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Stephen and Annette Henry, Liz Fisher and Dwayne Crombie, 
2024 Fullarton Teams winners. 

Close Contest in Fullarton Teams.

The two grand-slams featured in the two articles so far this week came from last weekend’s Fullarton Teams which were held at the Napier Bridge Club last weekend. The event held over 2 days and with 7 x 12 board rounds had an extremely close finish.

After 5 rounds, Tuffnell, Graeme Tuffnell, Kinga Hajmasi, Tim Schumacher and George Masters had a small lead. However, they dropped to 4^th when they lost their next match to Henry, Stephen Henry- Dwayne Crombie, Annette Henry – Liz Fisher.  

With one match left, Henry trailed Ware, Michael Ware – David Skipper, Blair Fisher – Jack James by just 0.05 of a vp. In 3^rd place were Fraser- Hoskin, Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin – Zachary Yan, Wayne Burrows- Andrei Sharko, a mere 0.49 vp off the pace.

In the final round, Tuffnell did themselves and 2 of their rivals a big favour by beating Ware 16.18 – 3.82 but both Henry and Fraser-Hoskin had huge wins, scoring 19.74 and 17.24 to leave the top positions as:

1.    Henry                                                100.01

2.    Fraser-Hoskin                                    97.07

3.    Tuffnell                                               90.74

4.    Ware                                                   84.14

 

 
2nd placed Andrei Sharko, Wayne Burrows, Jeremy Fraser-Hoskins and Zachary Yan

Thus, an excellent win for 2 rather untried partnerships, a brand new one for Annette Henry and Liz Fisher and one not seen for very many years in Stephen Henry and Dwayne Crombie.

While his three teammates are extremely active current tournament players, Dwayne Crombie is not. Indeed, until earlier this year, he had not been seen at a bridge table for a very long time. Active in the 1980’s and 1990’s and a few years after, he played several times in the New Zealand Open Team firstly with Martin Reid in 1987, 1988 and 1990 (when New Zealand Open Team won the FEBF Championship) and then with Michael Cornell in 2000, 2004 and 2005. It would seem he has not lost his touch.

How would you feel about this bidding? You are East:

 

2 was a Weak 2 and North’s double was not for take-out! How about you? Are you going anywhere?

While you are thinking about the above, what would you bid as South here? 1 promises at least a 5-card suit.

 

Whatever you might think of splinters with only three trumps, this time the 3 splinter worked just a treat.

Blair Fisher and Jack James did reach 5 but the only one of the 16 North-South pairs to reach the slam were Annette Henry and Liz Fisher after this sequence:

 

 

4, 4, 4 and 5 were all cue-bids, first or second round. With wonderful trumps, Liz jumped to slam. She received a low club lead from East and could set up dummy’s diamonds for the loss of one trick: 6 making.

Back then to East’s dilemma. Trust partner for a decent hand and reasonable trumps or go seeking for possible safety in a minor suit. Unfortunately for East, this was not the time to pass the board out:

 

 

2NT from East (minors) would have got 3 and a successful rescue from West. 3 would not have gone more than one down at worst though North would surely have headed off to making a comfortable 10/11 tricks in 4.

However, Liz Fisher’s penalty double brought a huge reward as West could manage only their top 2 trumps and a club trick, -5 or -1400. 4 other West’s suffered though Liz and Annette extracted the most tricks. Liz led K and it seems that when Annette won a heart switch, she was able to play 9. The spade pips then favoured Liz. At the other table, 4 made 10 tricks, 13 very handy imps in Henry's round 7 win.

It is not always correct to run but this time it certainly was.

A nice result for the Fisher team. A good weekend’s bridge well run by the director, Lorraine Stachurski, and the Napier Bridge Club.

Richard Solomon

photos courtesy of Nan Wehipeihana

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