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Hugh McGann, Michael Ware, Matthew McManus, Mike Doecke. 

Near Easter Double for Michael and Matthew.

It was nearly a perfect Easter for Michael Ware and Matthew McManus as they were in the winning team in the Auckland Open Teams and were under 10 matchpoints away from 1^st place in the Open Pairs.

Auckland’s Easter Congress was a popular and well run event. Players came from all over the country and beyond. These were the top placings:

	Intermediate Pairs				M'Points
1	Bill Leach		Kerri McCrae		671.75
2	Steve Moore		Bill Longney		638.09
3	Graeme Duhs		Andrew Robertson		634.00
4	Thomas Freeman-Greene		Jody Burchall		620.82
5	Heather Richards		Rosemary Jackson		613.75
	Open Pairs
1	Jenna Gibbons		Julian Foster		1393.44
2	Matthew McManus		Michael Ware		1384.61
3	GeO Tislevoll		Faith Tislevoll		1374.78
4	Kevin Hu		Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin		1370.83
5	Lysandra Zheng		Tim Pan		1369.94
	Open Teams
1	Michael Ware		Matthew McManus		Hugh McGann		Mike Doecke		117.53
2	Blair Fisher		Liz Fisher		Jo Simpson		Sam Simpson		113.77
3	Tim Pan		Lysandra Zheng		Zachary Yan		Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin		110.69
4	Richard Solomon		Anna Kalma		Alice Young		George Sun		110.38
5	Jun Lei		Jeter Liu		Andrew Liu		Jerry Chen		109.83
	Easter Monday 3A Pairs
N/S					%
1	Monica Cheng		Andrew Michl		124.07
2	Brett Glass		Emma Russell		115.49
3	Lindsay Glover		Greg Buzzard		112.54
E/W
1	John Buckleton		Pamela Marsland		118.27
2	Carol Joseph		Barbara Imlach		117.68
3	Joy Watkinson		Nicky Bowers		114.48

 

The following board was from Round 2 of the Teams event. Here are the East-West hands:

 

Where would you like to play these hands? 3NT by East seems a very sound spot, in danger only if North held all four missing diamonds. A typical auction might start with 1from West, 1NT from East and then 3NT from West….no problem.

However, Liz and Blair Fisher use relays on most game-going hands. This time, their relay took them uncomfortably high with Blair ending in 5 as East. South led A and a second spade, which was good and less good news for Blair. With clubs breaking 3-3, how would you play to ensure your contract?

Remember you are playing Teams. The overtrick which you might make would be nice to have but with your opposition safely in 3NT by the right declarer, you must consider what might go wrong here and what you can do about it.

Firstly, Blair played 3 rounds of clubs and ruffed the third round in the West hand with 8. The 3-3 club break was good news but he was not home yet. Barring an unlikely doubleton KQ in an opponent’s hand, or an even less likely singleton heart honour in the South hand, the only entry to his established clubs was the 10 and that was not going to be an entry if an opponent held 3 diamonds headed by the jack.

Rather than rely on a 2-2  trump break, Blair led A and then  a small diamond away from dummy’s KQ to allow J to score a trick. If a defender held originally Jxx, they could duck this and the diamond continuation but would they? Great defence if they did duck.

 

If the defender with J to three, did duck, Blair would still make his contract by playing a 4th round of clubs as the defender ruffs. One heart is discarded and Blair can win the heart continuation and return to his hand with 10 to discard dummy's remaining small heart on his last club. 

In fact, the 2-2 break meant the “safety play” of ducking a diamond was unnecessary and Blair lost an imp and an overtrick but it could have been in a very good cause.

Interestingly, at 8 tables, West was declarer in 3NT but only once was a spade led to beat the game. Probably, North’s better heart cards encouraged the majority to make the wrong choice.

Richard Solomon

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