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a view you might have seen were this tournament not on-line. 

Aussies to the fore in the South Island Teams.

The Picton Bridge Club hosted the on-line South Island Teams over 2 days this past weekend. It consisted of 8 rounds of 14 boards, 4 rounds each day, a format which seems to have been well received by the players. The event was certainly popular with 48 teams in all taking part including some Australians. Indeed, Australians were to have a big impact at the top. The event was well organised and directed by Chris Marshall, Martin Oyston and Justine Hart with Kevin Walker scoring. With the North Island Teams in 2 weeks’ time already having 37 teams entered, the debate about on-line and live tournaments in the future will be an interesting one.

With one round to go, three teams had a real chance of winning the event:

Butts                101.99 Joan Butts, Michael Courtney, Peter Gill, Liz Adams

Shoehands      100.76 Matthew McManus, Sam and James Coutts, Brad Johnston

Livingston       100.67 Pam Livingston, Jan Alabaster, Malcolm Mayer, Michael Ware

Butts was to play Livingston and Shoehands to play Schumacher (Tim Schumacher, David Skipper, Bob Hurley, Russell Wilson) who were lying 4^th around 10 vps off the pace.

The last match saw Butts win by 16 imps and Schumacher by 4 to leave the final results as follows:

1.     Butts                116.41

2.     Shoehands      109.48

3.     Livingston       106.25

4.     Schumacher    102.73

5.     Johnstone       102.71  Michael Johnstone, Paula Gregory, Harry Shepherd, Greg Buzzard

 

So, victory to the all-Australian Butts team. It seems that key boards in the last match take on great significance and that is certainly true of the 6 slam referred to in the second deal below.

How would tackle 6 as South after East had made a weak jump in spades?

West leads 10. If you test trumps, West has three.

 

Michael Courtney of the Butts team is an interesting player. Here are two sides of his game which were very instrumental to his team’s success.

It seems he really subscribes to the theory that if you have a hold in the pre-emptor’s suit, then you should be in 3NT. Take a look at his hand and bid here:

 

Michael hoped for 9 quick tricks and Joan knew not to disturb such a bid from her partner! Joan also provided the perfect dummy especially with the high diamonds with East. East led K taken by Michael who played Q covered and won in the North hand. He then ran 6 rounds of spades leaving East helpless when Michael led a small diamond at trick 9.

No other pair played in 3NT and no pair scored 10 tricks in 4..and those in 5 fared even worse!

However, Michael’s contract was more mainstream on this next board. While half the declarers in 6 failed to make their slam and many in game only made 11 tricks, Michael found a safe way to come to 12 tricks:

 

 

3 was a natural slam try with 5 showing 2 key cards and Q. East led K. (The problem is the same whether North or South is declarer.) The slam is an easy make if trumps break 2-2 (just lose one spade) or if diamonds break 3-3 or if either opponent has doubleton or singleton J. Michael found a neat way to come to 12 tricks when trumps did not behave, requiring West to have 3 or more diamonds.

He won the K opening lead and played KQ. Leaving a trump out, he played a club to the ace and ruffed a club. Then diamond to the ace and a second club ruff. Back to K and a third club ruff. He cashed Q and these cards remained:

Michael continued with the losing diamond in the North hand and threw the losing spade on this trick, allowing the South to take the last two tricks. Had the diamond break been 3-3, then he could have thrown South’s losing spade on the 4^th round of diamonds. Had East held 4 diamonds, he would have been no worse off than those who tried three rounds of diamonds hoping for a even break.

Of those in 6, 11 succeeded and 10 failed, not an easy slam to play.

With 6 failing at the other table, this board produced 17 imps for the winners, one more than their victory margin in this match. In the Shoehands v Schumacher match, it was an almost flat board in 4 with Schumacher gaining one imp for making the second overtrick.
Opportunities there for all four teams.

Richard Solomon

 

 

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