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A Day of Two Halves

The last four qualifying matches. A steady showing over these matches could mean top 8 for New Zealand. For a while it looked a possibility with two wins before lunch. However, the two afternoon matches did not go New Zealand’s way leaving us in a final 22^nd place, almost as low as at any time of the event.

Opponent	NZ imp score	NZ vp score	Position after match
Moren	+13	13.72	14
Wales	+12	13.48	11
South Africa 1	-19	4.94	17
England B	-35	2.23	22

A steady win (34-21) over an Australian team, Moren, was followed by a high-scoring win over the Welsh(51-39). We had our slamming boots on and the queens which were not gunning for New Zealand yesterday (remember the “3 queen” pre-empt and the correct finessing of the queens in the grand slam) looked rather more favourably on New Zealand today.

 As South, John Wignall opened 2. That opening and the big heart fit propelled the partnership to 6. Three queens were missing here, too, though only one was important….and after the Q lead, the Q appeared at just the right time so that John could lose to the A and discard two little clubs on dummy’s diamonds (Yesterday I cursed holding 10’s which gave one those dreadful two-way finesse options. Today, the 10 enabled this contract to make easily!) That was 13 imps in when the Welsh stayed in game.

 

As East, John Skipper opened 1. You try stopping Jane now. She checked on aces and kings and bid 7NT. Just two queens missing this time and just as on the above board, the key one came down in two rounds. Jane had 16 tricks! The Welsh pair only reached 6NT.

Kris Wooles would have loved the short auction on Board 8 and would be dreaming of a 4 figure penalty. As North, he held AK1082  A754   JT94   – and saw this bidding:

West                     North                    East                        South
3                           Pass                       Pass                       x

Pass                       ?

Naturally, Kris passed out the double. What would you lead? Kris led J but did not enjoy the first few tricks:

 

The Australian art of “fine” pre-empts had crossed the seas to Wales! Two diamond tricks, two diamond and  two heart ruffs made Kris feel slightly less ecstatic though the defence took most of the rest of the tricks for down 2, +300 and a tied board when Jane and John were doubled in 3. The moral of this story is to lead a trump if you can, just in case. Kris “could” here and could have scored a couple more tricks if he had done so.

The loss to South Africa was a low scoring affair (8-27) with 14 in the “out” column on one board. Let’s just say both pairs had a poor result on the same board. There is always (well, nearly always) something good to find about every poor result…if you look hard enough!

That left mathematically too much to do in the last match against England B. In the event a 12-47 loss left New Zealand well off the pace. Kris Wooles was at least happy to make 5 on the following:

 

As North, he received the K lead. He won, played a diamond to the king and led a small heart off table. How could West duck? Hearts were continued. Kris ruffed and eliminated both major suits by ruffing and finally led a club from the North hand to the 9 and West’s 10. West was end-played and either had to give a ruff and discard or lead away from K. Nicely played, Kris.

 
It's strange to see them in the North and East seats. Barry and Jenny reflect on a day that did
not always go their way.

Alas, there was little other good news in the remaining 13 boards. The shame was New Zealand had got themselves in contention for a top 8 finish but could not pull it off. Nevertheless, three days of good competitive bridge. For the final Swiss results, click here. We will keep in touch with events in the final stages and at the Gold Coast Congress next week.

Richard Solomon

p.s. Congratulations to Ashley Bach and Liam Milne whose Leibowitz team qualified in 5th place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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