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               Our Open Team Take The Lead

With three tough matches to complete the day, the New Zealand Open Team needed a good result in their opening match of Day 3 against Korea 2…and they achieved this winning 46-12 (17.63). With the overnight leaders, India, drawing their match, this took New Zealand into second place, within 2 vps of the leaders, Chinese Taipei. Newell-Reid missed a 50% slam which made for the only significant loss but New Zealand picked up lots including 16 lovely imps for a double game swing on Board 10.

 

2 showed both majors with Ashley’s 2 being a transfer to clubs.

Michael Cornell got to make two overtricks as East in 3NT after South led a high heart. Michael elected not to duck for fear of a spade switch. However, when North took the their A, they switched to a spade. Meanwhile…..

West                     North                    East                        South

                                Newell                                                 Reid

                                                             1NT                        2

2NT                        Pass                       3NT                        4

Pass                       4                          x                            All Pass

Again 2 showed the majors though Martin Reid was not prepared to defend 3NT. 4 forced preference and Peter obliged by holding one ace, enough to make his doubled contract.

Our Ladies, too, made a good start beating 11^th placed India 68-31 (18.04). Board 10 was good for them too:

West                     North                    East                        South

                              Humphries                                             Jacob

                                                              1NT                        2 (majors)

X                             2                           Pass                       4

All Pass

Spade preference was all Steph needed to head to game. Meanwhile, Palmer-Cartner pushed their opponents to the 5 level, gaining 100. Humphries-Jacob picked up 12 more by bidding this nice distributional slam:

Humphries (dealer)                       Jacob

AK43                                             Q95

 8                                                  AK6532

 AK98754                                       106

 Q                                                 A3

                        Bidding

1                                                           1

1                                                           2 (4^TH suit)

3                                                           3

3                                                           4

4NT (RKCB in )                                     5 (2key cards +Q)

6                                                           Pass

6 made an overtrick when trumps broke 2-2. There were plenty more on the “in tray” too.

Good News All Around

In match 2, the Open Team had double good news with a 49-23 (16.38) win over Australia, great on any day but also in that it took New Zealand into the number one position, by nearly 4 vps. Whibley-Brown outbid and outplayed their opponents by making 10 tricks on the following 4 where their opponents were in part-score making just 9 tricks:

 

The major honours lay well for the NZ declarer, Michael Whibley (North) and he was able to ruff a diamond with the very valuable 9 to make 10 tricks.

Good Day for our Ladies

Our Ladies had a small win, 43-36 (12.16) over mid-table Korea 1 and in their final match beat Singapore36-26 (12.97). Three wins in the day took them up to 4^th, albeit nearly 23vps behind 3^rd placed Australia.

The New Zealand Open Team played two of the top 4 in their final two matches of the day and came away almost even, a 30-28 (10.66) over India and a 5-15 loss to Japan (7.03).

"Luck" is not involved.

Board 13 against India did not prove “unlucky” for the Indians. It was more of a case of bidding too high with two little, vulnerable, as Newell-Reid caught their opponents in 3 x:

 

Once the defence had drawn three rounds of trumps, there was nowhere for West to go for tricks. He managed just 5, 4 down vulnerable, a nice +1100 to sit very nicely when a routine 3NT was made in the other room.

The match against Japan saw no swing higher than 5imps. Malaysia did New Zealand a big favour in beating Chinese Taipei in the last match of the day, to leave New Zealand still ahead as follows:

1. New Zealand                               151.04
2. Chinese Taipei                            147.25
3. India                                            143.65
4. Japan                                          142.74                                                                                                                                          

Day 4 sees the completion of Round Robin 1, with our Open team playing 7^th and 8^th placed Korea 1 and Singapore before finishing with 12 vps for their bye. Our Ladies play China Hong Kong and Indonesia. Go The Kiwis!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

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