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Day 6 : a day of promise.

A good or better day for all three Kiwi teams though all eyes are now on our Open Team who are in the top 8 and playing consistently well. A small loss to Israel was followed  by wins over USA 2 and Chile and they finished the day in 7^th place, 10.31 vps ahead of 9^th placed China and only 4 vps behind Italy in 4^th place. Italy are their next opponents to be followed by Hong Kong China and Ireland.

New Zealand Results
Open			imps		vps		position
Israel			33-31		10.61		6
USA2			54-37		14.39		5
Chile			27-23		11.2		7
Women
Israel			13-64		0.75		15
Morocco			40-28		13.28		15
Turkey			24-6		14.6		15
Mixed
United Arab Emirates			23-50		3.74		21
Israel			49-55		8.24		20
Barbados			37-22		13.97		19

 

Two wins a ‘piece for our Women and Mixed teams, with the Women’s victory over 3^rd placed Turkey being the most impressive. Back though to our Open Team against Israel and one rather important card, J.

 

Matt Brown’s 1 was 2+ clubs and the Israeli pair soon unearthed their club fit. With the North hand weak, 3 looked the limit for North-South. With some defence, Matt Brown doubled the final contract and led his singleton heart.

With the club finesse working, it looks superficially that this contract can be made though declarer cannot draw trumps because of the two losing spades in the East hand. If the contract could be made, it would not be easy. 

Recognising this and that the lead was probably a singleton, declarer won A and played K at trick 2. Matt won his ace and exited a second diamond. Guessing South had the majority of the missing diamonds, declarer put in 10…and within seconds the defence had scored J, K and K as an over-ruff following the third round of hearts…two down, +500.

Meanwhile at the other table:

The opening bid and lead proved crucial. Michael Ware’s 1NT showed clubs, meaning that Malcolm Mayer, West, got to be declarer in the same contract. North’s “crime” was to lead his partner’s opening suit with J! South played A and a second diamond.  Now Malcolm Mayer could play a spade to dummy and draw trumps via the finesse. Two spades disappeared on the high diamonds and Malcolm only lost A and K….+750 and 15 most valuable imps in.

After only 5 boards against USA 2, New Zealand were 39-0 up but watch the following:

 

3 was a major suit enquiry and 3 showed a 5-card suit. It looks like Matt Brown has a trump, a club and two diamonds to lose..but watch! West led a low heart won in dummy. Q won the next trick and Matt played J losing to West’s king. West returned a third spade. East’s discard on the third spade was Q, showing a run in the suit.

Matt won in hand to play K, ducked to be followed by a trump on which East discarded 10, giving count in that suit to his partner. Thus, when Matt played a second club, West ducked that as well.

Matt had one last slim chance. He cashed his two remaining heart winners and then played his third club. With no hearts left, West was end-played into leading A and a second diamond… contract made.

I said 39-0 up after 5 boards but Board 4 was the only flat board among those 5 as the same play had been found at the other table!

Unfortunately, the Americans picked up three significant swings in the remaining 11 boards though the Kiwis still recorded an impressive 17 imp victory.

The following board was good and bad for New Zealand, good for the Open Team but not so good for our Women.

 

At the other table in both Open and Women’s matches and at both tables in the NZ Mixed match, East had been left to play comfortably in 4 making an overtrick. Not so Michael Whibley or Carol Richardson- Andi Boughey’s opponents.

Matt decided to let his partner play in his first bid suit, diamonds, while Carol and Andi were defending 5x. At both tables, the lead was A and a second spade. Both declarers then led a club from the South hand. When the Wests ducked, both East players scored their J… good and not so good for the defenders.

Against Michael Whibley, East exited with K, meaning the defence could only take 2 more club tricks and a diamond. That left Matt 3 down …- 500 and a 5 imp gain. Carol was forced to lead away from her heart holding or give a ruff and discard. The Israeli North only lost 3 trumps and A for down 2 and that was 8 imps away.

It is not always a plus to win a cheap trick!

In Denmark and China, our Women take on next two teams challenging for the top 8. They also face Egypt. The same applies to our Mixed Team who face China and Belgium along with Canada who are just above them in the table.

Richard Solomon

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