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DAY TWO AT THE INTER-PROVINCIALS

WELLINGTON IN THE DRIVING SEAT.

Day 2 of the 2018 Inter-Provincial Championships has seen Wellington teams make the running in  the Dougal McLean Trophy competition, led by their Open and Intermediate teams who both hold sizeable leads in their competitions. Auckland – Northland are still dominant in the Seniors event while some dramatic results in the final round of play has seen Top of The South finish in the lead in the Seniors’ competition.  With just three matches to play, these are the current standings for the Dougal McLean Trophy:

  1. Wellington                 38
  2. Auckland-Northland  31
  3. Waikato Bays            28
  4. = Canterbury             22
    = Central Districts     22
  1. Top of The South      19
  2. Otago/Southland      12

Open                                                                                     Women

1.       Wellington

124.83

 

1.Auckland-Northland

127.23

2.       Waikato Bays

  89.56

 

2.Waikato Bays

111.85

  3. Auckland-Northland

  88.25

 

3.Central Districts

  98.07

  4. Otago/Southland

  87.01

 

4.Canterbury

  95.72

5.Canterbury

  84.70

 

5.Wellington

  83.27

 6. Central Districts

  78.14

 

6.Top of The South

  74.70

 7. Top of The South

  47.51

 

7.Otago/Southland

  69.16

 

Intermediate                                                                     Seniors

1.Wellington

 117.15

  

1.Top of The South

113.57

2.Central Districts

100.79

 

2.Auckland-Northland

111.11

3.Canterbury

  99.81

 

3.Wellington

118.09

4.Otago/Southland

  90.38

 

4.Waikato Bays

 98.18

5.Top of The South

  90.02

 

5.Canterbury

 86.39

6.Central Districts

  84.45

 

6.Central Districts

 77.20

7.Auckland/Northland

  77.40

 

7.Otago/Southland

 65.46

 

Wellington have just about confirmed the Open event as their own. After taking 20vps off their closest rivals, Waikato Bays, in the last match of the day, they lead by over 34vps. In the Women's event, Auckland-Northland also cemented their lead iin the last match of the day, scoring 19.02 off Canterbury to lead Waikato Bays by 15.38vps.

In the Intermediate event, Wellington have a 16.36vp lead over Central Districts. Only in the Seniors field is it close with Top of The South taking 20 off Otago Southland in the last match while previously leaders, Auckland -Northland, were beaten 1.72-18.28 by Wellington. Top of The South lead by just 2.46vps from Auckland-Northland with Wellington 3vps behind in third place.

COMPLICATING MATTERS

Bridge is a hard enough game to get right: when it’s easy, keep it so. Bob Hurley, Central Districts’ Chef De Mission, gives us two examples from this weekend where his teams were fortunate to benefit. It just did not need to be so…

"Many bridge hands are straightforward: so why complicate matters? Two examples from Round 1, Match 6 where CD teams benefited. Board 8. East was declarer in 6Heart-small. South has a routine lead of Club-smallQ for one down.

Board 8
West Deals
None Vul
9 8 7 4 2
9 7
10 9 5
A 3 2
Q 6
J 8
A K Q J 8 7 4
K 7
 
N
W   E
S
 
A J 3
A K Q 5 2
2
9 8 6 4
 
K 10 5
10 6 4 3
6 3
Q J 10 5

 

But wait, South led Club-small10 covered with K and A winning. North now led a spade at trick 2. 6Heart-small making. Even if 10 could have a higher honour, why complicate a simple situation?

 

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

 

North’s 1Club-small was Precision style. East’s jump to 2Spade-small showed either a single-suited club hand or else a hand with both red suits. With no interest if partner held clubs, West bid 3Club-small asking partner to pass if that was their suit. North “knew” that the opposition had clubs and therefore bid 4Club-small to extract their partner’s better major suit.

South knew little other than that their partner had bid 4Club-small. South presumed East had the red suits and therefore 4Club-small was natural…and another disaster hit the table! This contract went 7 down (-350) which went very nicely (for Central Districts) with 450 at the other table where 5Spade-small made…13 imps in..or out!

Clearly North should have bid  3Spade-small or even better made a take-out double. Either would not have been misinterpreted.”

A NOT SO GRAND START by Douglas Russell

"The Auckland/Northland squad all had byes in the first round, so that Match 2 against Otago/Southland was our first opportunity to strut our stuff. We had high hopes for all our teams, not least for our Open team with its four internationals. They featured on VuGraph for the match, and this was the second hand to appear before a waiting audience.

Board 14
East Deals
None Vul
K Q 7 5
J 8 6
A 8 2
A J 7
8 6
9 3
K J 6 4 3
10 8 4 3
 
N
W   E
S
 
J 10 9 3 2
7 5
9 7
9 6 5 2
 
A 4
A K Q 10 4 2
Q 10 5
K Q

 

Interestingly, each South decided to view his hand as balanced, and bid accordingly, but there the similarity ended. For Auckland/Northland, Ware and Brown had a 3-bid sequence as follows: 2NT-5NT-6NT. Commendable brevity, but a less than optimal result. For Otago/Southland, Sam and Glenn Coutts bid:

                                   North                       South 
                                                                      
2Club-small 
                                       2Diamond-small                          2NT 
                                      7NT                          Pass                                                            

    2Diamond-small showed any positive, and 2NT showed 23-24. No problem in the play, of course, but that was 11 IMPs out and it seemed to set the tone for the day. A quick look at datum scores suggests that half the Open field, one in each of the Women and Seniors and none in the Intermediates found the grand."

Good luck to all for the last three rounds.

Richard Solomon

 

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