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Welcome to the first of the daily reports from Lyon on the progress of the three New Zealand teams who are taking part in the Bermuda Bowl/ Venice Cup competitions. We all hope for performances to match those of our Open and Women’s Teams in last year’s World Championships in Poland. To say that will not be easy is understating the task.

Each of the three competitions has 22 countries drawn from qualifying events in most of the zones, our own Zone 7 not requiring any with Australia and New Zealand not being challenged for the Zone’s two places. 21 matches of 14 boards, three per day does not sound that much in New Zealand tournament level but the standard of competition will be high. The aim of our Open, Women and Seniors teams would be to make the top 8, the knock-out stage.

Our  three teams are:

Open: Ashley Bach – Michael Cornell, Matthew Brown – Michael Whibley,  GeO Tislevoll- Michael Ware.

Women: Steph Jacob – Susan Humphries, Jenna and Christine Gibbons, Shirley Newton – Vivien Cornell.

Seniors : Chris Ackerley – Douglas Russell, Bob Grover – Eileen Horsman, Barry Palmer – Neil Stuckey.

Chef de mission and Open npc is Derek Evennett while Kris Wooles captains the Women’s team. While our Open team is the same as was in Poland, there is a strange look to the Women’s team with Shirley Newton’s regular partner, Jenny Wilkinson, having to return to New Zealand at the last minute for personal reasons. Shirley’s partnership with Vivien is thus last minute necessitated when the reserve pair were unable to travel.

Down then to business.

                Open                                              Women                                       Seniors

                                          NZ score                                         NZ score                                        NZ score

Netherlands	11-43	2.97	Sweden	45-41	11.20	Pakistan	30-24	11.76
USA 1	30-39	7.45	Israel	41-36	11.48	South Africa	20-50	3.27
Indonesia	13-11	10.61	Russia	47-15	17.03	Italy	34-30	11.20

 

So, the star performers are our Women’s team whose three wins saw them finish Day 1 in 4^th place while our other two teams both ended the day in 19^th position. Even in the context of a tough competition, our Open team had what looks a tough start. While the match against Netherlands would have been disappointing, their other results were at least very competitive. Two wins for our Seniors would have given them a boost at this early stage. On then to the Bridge:

Round 1

When you do not get much in the in-tray, you cannot afford two big “outs”. That was the story of our Open Team’s match against the Netherlands. Both Kiwi pairs played game for a total loss of 12 imps and then two unfortunate events occurred on Board 13.

 

If you knew that the New Zealand East-West were in 3 making 3 overtricks while the Dutch East-West were in 3NT on a diamond lead, you might think that 7 imps would be heading to New Zealand. Alas, Michael Whibley, North, did not know the actual lay-out, and with no certain entry should a diamond have to be lost, he led a low diamond.  The queen won and West played K and a second club…and using Restricted Choice principles finessed, ending up with 11 tricks and 10 imps to Netherlands.

"Kick Off"

Ashley Bach and Michael Cornell before the start of their match against the Netherlands.

Only one other pair in the entire Open, Women or Seniors’ fields declared 3NT…and they also made their contract but on the K lead! Maybe South had an apology note to write for blocking the suit!

Steph Jacob and Susan Humphries bid a good slam on Board 12.

 

It would be easy to drift off to 3NT after a start of 1-1-2 but Steph and Susan identified their fit and reached 6, making the overtrick for a most valuable 12 imps in the win over Sweden.

Round 2

What have the Q, 10 and K got in common? They were three very well placed cards in slams bid by New Zealand pairs.  There were no swings in either our Seniors or Women’s matches on this deal (all 4 pairs were in game in no-trumps) as were the US pair against our Open Team. However, Tislevoll- Ware and about half the Open field were in 6NT:

 32 high, no 5 card suit but a handy 10. You are on the cusp. So it proved when it came down to where that Q was. Mercifully for those in 6NT, they were not given the 10 so that they could guess wrong. I am sure GeO played the other three suits before spades were touched and with East known to have 2 hearts, 5 diamonds and 1 club, he could take the finesse with more than one’s usual degree of comfort. ..13 imps to New Zealand against USA 1.

Shirley Newton and Vivien Cornell had their first international outing against Israel. Their 6NT on Board 26 had only 31 high and no useful 10s. The rest of the field stayed in game. At least they reached 6NT which had a play while their 8 card fit in clubs was cold one down.

 

Shirley Newton (East) had it all to do as she received a passive heart lead. With 7 major suit tricks, declarer needs three in diamonds and the club finesse.  A nervy business but the Israeli South went up with the A on the second round. It was then just a case of  shut your eyes and hope as the Q was played. 13 imps to New Zealand.  Vivien and Shirley bid two other slams not bid by Israel which got New Zealand their small win.

Round 3

Normally when the opponents have a long threatening suit, you want to have the side with holds in that suit as declarer. That was not the case with Board 6.

 East has the stops in the danger heart suit but were East to be declarer, the 6 lead spells doom for 3NT as the lead has to be lost twice to North in clubs, enabling the defence to take three hearts,  DAK and two club tricks for down three. However, if West is declarer, the heart lead is protected and two clubs can be lost in comfort with just the four minor tricks as losers…making 9 tricks.

In our Open match against Indonesia, it was a flat board, -300 at each table. The board was not good for our Seniors where Chris Ackerley failed in 5 while Neil Stuckey (South) did not know to lead a heart. His 9 lead did nothing for the defence,13 imps away. However, 14 imps came in for our Women against Russia when Christine Gibbons declared 3NT as West and in the other room Susan Humphries led the 6 as South.

Finally, a slam you would not want to be in, as it requires a favourably placed ace, a 3-3 break in one side suit, and a ruffing finesse in another:

 

That North hand is not really a 2 level opener. 1 -2 might make North wonder but partner must have magic cards to make slam a decent contract. Not even the A lead here is good enough. There was no swing in the Open match but both our Women and Seniors picked up 13 imps for staying in game.

The New Zealand Seniors Team. Other than Chris Ackerley (sitting left), they look fairly happy, with two wins on Day 1. Maybe Chris is pondering about that 5 contract? Others are Douglas Russell, Barry Palmer

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