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Grant and Patrick. 

The Majors and the Minors ne’er do meet!

Grant Jarvis and Pat Carter emerged from very midfield to win the Auckland-Northland Main Regional Pairs in Whangarei on Saturday with a superb second session 68.60%, over 10% higher than any other pair in that session. They won averaging 60.22%, 1.6% higher than Liz and Blair Fisher with Clair Miao and Wayne Burrows a further 0.56% behind in third place.

However, it was in their mediocre first session when Patrick and Grant scored 34 out of 38 matchpoints on today’s featured hand.

Before you read on, take a stab at the shape of the four hands around the table when the bidding went as follows:

 

While you are working it out….and if you were not taking part in this event…and maybe even if you were…you might not come even close….take a look at this bidding sequence which also occurred in the same event.

 

Now, if I asked you the shape of the four hands that produced this sequence, you would have a reasonable stab. Lots of diamonds for the opener and even more clubs in the East hand.

I suppose you might have a small inkling now that those two sequences came from the same board! Really?

Yes, in one sequence, the bidding was all about the major suits and in the other, not a major suit was mentioned! So, can you now put those four hands together from the two above sequences. Which East pair got the better result?

 

In the sequence above, North must have very strict rules about pre-empting or else 3 looks a very normal opening. Grant’s pass is interesting. No doubt he expected some action round the table and awaited to see what would happen and when, or if,  he would introduce his club suit.

When Patrick overcalled in hearts, Grant decided that his “8-bagger” would remain hidden. So too was North’s nice looking diamond suit though North’s unusual shape persuaded them to go on to 4. There was still no club bidding from Grant and North-South rather wisely left the 5-level to their opponents, “wisely” as they were looking at 4 down doubled in 5, one less down if North belated called diamonds at the 6-level. Patrick had no trouble in making 11 tricks, with just 2 trump losers.

Meanwhile, the other auction started more traditionally unless you abide by the maxim of “not pre-empting a pre-empt”.  East did well to only overcall 4 though it was rather strange that West remained silent over 4. If double then is take-out style, and it really should be, then the heart fit would be found. Failing that, West could try 4. (We will ignore the situation for those pairs who play "non-leaping Michaels" where 4 shows clubs and a major, the length of the major being by agreement.) It was evident here that this East-West pair were not playing that convention. 

When West did not bid, East took the fateful step to the 5-level. South gave their opposition a chance to escape but pairs rarely run, especially into the unknown at the 5-level. The defence could not be denied their two trump tricks and AK for + 300.

Not a major suit bid in one auction: not a minor in the other! No-one tried no-trumps where apparently North-South are good for 8 tricks. What also was the other strange thing about this board? The old very true saying about never putting down an 8-card suit as dummy was proven totally wrong. Grant put his down in the dummy seat and picked up most of the match-points for doing so.

Maybe East could have proven the rule correct by calling 4 at their second turn….and have their very long club suit kept up their sleeve in the declarer seat. There is another good maxim: "no double: no trouble" and there would not have been a double. 

13 tables saw East-West fail in their contracts, two rather ambitiously in 6, the rest in clubs, sometimes doubled. Two East-West pairs other than Grant and Patrick found the heart game while the remaining two East-West pairs beat diamond partials. Interestingly, Michael Ware-Jack James passed out 3 and earnt for themselves a 70% board for doing so. 

Richard Solomon

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