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DISAPPOINTMENT ALL ROUND

At the start of the final day of the double-robin event, the New Zealand Open Team was in third place. Good performances in their three matches against the other top teams and anything was possible. They started against China…and did not get the result they were seeking, losing 7-39 (2.66), dropping New Zealand to 5^th, 19 vps behind China who now led by 4vps from Chinese Taipei.

Nothing majorly bad happened. However, would you like to be in 6 on these East-West cards?

 

Presumably after strong 2NT openers, the two West players were declarer. Brown-Whibley stayed in game, the Chinese in slam. It all came down to a favourable trump break and the location of the K. The slam was unbeatable from the West seat, giving China 11 of their imps.

Our next opponents were Chinese Taipei. The score line was again depressing 12-21 (7.29). That narrow victory put the Chinese Taipei team into the lead as China only scored 3.97 off Japan. New Zealand dropped to a disappointing 6^th, their lowest place in the whole event. Once again, it was a slam swing that cost New Zealand with Whibley – Brown stopping in 5 while their opponents were a level higher:

 

Slam is not quite as good as one of two finesses as the 10 is also missing. I suspect East, Michael Whibley, knew his partner was minimum, that they were missing a key card and that his partner held a singleton heart. His own Q was not a particularly useful card to hold opposite a singleton. All this may have contributed to his staying out of slam. On this day, it resulted in the loss of 11 of the 21 imps New Zealand conceded in the match.

Pride was restored in the final match against Japan with a nice score-line with which to end the event, 68-15 (19.74). China won the battle at the top scoring 16.72. New Zealand could not mathematically catch Chinese Taipei in the last round and when Indonesia thrashed India in their last match, New Zealand’s medal hopes vanished. 4^th …disappointing under the circumstances but a pretty competitive effort from the New Zealand team for the whole 8 days of bridge.

Newell-Reid had a particularly good second round-robin. They were the only pair in the Open or Seniors field to bid the following slam in the match against Japan:

 

1 was 14+ Precision style with 2 showing either hearts or spades and clubs. East bid 2 to play if their partner had hearts and converted to clubs when his partner showed the black suits. Then, Martin and Peter took over. Martin bid his suit with 4 being a cue showing some interest in slam. Peter (North) signed off but showed total club control (5) when Martin pressed on.

The opposition bidding made the play of the hand more comfortable for Martin. Three clubs could be ruffed in dummy and his losing diamond discarded on the K. East had to ruff the Q so that Martin could draw trumps in two rounds from his own hand and lose just one club.

Final Scores

1. China	376.69	8. Singapore	337.88
2. Indonesia	368.13	9. China Hong Kong	305.51
3. Chinese Taipei	367.78	10. Malaysia	289.34
4. New Zealand	364.24	11. Korea 1	280.93
5. India	358.60	12. Thailand	265.70
6. Japan	357.82	13. China Macau	241.63
7. Australia	345.30	14. Korea 2	166.12
		15. Kuwait	128.33

 

So, disappointment for our Open Team but an average 13vps per match and being just 12vps behind the winners is more than respectable.

Our Ladies started the day with the aim of finishing 5^th. China Hong Kong and Thailand were the two countries threatening that position and were New Zealand’s opponents for the day:

China Hong Kong   21-31 (7.03). That left New Zealand 2 vps behind China Hong and about 4.5 vps ahead of Thailand.

Thailand                 32-40 (7.56). With China Hong Kong winning well in their last match, that left New Zealand in a rather disappointing 7^th place by just 0.35 vp.

1. China	344.94	7. New Zealand	222.15
2. Indonesia	284.10	8. Japan	216.08
3. Chinese Taipei	282.28	9. Korea 1	162.77
4. Australia	280.26	10. India	156.39
5. China Hong Kong	234.50	11. Singapore	147.25
6. Thailand	222.50	12. Korea 2	86.78

 

Not only did gold, silver and bronze go to the same three countries but in both cases, Indonesia came from outside the medal places to claim silver with a big win in their last match.

The Seniors competition was also won by China, with once again an Indonesian team second though China Hong Kong broke the pattern by coming third. China also won the Junior Teams from Singapore and Chinese Taipei and indeed won all six gold medals as they also won the Youngster and Girls Teams competitions.

Today, Trans-Tasman rivalry is revived with our Open and Women’s teams both playing a 64 board test match against Australia.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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