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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

New Zealand Open Teams – Nearly All the Way.

This year’s New Zealand Teams featured a number of strong Australian teams, even one mainly Argentina based and the usual strong local subjects. However, one team featuring a strong up-and-coming young pair, a new arrival in New Zealand and a strong mixed NZ Open pair, with more than a little help from top international, GeO Tislevoll, surprised many people by their run deep into the knock-out stages. Over the next two days, we will tell their story.  

Bridge in NZ.pngnz map.jpg

…but first, it is your bid:

     
   

N

W

 

E

S

 

5

2

9 8 6 5

K 10 8 6 5 3 2

 

West

North

East

South

2 

Pass

2 

2 ♠

2 NT

Pass

?

 

2D is a Multi 2Diamond-small, subsequently revealed as 20-22 balanced. Your 2Heart-small is a pass or correct weak relay. What now?

 

The Fraser Hoskin team was Jeremy Fraser Hoskin and Jack James, GeO Tislevoll and Geeske Joel and John Patterson and Kate Davies.  Their achievement in reaching the final of the New Zealand Open Teams was a journey full of tension, excitement and team work.

Qualifying from the Swiss (no easy feat especially this time with only 8 qualifiers), as is often the case came with some good fortune mixed with some good skill.  On the skill front Jeremy and Jack were one of only 7 pairs in the qualifying to bid 7Diamond-small on the following board:

Qualifying round Board 47

 

BD: 47

Spade-smallAQT8

Dlr: S

 

Heart-smallA2

Vul: N-S

 

Diamond-smallKQ9643

 
 

Club-small7

 

Spade-small943

 

Spade-smallJ762

Heart-smallQT74

 

Heart-smallK863

Diamond-small72

 

Diamond-smallJ8

Club-smallJT53

 

Club-smallQ64

 

Spade-smallK5

 
 

Heart-smallJ95

 
 

Diamond-smallAT5

 
 

Club-smallAK982

 

 

Auction:

          North                 South

                                      1NT

          2Club-small                       2Diamond-small

          3Diamond-small                       3Spade-small

          4Diamond-small                       4NT

          5Club-small                       5NT  

          7Diamond-small                     Pass

Having found out about all the key cards 5NT showed 2 kings one being the Spade-smallK and one other.  7Diamond-small was bid with confidence. Unfortunately the grand slam was bid by the opposition for a flat board. 

Kate and John had a few 6Club-small slams that they enjoyed over the course of the event as follows:

 

Qualifying board 9 on day 2

 

BD: 9

Spade-smallAKJ84

Dlr: N

 

Heart-small76

Vul: E-W

 

Diamond-small752

 
 

Club-smallK74

 

Spade-smallQ96

 

Spade-small532

Heart-smallAT985

 

Heart-smallQ32

Diamond-smallT8

 

Diamond-smallKQJ643

Club-small632

 

Club-smallT

 

Spade-smallT7

 
 

Heart-smallKJ4

 
 

Diamond-smallA9

 
 

Club-smallAQJ985

 

 

 

West  North East    South

  1Spade-small       2Diamond-small       3Club-small       

Pass    3Diamond-small       X          4NT   

Pass    5Heart-small      Pass    6Club-small      

All Pass

3Diamond-small was a waiting bid denied 6th spade, or a diamond hold so implied a club card and tolerance.  Faced with this, Kate judged well to try for slam.  Spades behaved and 12 tricks were made.

Be happy when the wind is blowing your way. The team were the 8th qualifier after a tight last match and had a whole 0.18 vp to spare.

John Patterson Kate Davies.jpg 
John and Kate

 

Quarter Final versus Stern (Won by 40.58 IMPS)

The Stern team finished 2nd in the qualifying round and selected us after the top qualifiers picked the Braithwaite team.  Kate and John performed very well in the quarter finals and finished top of the datums.  The match was played in good spirit and was a good tussle. 

Who’s the boss?

At one stage John mis-defended failing to give Kate two ruffs to defeat a part score contract.  At the end of the hand, Kate advised John that he just needed to do what he was told (by the play of the cards) not what he thought.  John’s screen mate twigged and asked if we were married and on receiving confirmation, laughing he advised his wife’s favourite saying is “when I want your opinion, I’ll tell you”.  It was nice having screens as you could enjoy such moments away from your partner.

A hand that worked well for Kate and John was another club slam:

Quarter Final Board 4

 

BD: 4

Spade-small432

Dlr: W

 

Heart-smallJT9543

Vul: All

 

Diamond-smallT42

 
 

Club-smallQ

 

Spade-smallAJ9

 

Spade-small5

Heart-smallAKQ6

 

Heart-small2

Diamond-smallK7

 

Diamond-small9865

Club-smallAJ94

 

Club-smallKT86532

 

Spade-smallKQT876

 
 

Heart-small87

 
 

Diamond-smallAQJ3

 
 

Club-small7

 

 

West  North East    South

2Diamond-small1     Pass    2Heart-small1     2Spade-small

2NT     Pass    5Club-small       Pass

6Club-small       Pass    Pass    Pass

1 Multi sequence

 

A great slam played by West if you can but unbeatable on the day with the Diamond-smallA well placed.  That was 13 imps in with game bid at the other table.

 

Going into the last stanza the difference was 0.58 imps.  The last stanza was won by the 40 imps with the Cornell team waiting for us in the semi-final.  Needless to say, we were overjoyed with the win. 

A Man in Form

We will continue with the story of the semi-final and final tomorrow.

In the meantime, congratulations to GeO Tislevoll whose team has just won the OpenTeams at the just completed Gold Coast Congress. GeO teamed up with some members of the team who won The New Zealand Open Teams, his own partner, Nick Jacob, Liam Milne and James Coutts.

Their team, which also included Tony Nunn and Paul Dalley, were top qualifiers, 22 vps ahead of 3rd, beat Neill 119-66 in the 48- board semi-final and Haffner 148-122 in the same length final after leading by 55 imps at the three- quarter mark.

In addition, GeO and Nick were top qualifiers their direction in the Bobby Richman Pairs and then finished 4th in the A final of the event.

Richard Solomon

 

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