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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Family Win “in” Taranaki.

This weekend saw the on-line Taranaki Teams take place, 8 x 12 board matches in the Open, 4 x 12 board in the Intermediates. If one could not go live to the lovely Taranaki area, then playing this event on-line was a good second best.

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Try this deal from North’s point of view as they defended 5Heart-small.

 

Board 7
South Deals
Both Vul

A Q J 10 9 6

3

K 6

K 8 7 5

   

N

W

 

E

S

 

7 2

A K J 8

5

A Q 9 4 3 2

 

West

North

East

South

   

Dummy

 

 

 

 

Pass

2 

2 ♠

4 

4 ♠

Pass

Pass

5 ♣

Pass

5 

All pass

 

 

 

2Heart-small promises 5 hearts and 4+ of a minor, 7-10 hcp. You, North, lead Spade-smallA and discover your partner has 4 spades. What now?

In the Open event, there were 42 teams with the top 8 after 8 rounds being:

 

 

1 Carol Richardson Andi Boughey Steve  Boughey William  Liu   113.14
                           
2 Gary Chen   John Wang   June Lei   Jeter Liu   111.33
                           
3 Jeremy Fraser Hoskin Jack James   Max Morrison Jane Lennon   106.12
                           
4 Jan Alabaster Jan Cormack Malcolm Mayer   Matt Brown   100.81
                           
5 Pam Livingston Graeme Tuffnell Jo  Simpson Sam Simpson 100.55
                           
6 Russell Wilson   Anthony Ker   Jane Beeby   Michael Wilkinson 98.80
                           
7 Blair Fisher   Liz Fisher   Bob Hurley   Grant Jarvis   98.79
                           
8 Pat Carter   Julie Atkinson Jenny Millington Barry Jones   97.44
                           
                           

Richardson started the event with a huge loss to Fisher but steadied the ship and finished with a huge 19.83 win over Carryer. Even then, they were much indebted to the team led by Gary Chen who won 16.18 over Fraser Hoskin to turn the tables at the top. "The family" are of course, the mother, father and daughter, Carol, Steve and Andi with William a very welcome addition when they come to the bridge table. 

Andi Carol 19 (2).jpg                                      William Liu.JPG              Steve Boughey (2).JPG

Carol and Andi, with a previous trophy     William               and      Steve

 

Here is one interesting board from early on Day 1.

“Second Sight”

 

Pam Livingston was sitting North and West, the declarer, was one of her regular partners, Jeff Miller. Pam decided there was no future in continuing spades and so switched to a low club. This was the only switch to give Jeff a problem as these were the four hands:

Board 7
South Deals
Both Vul

A Q J 10 9 6

3

K 6

K 8 7 5

5

Q 10 9 7 4

A Q 10 9

J 10 6

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

7 2

A K J 8

5

A Q 9 4 3 2

 

K 8 4 3

6 5 2

J 8 7 4 3 2

 

West

North

East

South

Jeff Miller

Pam Livingston

Murat Genc

Graeme Tuffnell

 

 

 

Pass

2 

2 ♠

4 

4 ♠

Pass

Pass

5 ♣

Pass

5 

All pass

 

 

Jeff had lost a spade and could afford a club loser. Indeed, all would be well as long as clubs broke no worse than 3-1 no matter where the king was. Rising with ace was certainly best if Pam had led a singleton club.

So, Jeff went up with the ace and down went his contract, losing both a ruff and the Club-smallK.

Pam can defeat 5Heart-small legitimately by leading a club at trick 1, no matter what Jeff does, as a spade back to the North hand enables a second ruff even if declarer plays low at trick 1. That was hard to pick on the opening lead but a quick look at dummy showed up “second time” that the club switch offered her as good a chance as any.

and 4Spade-small the other way

This deal is also interesting played in 4Spade-small by North. Many made this contract especially after the lead of a diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff. Declarer now has the necessary three entries to dummy (one in trumps and two club ruffs) to set up South’s diamonds for club discards.

The best defence and quite feasible where East got to bid clubs naturally is for East to start with two high hearts. North ruffs and plays a trump to dummy to lead a diamond towards the king. West takes their ace and plays Club-smallJ. Declarer must ruff in dummy and now needs three entries to dummy to set up the diamonds and enjoy them… but they only have two trumps left. Indeed, when declarer plays a diamond to the king, East ruffs and plays a third round of hearts… and dummy’s diamond suit will just not set up.

Intermediate Teams

The Intermediate Teams was a 1 day 4x12 board matches with 10 teams taking part and these were the top three.

1 Trish Murphy Jillian Ramsey Graham Potter   Rob  Armstrong 62.66
                           
2 Laura Griffin   Tony Clear   Debbie Marcroft Garry Hodge   52.68
                           
3 Walt Crawshaw Liz Crawshaw Frances Rankin   Paula Martin   50.74
                           

The winners had a storming finish with 37.71 vps in their final two matches. An added bonus for the winners is free entry to the National Congress in October in Tauranga.

Swiss Pairs today Monday as it is Taranaki Anniversary Weekend.

 

Richard Solomon

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