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Rubber On-Line.

Normally, the 2021 National Rubber Bridge finals would have taken place alongside the live National Bridge Congress. Of course, with the Congress reverting to on-line and taking place two months into 2022, the live Rubber event did not happen.

However, that does not mean the Rubber event was forgotten. As in 2020, it has reverted to being played on-line. Three of the four quarter final matches have now been completed, the fourth to take place this weekend. All were held on BBO (Bridge Base On-Line).

Remember that matches last for 30 boards and are scored as per Rubber Bridge. Each region has one representative pair with the region with most original entries having two. This time, that was Wellington.

There is decent prize-money too, sponsored by New Zealand Bridge Foundation. The winners will share $1,000 and the total prize pool for the 8 pairs is $ 2,460.     

Before we go any further, try this problem, playing Rubber Bridge, with your opponents 70 on and neither side vulnerable.

 

 

 

We will come back to this problem. 

All three completed matches were North v South Island battles. Wellington’s Peter Newell and Martin Reid took on Picton’s Margaret and Chris Marshall. Remember that in Rubber, if you hold good cards, you can beat the best. So, if this looked like a “David and Goliath” battle, then there’s nothing like a few aces going in one direction to give “David” hope.

Indeed, Chris and Margaret did start well but eventually Martin and Peter came out on top, by approximately 2,200 with Chris bidding but failing in a slam on the last board.

Another North Island success came in the match between Tauranga’s Jo and Sam Simpson and Dunedin’s Pamela Nisbet and Peter McCaskill.

Firstly, what would you bid with the following

 

 

 

Neither side has anything “below the line”. Would you bid? Well, even though generally one does not “pre-empt a pre-empt”, Jo Simpson decided to risk 5§ and must have felt a little nervous when Peter McCaskill on her left doubled. Sacrifices in Rubber should normally only be taken if they are cheap. -500 above the line is no great save against a vulnerable game especially if your opponents make a game on the next board.

However, this turned out to be no sacrifice:

 

 

Peter had a trump trick and his ©A but that was all. Jo’s diamond loser disappeared when ©K was set up for a discard. 4ª will always be one down with the defence likely to take the ªA, ©K and two diamond tricks.

This board helped Jo and Sam to a huge 5,250 advantage with Pamela and Peter calling time after Board 28.

 
Sam and Jo Simpson, a pair with a flair for Rubber Bridge as recent results prove. 

 

One up for “the South”

The South Island will have one pair in the semi-finals, Christchurch’s Fiona Temple and John Kruiniger. They took on Auckland-Northland’s Jan Cormack and Grant Jarvis. Grant commented that “he and Jan were outplayed and outpointed into submission.”

Nevertheless, Grant Jarvis is not one to go down without a fight. He had the problem we gave you above:

 

 

and took the “slow road”.

Let’s hear the story of the deal through the eyes of John Kruiniger in the East seat.

It's good to hold good cards at "rubber"

"But even when you hold them, you have to do the right thing; and even holding the second- best hand, you can score sometimes.

It was only the fourth hand of the rubber quarter-final between Jarvis/Cormack and Kruiniger/Temple when this deal came up:

 

 

Holding the East cards and playing a natural based system, I didn't have any special way of describing my hand (my only strong opening bid would be 2), so I took what I thought was a small risk and opened 1.  I was confident my partner would do her utmost to elevate the auction to aim for the 30 points we still needed for game, and if not, the opponents would save me without being able to outbid me... (right, initially!)

Grant overcalled 1, Fiona passed, and Jan promptly raised to 2.  Double from me seemed obvious surely - after all, I was prepared for anything that Fiona would bid!  But instead, it was Grant again with 3.  Bother.  Well without any assistance from my beloved, I had to do it on my own, so 4 I went.
And there was Grant again - 4.  Surely, I had enough quick tricks to punish him.  “Double again, I went”.

In the play, Grant successfully finessed against the J to lose only four tricks - still that was 1 off and 100 to us, wasn't it?

Not so! – “150 honours” said Grant - nett N/S +50!

Yes there are a couple of slams available E/W  "

 
  John and Fiona. Fiona would have cheered every ace John produced on the 
 above deal. 

Enough but not too much bidding by Grant kept his opponents out of a small slam in clubs and a grand slam in diamonds. Needing just +30 for game, I am sure slam was the last thing on East-West’s thoughts, especially Fiona as West.

Grant and Jan won this board but lost the overall battle by 3,320 points declaring after 26 boards.

The semi-final line-up

The two pairs who “won big” will avoid each other. Fiona and John will take on Martin Reid and Peter Newell. Jo and Sam Simpson will take on the winners of the match between Central Districts’ Michelle England and Phil Beale and Wellington’s Anthony Ker and Russell Dive.

Richard Solomon

 

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