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To line up with the release of the last season of the popular show 'Game of Thrones', winter has well and truly come to New Zealand. What better way to while away the cold days than in a warm clubroom playing our favourite cardgame? The learners think so too, I'm pleased to report that in Otago, there are 26 new members entering the club, with Invercargill managing to attract another 9 members and Queenstown and Te Anau 6 each too. Te Anau commented how useful they found the NZ Bridge on-line Teaching Notes.

First up in my tournament reports is the Te Anau 8B Pairs, won in comfort and style by Invercargill's Moss Wylie and Anne Sommerville. Some may coast after scoring over 72% in the morning, but they proved it wasn't a fluke with a 63% in the afternoon to never really be challenged.

                                      

Moss Wylie, a big winner at Te Anau                                       New Silver Grand Master, James Coutts

The Gore Intermediate Pairs was taken out by Sandy Buzzard and Deirdre Glover from Winton and Invercargill respectively. This event was hotly contested, but their morning session score of 67.14% was enough to tide them through.

Often it's good advice for newer bridge players to try and be nice and steady when they play. Otago's Barbara Hutton and Andrew Reynolds must have taken this to heart, both of their results being within 0.4% and starting with a 6 in the Gore Junior Pairs.

The Provincial Teams had a nail-biting finish, as going into the last of 6 rounds the top third of the field were all within 1.71 Vps, and 3 more had some chances. Stout (Graeme Stout, Jeff Miller, Anne-Marie Russell, Peter Hall) proved true to their name, and racked up 18.9 in the last match for a comfortable win from second placed Coutts (James, Sam, Glenn, and Australia's Matthew McManus).

The Provincial Pairs was also up for grabs going into the third and final session, but homeground advantage shone through in both the Pairs and Teams with brothers James and Sam Coutts powering forward with a 65.34% in the final session to take a convincing win. One of the key hands from the last set was this hand:

 

 

Most pairs reached 4 on the East-West cards on an auction like the above|:

After two rounds of spades and a minor suit switch from South, most declarers fell from grace by playing two top hearts, which builds a second trump trick for North. Two declarers realised that there was no real danger in North getting a ruff (they'd have lead a singleton if they had one), so inserting the 8 on the second round was completely safe. Not quite a true safety play, because here there's no trick you're giving up – but a matter of good technique that seems to be so rarely material at the table. Inserting the 8 showed that James was awake to the dangers on the hand, and was worth a shared top when only one other declarer made 10 tricks.

One other fantastic outcome from this tournament is that both James Coutts and Paul Freeland became Silver Grandmasters from the Provincial weekend. (and coincidentally, Paul was the only other declarer to make 4 on the above board).

Jean-Oliver Begouin has started making a name for himself in New Zealand by winning Taieri's 5A Pairs with Queenstown's Ernie Sutton. A steady 59% average topped the field while Graeme Stout and Oamaru's finest Frances Sheehy came second on 58%.

The Winton Intermediate Pairs was sealed when local pair Jen White and Richard Hishon achieved a massive 73.21% in session 1, while Colin Laughton and Tom Wallis won the Winton Junior Pairs with a much more sedate 59% average. A good showing from the home club.

Otago's John Sheehy had a difficult time directing the Oamaru All-Grades event. There were three appeals and multiple psyches.  Timaru's Ron Griffiths and Jim Burford came South to steal the tournament with an impressive 65% average.

Lastly, Dunedin hosted the South Island Pairs this year. As mentioned in the separate write-up, the food was top notch, the movement was fair, the hands were wild, and the local players (myself especially) extremely generous to Palmerston North's Wayne Burrows and Auckland's Clair Miao, who won by a comfortable margin.

 

 

 

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