russell

Wilson

81.21

                       

Pam

Livingston

Leon

Meier

 

David

Skipper

 

Tim

Schumacher

77.81

                       

Intermediate Teams

                 

Catherine

Fitchett

 

Jane

Walders

Philippa

Gibson

 

Judy

Parkinson

113.37

                       

Lizzie

Thompson

Rhondda

Bergman

Jeff

Bergman

Fiona

Findlater

77.36

                       

Margaret

Fraser

 

Richard

Williams

Norma

Loomes

 

Tina

Sims

74.06

The Intermediates played 7 rounds, round-robin style. The winners won all 7 matches averaging just over 16vps per match, a huge performance.

Sunday saw Match-Point Pairs:

               
 

Open Pairs

         

%

1

Brad

Johnston

Sam

Coutts

 

133.68

               

2

Blair

Fisher

 

Russell

Wilson

 

125.56

               

3

Matthew

McManus

Michael

Ware

 

124.18

               

4

Andi

Boughey

Carol

Richardson

121.48

               

5

Jan

Cormack

Pamela

Nisbet

 

115.86

               
 

Intermediate Pairs

         

1

Shawn

Adriel-Ai

Jane

Walders

118.58

               

2=

Terri

McFedries

Frank

Stewart

 

111.54

               

2=

Ian

Beattie

 

Rex

Green

 

111.54

               

4

Jeff

Bergman

Rhondda

Bergman

108.98

               

5

David

Sewell

 

Debbie

Seddon-Sewell

106.74

               
 

Junior Pairs

         

1=

Mary

McSherry

Carol

Brand

 

111.26

               

1=

Kate

Harris

 

Liz

Douglas

111.26

               

3

Robert

Bijl

 

Bronwyn

Bijl

 

110.42

               

4=

Gill

Dallison

 

Sandy

Close

 

107.92

               

4=

Dean

Garrett

 

Phil

Sanson

 

107.92

               

 

That was a mighty large average by Sam Coutts and Brad Johnston in the Open Pairs. They started with all the match-points on Board 27:

East Deals
None Vul

A 9 6 2

9 8 4 3

10 9 5

K Q

7

A Q J 6 5

Q J 8 7

J 10 2

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K Q J 4

K 7 2

6

8 7 6 4 3

 

10 8 5 3

10

A K 4 3 2

A 9 5

 

West

North

East

South

Brad

 

Sam

 

 

 

Pass

1 

1 

Dbl

2 

2 ♠

3 

3 ♠

Pass

Pass

Dbl

All pass

 

 

Looking at the West hand, Brad knew his partner’s values were in spades or clubs. He thought if they were in spades, he would get them anyway. He did not want to risk a spade in case declarer had a two-way finesse. So, he led a passive club.

Brad and Sam  may 23.jpg 
Sam and Brad along with Ian Southen representing the Christchurch Club
with the Sir Joseph Ward Trophy presented to the winners of the Canterbury 
Open Pairs. 

In theory, this does give South a chance of coming to 9 tricks as long as South plays a heart at trick 2 but South played a second club, diamond to the ace, Club-smallA discarding a diamond and tried to cash Diamond-smallK. Sam was the “party-pooper”, ruffing to play Spade-smallK.

Only now did South played a heart. However, Sam rose with the king to play two more high spades. Declarer had three losing red cards but only one trump in each hand. The defence took 4 more tricks leaving South two down: - 300.

In fact, after a club lead, the contract will not make even if South play a heart at trick 2 since a second club removes a valuable entry to the North hand. Also, a trump swich does South no good.

South can make if West leads initially two rounds of hearts as South can use both clubs to get to dummy to ruff hearts. Declarer can then score three club tricks, three heart ruffs (or waste one of East’s high trumps in ruffing the fourth heart in which case Diamond-smallK can become a trick), two spades in dummy and a high diamond to come to 9 tricks.

This time, the singleton trump was the best start for the defence, though the club was good enough. Also, not even 3Heart-small was making but Brad and Sam got off to a great start by doubling 3Spade-small…and as one can see from their score, the tops kept coming. Strangely, though, for such a big score (66.84% average), they only declared 22 out of the 60 boards played. “Sharp defence and strong competitive bidding” was how Brad described their day.

Richard Solomon

If you have a few spare minutes on Tuesday afternoon, watch part one of the on-line Seniors Zone 7 match between Australia and New Zealand. Pat Carter-Julie Atkinson and Jane and John Skipper will be representing New Zealand. There is the standard 30 minute Real Bridge kibitzer lag with the match starting at 1.00pm. Tomorrow’s match is 2 sets of 14 boards.

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