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The Bowl at Lyon

Hindsight is a wonderful  thing to have. At the start of Day 6, our Open Team would need about 40vp

from Day 6 to stay competitive for the top 8. Read on to see if they could achieve that on a day of three very hard matches. 

 

OPEN

 

 

WOMEN

 

 

SENIORS

 

 

 

NZ score

 

 

NZ Score

 

 

NZ Score

USA2

30-14

14.18

Canada

39-12

16.26

Egypt

53-51

10.26

France

14-60

1.23

China

19-82

0.00

USA 1

27-46

5.20

Monaco

26-29

9.09

Netherlands

16-35

5.20

China Hong Kong

24-22

10.61

Match 16

An excellent result …and two more like that and who knows how high the Open Team could finish.  Board 23 provided a third of the Kiwis imps:

Board 23
South Deals
Both Vul
J 10
A 3
K 10 8 7 4
K 9 8 5
K 6 4 2
Q J 8 5
Q J 9
J 3
 
N
W   E
S
 
Q 9 3
K 9 2
6 5 3 2
10 7 2
 
A 8 7 5
10 7 6 4
A
A Q 6 4

 

Michael Ware played in 3NT from the South seat on a small heart lead. It looks like the defence could score three hearts and two spade tricks but the diamonds favour declarer and nine tricks were achieved. The USA pair played in 3Club-small. ….10 imps to New Zealand.

Our other two teams tasted very welcome success, with 104 imps changing hands in a lively Seniors’ match with Canada.

Round 17.

Revenge would be sweet, if that is how the table topping French saw their comprehensive victory 60-14 over our Open Team, a big reversal from when the two countries met in the Round of 16 a year ago. Board 10 summed up how it went for the Kiwis.

 

Board 10
East Deals
Both Vul
5 4
10 8 5 4
J 8 4
10 8 7 4
Q 9 8 6
A 2
A 6 2
A 9 6 2
 
N
W   E
S
 
A K J 10 2
K Q
K Q 10 5
Q 3
 
7 3
J 9 7 6 3
9 7 3
K J 5

 

21 opposite 14 with a solid 5-4 fit. Enough for a grand slam? Half of the East-Wests in the Open field thought so, including Whibley- Brown. Unfortunately, this time, the other half, including the French East/West, who played in 6Spade-small were correct. There was nowhere for that club loser to go. That there were seven other countries who conceded 17 imps on this board was no compensation for our Open Team. This board also cost our Women  17 imps when Christine and Jenna Gibbons could not stop but Barry Palmer and Neil Stuckey were the heroes for our Seniors Team, earning 17 imps for their small slam.  Could you have analysed in the bidding about the club problem?

Our Women had a horror match against the strong China team while our Seniors, who had a better day, could not get the better of USA 1.

Round 18.

Our Open Team needed a big win over Monaco, a professional team, though in reality a small loss was no embarrassment. It was a relatively low scoring match…and therefore showed up the importance of doing well in part-scores:

Board 32
West Deals
E-W Vul
A 8 7
K 9 2
10 9 4
A J 8 3
K
A J 4
K Q 8 6 2
10 7 6 4
 
N
W   E
S
 
Q J 9 6 2
Q 8 6 5
J 3
Q 5
 
10 5 4 3
10 7 3
A 7 5
K 9 2

 

With Whibley-Brown East-West, the contract was 1NT by South on a small diamond lead. Michael Whibley’s jack would have been great news for his partner with the contract going 2 down…+100. Meanwhile, Cornell- Bach defended 2Diamond-small by West and managed to also get that contract 2 down on a trump lead…+200 and 7 imps for defending at  a low level at both tables.

While our Women could not beat the Dutch, our Seniors finished with a small win over China Hong Kong.

So, our Open Team rose a little but finished the day in 14th place, nearly 30vps behind 8th placed Egypt, too much to catch up in three matches even if one of those is against bottom placed Mexico.

Our Women’s Team have dropped to 19th with 18th now as high as they can realistically finish. Our Seniors moved up to 19th but with 18th out of reach, they will need to play well against India, Brazil and France to prevent Egypt or South Africa overtaking them.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

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