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Fine Finish for winners of National Pairs.

The National Pairs, the final of the national events ( outside the Inter-Provincials) took place at the Auckland Bridge Club this past weekend. Some of our international players had still to return from overseas though there was still a challenging field of 38 pairs taking part.

The event was a complete round-robin of 3 – board rounds, 111 boards in all, divided into five sessions of either 21 or 24 boards. When the music stopped, it was Jo and Sam Simpson who emerged with a reasonably comfortable winning margin.

This board from their event winning final session of 67.99 % was doubly significant since it was against the pair who had led for most of the five sessions:

 

1C was strong, Precision style, with North’s 2D showing either a single-suited heart hand or else both black suits. Sam’2NT showed a positive (8+ hcp) with a hold in the theoretically known opposition suit, hearts.

The next two bids were natural though the bidding then got interesting. 4C was Minorwood though did not promise a club suit. Sam’s 4H showed 1 or 4 key-cards. Her partner’s no-trump bids did not excite Jo and 4S was indeed to play. Indeed, had Sam’s ace been in hearts, then the diamond lead which North found would have defeated the slam.

However, Sam made the key bid of 5C, showing possession of the CQ and of a club suit if indeed 4C had been a genuine suit. Jo was thus happy to raise to small slam.

The even trump break and Sam’s more than useful S10 meant that 13 tricks were easy to achieve.

While Aaron Starr and Brett Glass bid and made 7C, only one other pair, Malcolm Mayer- Brian Mace, bid the small slam.  No pair tried 6S, beaten on a heart lead. This being Pairs, the several pairs who played 3NT outscored those in either black suit game with their + 460 score.

One board later, our same North rather regretted showing value on the following deal:

 

 2D was a 3-way Multi and rather anticipating that their partner held a strong hand, North made a “values, what have you got, partner” double. Had North passed, East may well have passed as well giving North-South a certain plus score.

However, Sam pulled out the “rescue redouble” card. 3D was passed out and thus game was missed. North led a trump rather than a heart which was the only lead to stop 12 tricks for East-West. Nevertheless, +170 was a 78% board for Jo and Sam.

The top prize winners in the event were:

							%	Matchpoints
1	Jo	Simpson		Sam	Simpson		57.44	2295.1
2	Malcolm	Mayer		Brian	Mace		55.43	2215.1
3	Jeremy	Fraser-Hoskin		Moss	Wylie		55.08	2200.9
4	George	Masters		Leon	Meier		54.81	2190.1
5	Ian	Berrington		Graeme	Tuffnell		54.78	2188.9
6	Anna	Kalma		Richard	Solomon		54.55	2187.9

 

Ian Berrington and Graeme Tuffnell also saved their best until last with the top session score of the weekend, 71.69% in the final session.

The director was Caroline Wiggins with the scorer Murray Wiggins and the event being well run by them and the Auckland-Northland Region and the Auckland Bridge Club.

Richard Solomon

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