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Dougal McLean, after whom the prized overall Regional Trophy is named. 

Canterbury’s Weekend at the Regional Championships

The 2024 Regional Championship winners are Canterbury, victorious in both the Women’s and Intermediate competitions, 3^rd in the Seniors event and 4^th in the Open event.

These then are the points for the Dougal MacLean Trophy:

1	Canterbury			40
2=	Otago-Southland			29
2=	Wellington			29
4	Waikato Bays			26
5	Central Districts			24
6	Auckland-Northland			22
7	Top of The South			2

 
Canterbury chef de mission, John Skipper, accepts the Dougal Mclean Trophy 
from NZ Bridge Chairman, Allan Morris

There were close finishes in some of the events, especially in the Open where Wellington had to avoid losing by more than 16 imps to Auckland-Northland in the final match. Auckland-Northland who had led for just about all the event won the match by 13 imps and would curse they did not take full advantage of a poor result by their opponents only 3 boards from the end. Auckland-Northland gained 5 imps on the board but could so easily have gained 10 more.

The Women’s competition was a curious affair with Canterbury starting very strongly but only having one win in the Second Round Robin and yet still winning by over 15 vps. Second placed Central Districts only won two of their second round matches.

 
4 very happy ladies from Christchurch: Shirley Newton, Margaret Burgess, 
Sue Southen and Pam Tibble

Otago-Southland were ahead throughout the whole Seniors competition and finished over 22 vps ahead of second placed Waikato Bays.

Canterbury finished strongly in the Intermediate event beating their 2 closest rivals in the final two rounds to finish 12 vps ahead of Otago Southland.

Open
1	Wellington			197.49
2	Auckland-Northland			195.35
3	Waikato Bays			153.72
Women
1	Canterbury			169.08
2	Central Districts			153.38
3	Waikato Bays			152.42
Seniors
1	Otago Southland			183.23
2	Waikato Bays			160.64
3	Canterbury			155.17
Intermediate
1	Canterbury			177.82
2	Otago Southland			165.77
3	Central Districts			155.42

The winning teams were:

Open: Alan Grant- Anthony Ker, Martin Reid- Peter Newell, Russell Dive- Mariusz Tumilowicz

Women: Shirley Newton- Margaret Burgess, Sue Southen- Pam Tibble

Seniors: Pamela Nisbet – Graeme Stout, Frances Sheehy- Philip Hensman

Intermediate : Shawn Adriel-Al – Jane Walders, Judy Parkinson- Philippa Borlase

      This would be one of the deals of the tournament:

A Deep Hold

Round 8 featured at least one very dramatic deal. Try this as a defensive problem. You are West.

 

Your opening bid promised less than an opener with both major suits. 

It would be fair to say North has a reasonable hand! Your partner leads 4 with North playing J under your ace. You switch to 2 and declarer wins A and then plays 5 more high diamonds. East follows to the 3 rounds of diamonds and then discards 2, low encouraging and then discards 5 and 6.  Which 4 cards do you discard?

It hardly seemed necessary but you must keep all 5 spades if you want to beat the contract as this was the full lay-out:

 

 

The above was the situation in the Auckland- Northland v Central Districts first-round match. The declarer was Auckland- Northland’s Malcolm Mayer. Alas for Central Districts, West let go a spade along with their remaining hearts.

That proved fatal as all North’s spades came good. That was a pity because unless East found a trump lead, a heart to the ace and a trump switch was the only legitimate way to beat the slam. Maybe after discarding their low club, East could have discarded their 2 fairly useless spades which could then have drawn West’s attention to their own holding.

That was a huge slam in that match as the CD North-South pair played in 5, a comfortable make. The 13 imps could so easily have gone the other way.

In the Open field, 4 of the 6 pairs bid and made 6 with one over-ambitious pair unsuccessful in 7. 5 of the 6 Women’s pairs bid 6 and 4 of them made it. Not so against Otago-Southland’s Emma Strong- Anne Somerville where a trump was led.

In the Seniors’ Canterbury – Top of the South match, Barbara Fechney, for Top of the South,  found a trump lead to beat 6 when a surprised South ended as declarer, presumably after a negative response to a 2 opening. 6 made twice though 2 pairs here were unsuccessful in 6 while another made 4.

The Intermediates were more consistent. All made their contract, 2 in 6 and 4 in 5.

Those trump leads can be quite effective against some slams!

More from this event tomorrow. Meanwhile, thanks to Caroline and Murray Wiggins, Bridget and all the helpers in Wellington, including those who assisted with and commented on the BBO match per round. It seems to have been an exciting and most enjoyable weekend’s bridge.

Richard Solomon

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