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Commiserations and Congratulations

That would sum up our feelings especially for the New Zealand Women’s Team. After negotiating their way comfortably through the round-robin stage and qualifying in 14^th place (16 to qualify), 27 vps clear of the 17^th team, they were chosen by the strong England team in the Round of 16. It looked like they were on the verge of a famous victory as after 45 of the 60 boards, they led by 50  imps. That was surely a winning margin but then everything went wrong for the Kiwis as they lost the final set 13-69  to lose the match by just 6 imps…. heartbreaking.

Our Mixed team also made the top 16, finishing in 13^th place, 9 vps ahead of 17^th placed Australia. one position above the old enemy, However, they were chosen by a very much in-form Polish side and after 3 sets it was all over, Poland winning 140-46.    

There was disappointment for our other two teams. Our Open Team finished their round-robin with a bad loss to lowly Hong Kong China by 48 imps leaving them in  11^th place and  13 vps short of the coveted 8^th place. Meanwhile, our Seniors will rue missed opportunities as they finished just 4 vps and 2 places short of 16^th position.

This deal cost our NZ Women 17 imps in the final set. There were 6 boards left and New Zealand led by 11 imps. There were to be no swings in the final 5 boards. This was a must make or must defeat slam, depending on which NZ pair one was referring to:

The contract at both tables was 6 by West. In the Women’s Round of 16, 4 other pairs were in 6 and all failed. For England, North led 5 and for New Zealand, the lead was J. Alas, the New Zealand declarer did not find the winning line, a squeeze on South.

It looks like there is a loser in each black suit. The English declarer won the opening lead in hand and played 3 rounds of trumps, North winning the third round. It did not matter which suit North continued. Let’s say they exited 4 with declarer playing low from dummy, East’s 8 forcing Q in the West hand.

West continued by cashing A and then playing 2 more rounds of trumps, vital. South had already thrown 3 on the third round of spades. On the fourth round as declarer discards a club from dummy, they can discard a diamond. These cards remained:

On the last trump, declarer throws a minor card from dummy and South can throw their J. A heart to dummy sees, to West’s disappointment, North discard and declarer win A to play K… and you can see South’s predicament. Their club or heart hold has to disappear and the slam was indeed made…17 imps to England…and the match.

The slam can be beaten. North must lead a club initially and when in with the third trump must continue clubs. This breaks the squeeze as there is no longer an entry to the West hand at the crucial moment. 
                                           Defeated but with their heads held high

   
Mindy Wu and Kate Terry                           Glenis Palmer and Linda Cartner   Christine and Jenna Gibbons

A heart-breaking result which should not hide the excellent performance from our Women’s Team up to those last 15 boards.

Richard Solomon

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