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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Loveblock New Zealand Wide Pairs.

A Franklin Win.

Lynne Geursen and Grant Jarvis of the Franklin Bridge Club took line honours in last Friday night’s Loveblock New Zealand Wide Pairs which was contested at 51 clubs throughout the country. Two further heats were run though one club played the wrong boards and another had technical issues which could not be overcome.

These were the prize-winners in the various categories. Each of the following players will receive a pack containing two bottles of Loveblock wine.

Overall

       

Club

 

Club

Across the

 
             

Score

field score

 
             

%

%

   

1

Lynne Geursen

Grant Jarvis

Franklin

73.84

73.50

   
                     

2

Jeanne Wardill

Graeme Cheater

Waikanae

71.15

70.61

   
                     

3

Vincelle Marvin

Frank Roach

Gisborne

65.42

69.11

   
                     

4

Christine Wood

Sally Shaw

Whakatane

66.20

69.05

   
                     

5

Anthea Black

Naciye Bagci

Levin

 

72.84

68.84

   
                     

Restricted Open

                 

1

Sue Whitten

 

Greg Whitten

Hastings

63.69

68.29

   
                     

2

Dennis Norman

Stuart Tuffley

Oamaru

67.88

66.51

   
                     

Intermediate

                 

1

Brian McCandless

Jill McChlery

Te Anau

68.75

66.10

   
                     

2

Robyn Hellier

Yvonne Braithwaite

Gore

 

69.50

65.47

   
                     

Junior

                   

1

Lysandra Zheng

Tim Pan

Howick

 

66.44

62.69

   
                     

2

Heugh Kelly

 

Sue Nicholls

Warkworth

62.7

60.96

   
                     

Novice

                   

1

Anthony Julian

John Bouwman

Franklin

 

48.84

53.21

   
                     

Nearest 50%

                 
 

Neil Burrell

 

Christine Holdaway

Picton

 

54.86

50.03

   

 

Jeanne Wardill and Graeme Cheater can consider themselves unlucky to post such a high score and still be beaten overall by nearly 3%.

Of the top 10 scores, there were 4 in both directions (though the top 2 were East-West) while the other two played in Howell movements. So, congratulations to the all- Intermediate pairing of Vincelle Marvin and Frank Roach who topped the North-South field. As was stated in the booklet, pairs can only win one prize: hence the “hand-downs” of some prizes.

Altogether, there were 856 pairs taking part in the 51 heats. The largest heats took place at Christchurch (19.5 tables), Waikanae (15), South Wairarapa/Masterton (14) Kairangi (13), Mt Albert, Royle Epsom and Wellington (12), Oamaru and Upper Hutt (11)  Feilding, Franklin, Howick/Papatoetoe, Nelson, Picton/Marlborough, Taradale, Te Awamutu/Waitomo and Winton (10 each).

Thanks to all clubs who ran heats, large and small, and to all those involved in their organisation. Also, thanks to the scoring team of Jan Spaans, Bob Fearn and Michael Neels who ensured that 49 of the 51 clubs had their scores recorded before midnight on the Friday evening. We anticipate that the event will raise around $14,000 for the New Zealand Bridge Foundation.

Among those I noticed taking part was 101 years young Arch Jelley who scored a very respectable 58.42% at Mt Albert.

One key factor in any round of Pairs is scoring as many overtricks as possible. Lynne Geursen and Grant Jarvis, who have played in this event at Franklin in all its 26 years, showed this on Board 3. They missed a very good small slam but Grant ensured they picked up an 80% board by making all 13 tricks as follows:

Bridge in NZ.png nz map.jpg

Board 3
South Deals
E-W Vul

8 3 2

K 10 8 7

K 4

Q 8 6 3

K J 10 7 6

Q J 6 5 2

J 5

2

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

A Q 9 5

A

A Q 9 6 3

A J 9

 

4

9 4 3

10 8 7 2

K 10 7 5 4

Grant (West) won the Club-small3 lead in dummy and ruffed a club in his hand. Next came a diamond to the Diamond-smallQ and a second club ruff with Spade-small10. A diamond to the ace was followed by a diamond ruff with Spade-smallJ and then a heart to the ace and a second diamond ruff with Spade-smallK. He could now play his remaining small spade to dummy drawing   trumps with dummy’s Spade-smallAQ9 before enjoying the 13th diamond at trick 13.

Basically, Grant completed a dummy reversal in ruffing 2 clubs and 2 diamonds in his hand and drawing trumps with dummy’s trumps. The timing of his entries to dummy would have been important had a trump been led at trick 1. Ruff the clubs first and do not cash Diamond-smallA early, using that as one of his entries to dummy. The moral is that declarer should not even draw one round of trumps, though 13 tricks can still be made. 

Grant Jarvis nov 23.jpg 
A 73% round brings a smile 
to Grant's face. 

Making all 13 tricks was an 80% board which suggests many did not play this on a cross-ruff. Making 12 tricks was still worth 65% while just making 11 tricks was only a 40% board. Even though the small slam is a good one, you did not have to bid it to score well on the board. Making the overtricks was all important.

Richard Solomon

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