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A lot has happened since you last heard from the South with three players from Otago going over for the World Bridge Championships, multiple podium placings up at the National Congress, and the Regional Congress due to happen in Balclutha.

Tournament News

James Coutts, Ellena Moskovsky, and Chris Ackerley's adventures in Wroclaw in September have been well publicised on the NZ Bridge website already. So, I'll skip to reporting the local tournament results.

In the Central Otago Teams it was Arleen Schwartz, Murat Genç, Graeme Stout and Peter Hall who took out the win, with Graeme and Peter repeating the performance in the Central Otago Pairs which followed. Elaine Moir and Judith Lawton took out the Wanaka Intermediate Pairs with a massive 71% to seal the deal in the afternoon session.

 Ronald and Diane Evans proved steady in the Balclutha Open Pairs to take home the trophy, while Moss Wylie and Anne Somerville averaged over 67% to win the Winton Open Pairs. Chris Ackerley and Murat Genç stole away up to Timaru for their Anniversary Pairs, and enjoyed all four seasons in the day to go along with their 61% average which netted them first.

“The South” performed well up in Hamilton at Congress.

Glenn Coutts and Vicki Bouton kicked off their Congress by winning the National Youth Teams alongside Blair Fisher and Jamie Thompson – while Sam Coutts, Sam Bailey, and Brad Johnston placed second along with William Han.

James Coutts won the New Zealand Pairs Plate playing with Nick Jacob.Murat Genç was second playing with John Patterson. Peter McCaskill and Jeff Thompson placed third in the Back to the Future Pairs with team mates Richard Lapthorne and Neil Hawkins.

Nick Jacob and James Coutts, winners of the New Zealand Pairs Plate and runners up in the New Zealand Teams.

Two pick-up partnerships placed well in the annual Goulash Pairs. Marilyn Jackson played with Rex Benson to fill in a phantom and ended up winning East/West, while Brad Johnston playing with Hamish Brown was second.

 In the Point a Board teams Graeme Stout, Jeff Miller, Jeff Thompson, and Peter McCaskill were the runners-up. The Mixed Pairs saw Sam Coutts and Vicki Bouton placed second after rallying with a 67.58% second session, while in the Same Sex Pairs Brad Johnston secured bronze with Jamie Thompson.

The main event of Congress is the New Zealand Teams.  The top 16 teams advance from the Swiss. From Otago/Southland we had: James Coutts who captained the team which won the qualifying by 5 Vps. Anne Somerville and Moss Wylie qualified 12^th, playing with George Sun and William Liu. Ellena Moskovsky, Glenn Coutts, Sam Coutts, Sam Bailey, and Vicki Bouton qualified 13^th.

Only James managed to advance to the Round of 8, but he enjoyed winning both his group in the Round of 16 and the Round of 8, and played the finals against the Bach team.  Sadly, the event slipped away and they finished second after the score was tied with 2 of the 6 stanzas left to play.

Bridge after Congress

 Back from Hamilton, we had the Regional Congress over Labour Weekend, which drew entrants from Invercargill up to Auckland. Director Lindsay proved herself to be a “Gunn” with what ended up being a difficult to run event.

Firstly, the Welcome Pairs on the Friday night suffered from a severe excess of sunshine, with only 6 pairs fronting up to play. Because of the small numbers, it was decided to play it as IMP pairs instead of match point pairs. Brad Johnston and David Green snuck a close victory from Glenn Coutts and Bronwyn Bouton.

The Intermediate Pairs was nearly a non-starter with only 7 pairs registered to play when the entries closed, but Lindsay was able to press-gang another 7 pairs who couldn't think of an excuse quickly enough when she started twisting arms, with one of these pairs ending up winning. Locals David and Lesley Larsen from Dunedin and Jen White and Richard Hishon from Winton partook in a two-horse race with the Larsens edging out the victory, while Dorothy Butterfield and Liz Nidd were third but nearly 10% behind Jen and Richard.

The Open Pairs was contested by 20 pairs, with Dunedin coming up trumps in the placings. Winners Graeme Stout and Jeff Miller had a comfortable 4% average on the bridesmaids Murat Genç and Dean Eidler, with brothers James and Sam Coutts placing third.

 

The Congress Teams had an awkward number of 13 teams compete.  So there was the added excitement of ensuring the results were entered correctly from the trifecta every second match. Somerville (Anne Somerville, Moss Wylie, Murat Genç, and Dean Eidler) won being more than 14 Vps ahead of the second placing Freeland (Paul Freeland, Margaret Perley, Chris Ackerley, and Arleen Schwartz). The last placing to be awarded prize money was hotly contested, with Sheehy (Frances Sheehy, Donna Ruwhiu, Kaye Wilson, and Wyn Jones) securing it with a head-to-head win against the fourth place team in their last match.

How to win a short Teams match.

Moss Wylie shared the following hand, as an example of the bold bidding needed to succeed in short Teams matches – where one big result can secure a win. Moss was sitting North, with Anne Somerville South.

 

2 was Precision, showing either 6+ clubs, or 5+ clubs and a 4 card major, and 10-15 points. Anne chose to only overcall 2 instead of bidding 2NT with a passed partner and only one hold in each side suit. Upon hearing his partner’s bid, Moss leapt to 5, a contract which can go light with best defence. However defending doubled contracts, players have been known to slip tricks. When West led the Q instead of the A and another, Anne had enough time to establish the spade suit in dummy to pitch her losing heart, ruff her losing clubs, and draw trumps. +550 to the good guys.

There are not many more local tournaments for the year, but Dunedin is lucky enough to be hosting the Inter-Provincials at the end of November. So, we're slowly gearing up for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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