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Sunshine, Mussels and Bridge A'Plenty at Thames

The storms of the past week had passed. The roads around Thames were no longer closed. The sun shone very brightly on the many players who were playing in the 13th Summer Bridge Festival in this lovely town. 84 boards for those keen enough on Saturday…a further 60 on Sunday…plenty of bridge. The originators of the event, John Eldridge and Allan Barclay, whose names are remembered in the two main events of the weekend, would be very pleased with what the Waikato Bays Region continues to provide.

The John Eldridge Teams saw 24 teams take part. The winning and losing of this event was down to one board in the final.

Board 23
South Deals
Both Vul
A 9 7 6 5 4 2
8
6 3
10 9 4
K 8
A 5
A K Q 10 7 5 2
J 7
 
N
W   E
S
 
J
Q J 9 4 3 2
J 8 4
8 6 3
 
Q 10 3
K 10 7 6
9
A K Q 5 2
West North East South
Jonathan Westoby Jo Simpson Richard Solomon Sam Simpson
      2 
Dbl 2  3  3 
4  4  5  Pass
Pass 5  Dbl All pass

 

Sam’s 2Club-small was Precision style, 11-15 with clubs. Jonathan had a nice hand and said so initially by doubling. The bidding then proceeded at a slow pace with Jo, who had made initially a non-forcing 2Spade-small call, taking the push to the 5 level, with little defence to 5Diamond-small and the knowledge of some kind of double fit in the black suits.

A diamond lead saw Jonathan exit passively with the Club-smallJ…and the critical point at been reached. Jo could reason that West held most of the defence’s high point strength and played just the right card at trick 3, the Spade-smallQ. Not only did this bring home trumps for no losers but the heart loser disappeared on the long clubs, with an overtrick and 1050 being an excellent score for their side. However, their teammates were not to be upstaged:

West                    North                             East                      South

Barry Jones         Denis Humphries Jenny Millington    David Dolbel

                                                                                                1Club-small

3NT                      All Pass

Every system has its day but this was not the finest hour for the Dolbel- Humphries artificial approach. 1Club-small showed an opening hand with 3+ hearts (oh for a natural club bid!) and Barry made a very practical bid. Denis would have done very well to have found the club lead which followed by a magic Spade-smallQ switch could have reduced Barry to just one trick. In the event, a low spade lead saw Barry count up to 9 and he saw no reason to take the heart finesse! +1660 total on the board was worth 17 imps, more than the final winning margin in an otherwise low scoring 12 board final.

1. Barry Jones

Jenny Millington

Jo Simpson

Sam Simpson

 

2. Richard Solomon

Jonathan Westoby

David Dolbel

Denis Humphries

 

3.= Karen Harris

Jenny Carr

Sandra Calvert

Colin Carryer

 

3.= Yuzhong Chen

William Liu

June Lei

John Wang

 

 barry jenny .jpeg

Barry, Jenny and the John Eldridge trophy

Barclay Swiss Pairs

This 44 pair event was extremely close with only 8vps covering the  top 8 pairs at the finish.

Here are two boards which would be familiar for most of those who took part. Let’s first of all look through the eyes of Grant Jarvis at the goings on on this board. Grant, West held:

Spade-small 842

Heart-small –

Diamond-small T94

Club-small AKJT932

and was on lead to 5Spade-small after the following sequence:

                   West           North         East            South

                   3Club-small               Pass            Pass            4Spade-small

                   Pass            Pass            5Club-small               Pass

                   Pass            5Spade-small               All Pass

Needing a heart ruff…or so he thought, he under-led his club honours at trick 1and held his breath as he awaited dummy. No sign of the Club-smallQ there… just Club-small76. Then came the joy and relief as his partner, Gary Chen, produced the Club-smallQ…and then the disappointment when the declarer ruffed, drew trumps and played 4 rounds of diamonds discarding a heart from hand on the fourth round of the suit. "How were you feeling then, Grant?"

The disappointment was soon to end, though, as Gary was about to score three heart tricks!

Board 20
West Deals
Both Vul
K 9
J 10 9 7 6
K 8 6 2
7 6
8 4 2
10 9 4
A K J 10 9 3 2
 
N
W   E
S
 
7 3
A K Q 8
7 5 3
Q 8 5 4
 
A Q J 10 6 5
5 4 3 2
A Q J

 

5Spade-small was one down. One East-West scored even better after West opened 3Club-small and East raised directly to 5Club-small, passed out. A standardish Heart-smallJ lead would see 11 rather easy tricks for a contract that need only make 8. The contract that I am sure no South considered but which looks rather nice if you had to be at the 5 level is 5Diamond-small by South after a club lead. Ruff, draw trumps and you have 11 tricks!

Meanwhile, who would win the battle of the red suits from the final round when Grant and Gary took on Liz and Blair Fisher? Normally, the majors win the day except on this one:

Board 24
West Deals
None Vul
10 9 7 2
9 5
J 9 4 3
8 7 2
A Q 8 5
8 4 2
8 5
10 9 6 5
 
N
W   E
S
 
K 6 3
A K Q J 10 7 6 3
7
K
 
J 4
A K Q 10 6 2
A Q J 4 3
West North East South
Blair Gary Liz Grant
Pass Pass 1  2 
Dbl 2  4  5 
Pass Pass 5  6 
All pass      

 

1Club-small was Precision style while 2Club-small showed both minors. Blair’s x showed 5-7 hcp after which Liz and Grant slugged it out. Neither Blair nor Liz were confident enough to double the final contract as Grant escaped for just -50, an excellent save against the cold 5Heart-small heart game. Only at 7 out of the 22 tables was the par spot of 6Diamond-small reached. Most of the rest played in 5Heart-small with the most extraordinary result being at one table where East managed 11 tricks, not though in 5Heart-small but in 3NT! Grant and Gary earned 6 imps for their dive, won the match narrowly scoring 11.5 and that was just enough to secure first place:

1. Grant Jarvis -

Gary Chen

80.88

2. Yuzhong Chen-

William Liu

80.70

3. Carol Wilkinson -

George Wilkinson

78.39

4. Liz Fisher-

Blair Fisher

78.20

5. Helen Healy -

Tim Healy

76.37

 

 Gary and Grant at Thames.JPG

  Gary, Grant and the Barclay trophy.... a couple of nice envelopes, too!

The two session Walk-In was won very convincingly by Carol and George Wilkinson:

1. Carol Wilkinson -

George Wilkinson

124.69

2. Russell Watt -

Leslie Watt

105.96

3. Pat Johansen -

Joe Silcock

105.36

4. Susan Rowe -

Cheryl Winsor

105.03

5. Pauline Andrews -

Janet Barnard

103.39

 

A great week-end, excellent catering, including the traditional mussels and well organised by the regular team led by Jan Siegers with Jan Spaans scoring and Tony Morcom directing…and that sun? It made it hard to see all of dummy’s cards as it shone so brightly. Oh, the problems we bridge players have!

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

 

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