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18th World Youth Teams Championships

Mixed Finish for our Youth at Veldhoven.

New Zealand ended with two defeats including to table-topping Poland and one good win at the World Youth Championships last Friday. These were their final day scores:

Canada		14-56		1.35
Norway		34-6		16.72
Poland		18-39		4.54

 

That left New Zealand in 15^th place, a position they occupied for almost all of the second half of the competition, in the 20 country event. The Kiwis recorded 8 wins though their losses generally were larger. An average of just under 9 vps per match was certainly no disgrace and hopefully will prove great experience for our largely very inexperienced team.

While New Zealand scored 170.50 vps, Australia finished 10^th on 207.07 while the bottom of the 8 qualifiers were England on 224.40. Of the top 4, only Israel made it through to the semi-finals, along with USA 2, China and Denmark. The Danes and USA 2 won through to the final which takes place today.

While the team’s win against Norway featured 10 smallish swings in to 1 out, the team had Leon Meier to thank as the loss against Canada would have been greater but for his bidding on the following:

 

Spade support from Zachary (a pre-emptive 3 following 2) would have helped Leon but he listened to the bidding and acted accordingly. 4 was a splinter in support of hearts and 6 a void splinter. Leon did not wait to find out where his opponents wanted to finish but bid on on his own.

The lead to 6x was 6 which East ruffed. The defence then only took two more tricks when East could have got a second ruff for down 3 (-500). In giving his partner a ruff, West should have led Q asking for a heart not a club return after the ruff. It would be much easier to lead back a heart than under-lead AKQ.

-300 or -500….either result was great for the team sacrificing as 6 was unbeatable. It is very hard to judge how many tricks defenders have in such auctions and if the sacrifice is cheap, it is often worth taking (insurance!). Here, Leon could tell he did not have a diamond trick against 6. In the 10 matches, there were 5 swings of 13 or more imps because North-South pairs did not follow that advice.

Unfortunately, the auction at the other table died one level too low from New Zealand’s point of view:

 

After North’s minimum spade support, Alice lost her opportunity to support hearts. The bidding then came back to her at a rather high level. With her opponents bidding spades aggressively, she could imagine that her partner was very short in that suit….and since she had total control in the minors, might have chanced 6. Here, after a high heart lead, the defence took one trick in each side-suit for +100 and 5 imps out.

                            The New Zealand Under 21 Team

 
   Alice                                                       Zachary                                   Ryan

 
Ramon                                                Leon

The Kiwis then split into two mixed Australia/New Zealand/Japan teams in a 2-day point a board style competition in which they played against Under 26 and Under 31 teams as well as their own age group. Neither team fared well. Nevertheless, while the main event had not gone well for the Kiwis, their final position was respectable: a worthwhile experience.

Richard Solomon

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