Contract Bridge Canterbury’s Good Chance In Inter-provincial Match

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31384, 1 June 1967, Page 6

Contract Bridge Canterbury’s Good Chance In Inter-provincial Match

(Contributed by J.R.W.) In Wellington over Queen’s Birthday week-end, in a sponsored bridge tournament, six teams will compete for the Dunhill Trophy presented by Rothmans Tobacco Company, Ltd. Auckland wtl be represented by the current New Zealand teams of four champions with the notable exception, however, of B. C. Bell, who, as an officer of the sponsoring company, is unable to take part Otago will be represented by substantially the four which won the teams’ championship last year, and there will also be teams from Wellington, Central Districts and Northern Districts. Canterbury will rely on two Christchurch pairs, H. Pickering and J. D. Thomson, who

have had a fine run of success in recent provincial tournaments, and New Zealand international players, F. P. S. Lu and J. R. Wignail, twice winners of the national pairs title. It is a field of rather mixed quality, and surprise results are very likely, but the local representatives if they play up to their normal standard have a very good chance of being the first winners of the trophy. The six teams will play 24board matches against each other, making a rather strenuous programme of five matches, or about 16 hours’ bridge in two days. Method Of Play Team A will sit NorthSouth in the open room and East-West in the closed room, team B being East-West and North-South respectively. Six hands will be played and scored at each table, the hands as originally dealt being retained in duplicate boards. The two sets of six will then be exchanged and replayed in the other room. After comparison of the results on the first twelve deals, the pairs of team B will change places and the second set of twelve will be played. The usual duplicate bonuses of 50 points for bidding and making a part-score, 300 for a non-vulnerable game and 500 for a vulnerable game, together with slam bonuses as in rubber bridge, will be awarded. Since the two teams have played exactly the same hands, it is possible to find a winner by adding up the total number of points scored by the two rival North-South pairs, but this has one serious objection. In a short match one freak result, a grand slam bid and made in one room but defeated in the other for example, can produce a swing of 2000 points and put the final issue beyond doubt. To minimise the effects of such large swings, international match point (1.M.P.) scoring will be used. The results of the NorthSouth pairs on each deal are compared, and a difference of between 20 and 40 points scores one 1.M.P., a difference of between 50 and 80 two I.M.P.’s, 90 and 120 three LM.P.’s and so on up to 25 I.M.P.’s for a difference of 3500 or more., A team which beats its opponents by 20 international match points or more will receive 6 victory points, but for a win by a smaller margin it will share the victory points on a sliding scale. The provincial

team scoring most V.P.’s from its five matches will win the trophy. International Example Although this type of scoring is customary in team matches overseas, this will be the first major New Zealand tournament in which it h-s been used. The following hand from an international match between Indonesia and New Zealand will illustrate the method and show the type of tactics used:

With neither side vulnerable, after the Indonesian South had passed, East-West had no difficulty in bidding and making four spades, losing only one trick in diamonds and two in hearts, for a score of 420 to New Zealand. At the other table, the New Zealand South opened one diamond. West made a takeout double and North as a purely obstructive measure jumped to three diamonds. After East had passed, South recognised that his side could not defeat an opposing game contract, so put pressure on his opponent by bouncing straight to five diamonds. West could be fairly certain now from the opposing bidding that his side could make a game, but he had no means of deciding whether or not he could make a five-level contract He therefore doubled to make sure of a plus score, and South was down two after losing two tricks in spades and one each in clubs and hearts. The New Zealand NorthSouth thus lost 300 points with cards on which their counterparts had lost 420, thus producing a difference of 120 points or 3 I.MJP.'s. Sacrifice bidding of this sort is very important at this type of scoring.