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Matches lost but not the lead.

A run of 18 matches without defeat by our Open Team came to an end with a 2 imp loss to Indonesia yesterday morning, a match in which the Kiwis could not quite peg back enough 1 imp swings to catch up their opponents. However, Australia did the Kiwis a great favour by taking 17.77 vps off China in the same round.

Another small then a larger defeat followed as the lead at the top started to shrink but a great win over Japan at the end of the day saw the Kiwis finish 11.71  vps ahead with just three matches to go….and the first those will be against China.

	Open
1	New Zealand		303.67				Round
					Round Robin 2		3	v	Indonesia	12 -14	9.34
2	China		291.86				4	v	Korea	24-28	8.72
							5	v	Chinese Taipei	22-43	4.54
3	Chinese Taipei		274.29				6	v	Japan	38-12	16.38
4	China Hong Kong		272.60
5	India		258.01

 

Far better to be 11.71 vps ahead than behind.

Try this lead problem.

We will give you the full relay auction later. Suffice to say that after East passed, South opened a 12-15 hcp 1NT. North’s bids were all relays with South showing a 2443 shape and the following controls:

1 or 2 of AKQ

1 or 2 of AKQ

0 or 3 of AKQ.

With that information, North bid 6. It’s your lead with the weak no trump hand on your right?

Today, we feature two key decisions which contributed to the New Zealand lead yesterday. In our first board, 10 of the 12 tables in play reached a 21 hcp game making a couple of overtricks. At one table, the China Macau East-West passed the board in: well, neither player had 12 hcp to open! Then there was Bach- Cornell:

 

Even pre-emptive bidding did not stop the Kiwis. 2 was natural and a 1-round force. When Michael Cornell cue-bid his diamond singleton “just in case his partner was strong”, Ashley Bach returned the compliment in spades. Ashley then showed 2 key cards but no Q. No worries for Michael as he bid the slam. Not an honour card wasted and a huge relief when the Q fell on the second round of trumps.

That was 11 most valuable imps in to reduce the loss to Korea to just 4 imps. The following is a 26 “imper” as the Japanese North-South played quietly in 4. Before continuing, have you decided on your lead with the hand above?

 

 

Chen Dawei for Japan found the inspired lead of the 2, working out that the K certainly and Q probably were on his left, certainly not on his right. Martin played K at trick 1 and that card won the trick.

Martin drew trumps and played AK and ruffed a diamond, then three rounds of spades ruffing in the South hand. No helpful Q appearing: no helpful news at all. So, it had to be a second club from his hand towards dummy….and 4 came from West. Paying great credit to his opponent, Martin went up with the Q to make the contract. Top lead and defence matched by top play and 13 imps to New Zealand.

 
no apologies needed in showing the picture of Martin again. Certainly, the 
hero of Board 26. 

That added to another great slam bid by Cornell-Bach at the other table on the previous board, 13 more imps in and 26 of the 38 imps New Zealand won against Japan in 2 successive boards.

Our Women and Mixed Teams

	Women	11 teams			Round Robin 2		Round
6	Australia		173.37				5	v	Bye		12.00
							6	v	Korea	13-35	4.34
7	India		168.61				7	v	Chinese Taipei	37-14	15.85
							8	v	China	17-42	3.79
8	New Zealand		165.83
9	Japan		156.90
10	Korea		147.98
	Mixed	12 teams
8	China Hong Kong		151.47				5	v	India	20-59	1.71
							6	v	Australia	44-43	10.35
9	Japan		145.01				7	v	Thailand	12 -49	1.96
							8	v	China Hong Kong	20-21	9.67
10	Korea		126.57
11	Philippines		121.04
12	New Zealand		100.90

 

A disappointing loss to lowly Korea was followed by two tough matches for our Women’s team. Thus, the win against Chinese Taipei was a good result and the loss to the leaders China not unexpected.

It looked more of the same four our Mixed Team as they trailed India 59-0 with two boards to go though 20 imps on those two boards gave some respectability to the score. The same happened against Australia in the next match but more spectacularly. 7-42 down with just a handful of boards to play, the Kiwis picked up 37 imps in 4 boards to finally record a win, only by 1 imp but a relief for the team. Although they were at least competitive too against China Hong Kong, it looks like they will end tomorrow in bottom place.

Three worried men?

   
Surely not! They have been the npcs of the three teams in Hong Kong: Jonathan Westoby, Open Team,
Kris Wooles, Women's Team and Douglas Russell, the Mixed Team. Jonathan is also overall Chef de Mission. 
Is Douglas itching to get his hands on some cards? 

Meanwhile, our Women eye 6^th place though all eyes will surely be on our Open Team who face China, India  and then Singapore in their quest for the title. As well as New Zealand, China play Chinese Taipei and China Hong Kong.  I am sure all Kiwis wish our team well.

Richard Solomon

 

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